Senate VA Committe Information Flow

Below is material also available at the Senate VA Committee Website….if you want more and the links then go to the Senate website on Senate VA Committee.  No Schedule yet on Senate Hearings upcoming.     

Surviving Spousal Benefits—Righting a Wrong:

In November, 2008, Chairman Akaka received a letter from the widow of a veteran regarding the Treasury Department’s seizure of funds from her bank account to reimburse the government for the VA compensation check issued to her late husband the month that he died.  The widow had not been notified in advance of this action.  Unaware that the funds were no longer in her account, she wrote several checks to honor obligations that she unknowingly could no longer cover.  Her bank responded with financial penalties.

The Treasury Department was acting on flawed instructions from VA. Under a 1996 law, surviving spouses of a veteran may, in fact, keep a VA disability or pension check for the month in which the veteran dies. After Committee staff intervention, the widow was reimbursed for the amount at issue and the bank agreed to drop the overdraft fees.

Further examination revealed that the widow’s experience was not an isolated case of poor administration, but rather the result of VA’s failure to update its computer systems and policy in this area.  Many other widows or widowers of service-connected veterans over the preceding twelve years may have experienced a similar hardship after suffering the loss of a spouse.   

On December 5, 2008, Chairman Akaka contacted former VA Secretary Peake to alert him to the Committee staff findings and to request that he take corrective measures.  In his December 11, 2008, response then-Secretary Peake agreed to remedy this error.

Click Here to View Chairman Akaka’s Letter to VA and VA’s Reply 

Blue Water Navy Veterans:  Improperly Stayed Claims:

Under current law, only veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam during the war are entitled to a presumption of exposure to Agent Orange when seeking compensation for conditions linked to herbicide exposure.  Several diseases, including type II diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, and lung cancer, are associated with exposure to dioxin as found in Agent Orange.

Herbicide use in Vietnam during the war is sufficiently documented that veterans who served in Vietnam are not required to furnish evidence of exposure.  However, for veterans who served in ships offshore — Blue Water Navy veterans — there is a burden of proof to show direct exposure to herbicides.  Some of these veterans may have been exposed to Agent Orange while they performed temporary military service in Vietnam, served on ships which docked in Vietnam or entered inland waterways, or entered Vietnam for other reasons.

The basis for VA’s limiting the presumption to veterans who served in Vietnam, its so called “boots on the ground” policy, was challenged in Haas vs. Nicholson.   The case took several years to work its way through the Courts, and was ultimately not successful.

Click Here to View a Copy of the Haas Decision

During the later stages of the Haas litigation, the Chairman received letters from a number of Blue Water Navy veterans who claimed direct exposure who were objecting to VA’s decision to suspend the processing of their claims pending judicial resolution of the case.  The Chairman not only agreed with these veterans, but questioned if the practice of staying direct exposure claims extended beyond this group.  Under his direction, Committee staff reviewed VA’s handling of similar claims in a number of VA Regional Offices, and identified other claims that were wrongly held.  In a letter to then-VA Secretary Peake, Chairman Akaka requested that VA lift the stay on direct exposure claims and help develop evidence to substantiate these claims.

Click Here to View Chairman Akaka’s Letter to VA and VA’s Reply

Soon after Chairman Akaka’s correspondence with VA on this issue, the U.S. Supreme Court elected not to hear the Haas vs. Nicholson case.  This decision ended any further challenge in the Courts to VA’s boots-on-the-ground policy.  VA resumed processing all compensation claims brought by Blue Water Navy veterans.Blue Water Navy veterans, as well as those veterans who served on air bases in Thailand during the Vietnam War, should include the location of their service when filing claims for compensation for illnesses they believe are due to herbicide exposure.  Location of service enables VA to seek any available evidence to validate these claims.
In a letter to the former VA Secretary, Chairman Akaka expressed concerns about VA’s handling of direct exposure claims from veterans who served on Air Force bases in Thailand during the Vietnam War.
Click Here to View Chairman Akaka’s Letter to VAand VA’s Reply

Special Separation Benefits – Overlooked Reforms:

Special Separation Benefits (SSB), a payment of the Department of Defense to servicemembers who retired between the ends of 1991 and 2001, are subject to an offset if the veteran receiving the benefit also receives VA compensation benefits.  After the Chairman received a letter from a veteran who raised concerns about the amount of his SSB offset, the Chairman directed Committee staff to investigate VA’s policy in this area.  The probe led to the conclusion that VA had not only incorrectly computed the offset in the veteran’s case, but was systematically doing so in other cases.  Committee staff reported to the Chairman that the source of the error was VA’s use of the pre-tax SSB amount, rather than the after-tax amount in its calculation, as is required under law.  

Senator Akaka wrote to former Secretary Peake requesting that the regulations be corrected to reflect the law and that he seek to identify veterans who had been harmed by the offset miscalculation.  VA Secretary Shinseki agreed on both counts.

Click Here to View Chairman Akaka’s Letter to VAand VA’s Reply

Unilateral Hearing Loss – Ensuring Compensation:

Loss of hearing in one ear, a disability experienced by many OIF/OEG veterans, can pose significant limitations on an individual’s ability to successfully obtain employment in numerous fields, such as law enforcement.  In the 110th Congress, the Committee was active in efforts to ensure that VA’s disability rating system reflects up- to-date research on hearing loss and compensates veterans accordingly.

Click Here to View Chairman Akaka’s Letter to VA and VA’s Reply