Senator Coburn to Vietnam Veterans: No More Agent Orange Claims

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release

July 20, 2011




Mokie Pratt Porter

No. 11-16


Sen. Coburn to Vietnam Veterans:

No More Agent Orange Claims



(Washington, D.C.) – “Sooner or later, some senator or congressman was going to target benefits earned by veterans,” said John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). “It seems that Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) is the one who has taken aim and fired.”



. His amendment would require proof of a “causal relationship” rather than a “positive association” of certain illnesses to Agent Orange exposure. “If enacted, this measure will significantly restrict Agent Orange benefits and care. VVA vigorously opposes this amendment,” Rowan saidSenator Coburn, a medical doctor with a well-earned reputation as a fiscal conservative, has offered an amendment to H.R. 2055, the



“This measure is wrong-headed. It is out of touch with science – and with the intent of the Agent Orange Act of 1991. It attempts to undo two decades of policy. Currently, veterans are presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange if they served ‘boots-on-the-ground’ in Vietnam and, in some instances, along the demilitarized zone in Korea,” Rowan said. “If they develop certain maladies that the VA Secretary has determined, on the basis of sound scientific and epidemiological research, that a positive association exists between the exposure and the occurrence of the disease, they are entitled to health-care and disability compensation.

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