Bill Text: HI SCR84 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 84 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Veterans; Vietnam; Agent Orange

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-06-05 - Certified copies of resolutions sent, 06-04-14. [SCR84 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2014-SCR84-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	84
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

urging the united states congress to restore the presumption of a service connection for agent orange exposure to united states veterans who served in the waters defined by the combat zone and in the airspace over the combat zone in vietnam.

WHEREAS, between 1962 and 1971, approximately 20,000,000 gallons of herbicides were used in Vietnam to defoliate forested and rural land which provided cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam conflict; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress enacted the Agent Orange Act of 1991 to address the plight of veterans exposed to herbicides while serving in the Republic of Vietnam; and

WHEREAS, the Agent Orange Act amended title 38 of the United States Code to presumptively recognize certain diseases among military personnel who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 as connected to their military service; and

WHEREAS, the Agent Orange Act of 1991 provides Vietnam veterans with access to disability compensation and medical care; however, the Act does not address all Agent Orange exposure possibilities; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to a directive in 2001, it has been the policy of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to deny the presumption of a service connection for herbicide-related illnesses to Vietnam veterans who cannot furnish written documentation that they had "boots on the ground"; and

WHEREAS, personnel who served on ships in the "Blue Water Navy" in Vietnamese territorial waters were exposed to dangerous airborne toxins, which not only drifted offshore but also washed into streams and rivers draining into the South China Sea; and

WHEREAS, when the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied specific cancers among Vietnam veterans, it found a higher risk of cancer amongst United States Navy veterans; and

WHEREAS, herbicides containing tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), a contaminant in Agent Orange, did not discriminate between soldiers on the ground and sailors on ships offshore; and

WHEREAS, more than thirty veterans' service organizations support the federal Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2013; and

WHEREAS, by not enacting the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2013, certain categories of veterans will be provided with injury-related medical care while other categories of veterans will be denied the same care, without any financial, scientific, or consistent reasoning; and

WHEREAS, when the Agent Orange Act passed in 1991 with no dissenting votes, Congressional leaders stressed the importance of responding to the health concerns of Vietnam veterans and ending the bitterness and anxiety that had surrounded the issue of herbicide exposure; and

WHEREAS, the federal government has also demonstrated its awareness of the hazards of Agent Orange exposure through its involvement in the identification, containment, and mitigation of dioxin "hot spots" in Vietnam; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress should reaffirm the nation's commitment to the well-being of all of its veterans and direct the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to administer the Agent Orange Act under the presumption that herbicide exposure in the Republic of Vietnam includes exposure sustained while in the country's inland waterways, offshore waters, and airspace, encompassing the entire Combat Zone; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, the House of Representatives concurring, that the United States Congress is respectfully urged to restore the presumption of a service connection for Agent Orange exposure to United States veterans who served in the waters defined by the Combat Zone and in the airspace over the Combat Zone in Vietnam; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Congress is respectfully urged to enter this measure into the Congressional Record as an official memorial to the Congress; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and Hawaii's congressional delegation.