Trump’s ban on new regulations won’t affect Camp Lejeune benefit, senator says
President Donald Trump’s order blocking new federal regulations apparently won’t affect one that former President Barack Obama’s administration pushed forward during his last days in office: a Veterans Affairs rule that will provide more than $2 billion over the next five years to cover disability claims for Camp Lejeune veterans exposed to toxic water at the North Carolina base.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., announced in a Facebook post Thursday that “the White House has granted an exemption.”
“This means the Camp Lejeune regulation will go in(to) effect on March 14, 2017, as scheduled,” wrote Burr, who spearheaded the effort to streamline compensation benefits for Camp Lejeune veterans, primarily Marine veterans, who have contracted one of eight “presumptive” illnesses linked to the base’s poisoned water supply.
The final rule, which appeared in the Jan. 12 Federal Register, covers “adult” leukemia, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease and aplastic anemia. It modifies a 2012 law that provides VA health coverage for veterans who served at the North Carolina base for at least 30 days between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1981.
‘THEY’RE … LOOKING OUT FOR US’
Richard Zaccara, a Camp Lejeune Marine veteran from Henderson, described the exemption as “perfect.”
“They’re definitely looking out for us,” said Zacarra, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2003 and is on a registry of veterans exposed to organic solvents as a result of his training at Camp Lejeune in 1963.
The final rule covers up to 900,000 active duty, Reserve and National Guard members with the qualifying diseases who served at Camp Lejeune, according to VA estimates.
Veterans Benefits Administration spokesman Steve Westerfeld said the Camp Lejeune disability regulations are still subject to a 60 day review during which Congress can make changes to the regulation.
“The final rule will apply to claims received by VA on or after the implementation date of the final rule and to claims pending before VA on that date,” he wrote in response to questions from the Review-Journal.
Westerfeld noted that if a Camp Lejeune veteran has died from a service-connected illness covered by the rule, a surviving spouse and dependents may apply for “dependency and indemnity compensation.”
Since December 2015, more than 1,400 Camp Lejeune claims have been on hold until the presumptive illness regulations took effect.
Those claims “will be rated when the regulations are implemented. Veterans who filed a previous claim and were denied will have to file a new claim,” Westerfeld said.
Much of the impetus for the Camp Lejeune compensation regulation came from retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, who heads an advocacy group for impacted veterans, The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten. His daughter, Janey, who was born in 1976 when he was stationed at the base, died from leukemia at age 9.
‘WHAT ABOUT FAMILIES?’
While he’s glad the VA’s Camp Lejeune presumptive illness is exempted from Trump’s regulations ban, he wonders “where’s the justice” for dependents of affected veterans, who don’t have special status under the final rule.
“This takes care of veterans but what about families?” he said Thursday.
Linda Furrow, the wife of Marine veteran Stanley Furrow, of Las Vegas, was “ecstatic” to hear that the VA Camp Lejeune rule was exempted from Trump’s federal regulations ban.
The Furrows have been battling the VA for years, claiming that Stanley’s health problems and those of his family are linked to consuming and bathing in Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water in the early 1970s. He wasn’t diagnosed with any of the presumptive illnesses until earlier this month, when doctors determined he suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
Now the family has a new battle to fight, even if his claim is now approved. “It’s still going to be a long road with him,” Linda Furrow said of her husband’s diagnosis.
Zaccara, however, is optimistic that the change in administration means that the VA’s foot-dragging has stopped.
“Hopefully with a change in government things will start getting done a lot faster,” he said.
Some members of Congress, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus, both D-Nev., aren’t as hopeful. They expressed concerns to Trump that his federal hiring freeze, which includes the Department of Veterans Affairs, “will have a negative and disproportionate impact on our nation’s veterans.”
“A hiring freeze at VA will delay veterans’ access to health care and resolutiuon of their disability claims, which for many of our nation’s heroes provides a sole source of income to them and their families,” reads their letter dated Wednesday.
In an email to the Review-Journal from her spokesman, Titus, who is a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said she hopes Trump’s pick for VA secretary, David Shulkin, will make good on Obama’s promise to veterans “who were harmed during their service at Camp Lejeune. If the Trump administration fails to honor this commitment to our Marine heroes it will be a travesty,” she said.
Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2
