Hagan, Burr push anew to help Camp Lejeune water victims

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Hagan, Burr push anew to help Camp Lejeune water victims
By Barbara Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2011

WASHINGTON — North Carolina's two senators are pushing ahead on efforts to win health care for up to 750,000 Marine veterans and their families who might have suffered from water contamination at Marines Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., from the 1950s to the mid-1980s.

On Thursday, Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to avoid using a maligned 2009 National Research Council study to process disability claims from Marines who say they were harmed by the contaminated drinking water.

In a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, she said the processing time is taking too long, and she asked him to work instead with federal scientists to issue new training guidelines for workers processing the claims.

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The disability claims process is important to veterans, who can receive health care from the VA if they're able to provide evidence showing that likely as not, their illness was caused by the contaminated drinking water.

Also Thursday, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., resubmitted legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care to both veterans and their family members for illnesses associated with exposure to the poisoned drinking water. The legislation would set up a presumption that would make it easier for veterans and their family members to receive assistance.