Forward Observer: Law Suit Filed Over Delay in Blue Water Navy Claims Processing
On 22 July, the Military-Veterans Advocacy, a nonprofit legal organization which had a major role in overturning the VA’s decision not to process Blue Water Navy veterans’ Agent Orange claims through a remarkable legal action (Procopio vs. Wilkie), is now asking a federal judge to rescind a stay on Blue Water Navy claims processing imposed by Secretary Wilkie, aided and abetted by the U.S. Congress for good or ill.
On 24 July Meanwhile the major veterans organizations, and then some, hopped on board in a letter to Wilkie asking for the lifting or modifying of the blanket stay. That letter argued that the decision in Procopio vs. Wilkie justified moving forward with those claims immediately, rather than waiting for the no-later-than Jan. 1, 2020 implementation date passed into law this summer.
This was followed by a 31 January letter calling on the Congress “to appropriate suitable resources for the complete and immediate implementation of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, and to assist the VA to ensure this vulnerable group receives in a timely manner the health care and benefits they have been denied for decades.”
The battle to promptly redress a longstanding, ill-advised judgment by the federal government (the VA was not alone in this decision) continues.
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RJH
As of 1 August 2019