Talking to Congress

BY John Rowan

On March 7 I presented my testimony before the Joint House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees. This was my fourteenth session speaking before these committees. Over the years I have come to know many of the individual members from both sides of the aisle. This has given VVA a distinct advantage. Despite the change in the chairmanship of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee with the Democrats taking control, I have gotten to know the new chair, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.). He is my second Democratic chair, along with having worked with three previous Republican chairs. VVA does not take sides. We are strictly nonpartisan. This enables us to work with the majority and minority parties at the same time. We are here to help veterans and their families, period.

Our number one priority always has been the fullest possible accounting of America’s POW/MIAs. On May 7, 1975, the “official” end of the Vietnam War, there were 2,636 Americans listed as missing in Southeast Asia. Thanks to the work of the folks in what is now the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency—as well as the work of VVA’s Veterans Initiative program—the number is down to 1,592. Just recently DPAA announced the identification of three crewmembers from an Air America flight who were found in Laos, including one from my community. We will support DPAA’s efforts as long as we exist.

Those of us who came home from Vietnam in one piece thought we were done. Unfortunately, the effects of the use of toxic defoliants containing dioxin, commonly known as Agent Orange, followed us home and have been devastating our health ever since. If the story ended there it would be bad enough, but we have since learned that the health effects of these poisons have carried over to our children and subsequent generations. For many years we have battled the VA on each and every illness that ultimately has been determined to be presumptive due to exposure to Agent Orange.

Through all these battles we never thought that those who followed us in other wars would face similar issues, but they do. The military used defoliants along the DMZ in Korea and bases in Thailand and other locations. There were all types of toxins on the battlefields of the first Persian Gulf War. Thanks to the use of burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, new exposures were developed. Toxins can be found in Bosnia, Somalia, and the Philippines.

The ultimate insult to injury, however, can be found with the discovery of massive pollution on bases in America that began with the discovery of the fouled water in Camp Lejeune and has now spread to toxins at Edgewood Arsenal and polluted water on airbases due to the harsh chemicals used to de-ice aircraft and other uses.

Congress must enact the Toxic Wounds Registries Act of 2019, which would authorize the VA to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Medicine to review published, peer-reviewed scientific research and recommend VA-funded research on the health effects of toxic exposures. Illnesses identified as a result of this registry must receive a presumption of service connection by the Secretary.

While we are concerned about the failings of some VA facilities, we also are concerned about the rush to privatize the VA. Bureaucrats who fail should be dealt with swiftly, but that should not be an excuse to eliminate the only system that understands veterans and treats the whole person both physically and mentally. The Choice Act of 2014 created the Commission on Care, which came out with eighteen major recommendations. Among its conclusions was that the VA’s health operations should not be privatized.

We cannot afford to turn over veterans’ health care to the private sector, which would skyrocket costs. I know that veterans in rural areas underserved by the VA may need other options, but I ask those veterans, “How much health care is being provided in your area by the private sector?” There is a major shortage of primary care doctors in this country, which is why this resident of New York City primarily sees nurse practitioners at my private insurer’s health practice.

Other issues can be found in my testimony on www.vva.org

The two working groups have reports in this issue. Please read them. It is our future. WG I explains what a “last person” organization means. WG II tries to help us live up to our founding principle, “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.” I urge you to get to know these new vets. But remember: They are our grandchildren. They live in a different world often made better by the work we have done over the last forty years.