VA announced on October 13, 2009, that it will add three more illnesses to the “presumptive list” of Agent Orange related diseases: Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, and ischemic heart disease.
In practical effect, this means that a service person who served in Vietnam during the war and has one of these diseases will find it far easier to establish service connection for these diseases.
For the Department of Veterans Affairs news release, see
http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1796
Sandra W Wischow Agent Orange, Veterans Benefits Claims Agent Orange, Disability compensation, veterans disability benefits
Senate Bill 407, the Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009 has passed both houses of Congress, and was presented to President Obama on June 25, 2009.
The bill would provide an increase in compensation rates for service connected disabilities and for Dependency and Compensation benefits. If signed into law, the increase in compensation will be the same as the Social Security cost of living increase, or about 5.8%, rounded down to the lower whole dollar amount. The increase would take effect on December 1, 2009.
The complete text of the bill can be found here:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:s407es.txt.pdf
Sandra W Wischow Veterans Benefits Claims Disability compensation, Veterans Benefits Claims, Veterans legislation