LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
LAWMAKERS September 16, 1982 - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans Pre-recorded report is the same as catalog # 489563
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Cokie Roberts Intro report on Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans issue. A House subcommittee attacks Veterans Administration being slow to address the issue.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Joseph White, Vietnam Veteran, discussing Agent Orange wiping out jungle areas of plants. Trees, you would watch it turn brown. There were trees with no leaves
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Airplanes dropping Agent Orange on Vietnam jungle.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Joseph White, Vietnam Veteran entering a building. Joseph White being interviewed. Discusses his physical ailments, including bone disorders. Well, I found out my bones are washed out. And the destruction of my bones are like someone in their late 70s. Interviewer, A doctor told you that? Joseph White, Yes. And I m only 33. My bones are in worse shape than my father s. Interviewer, What led to that conclusion? Joseph White, When I went through a series of four broken bones in one year. Joseph White s scars from removal of skin lesions blamed on agent orange.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Senator Alan Simpson ( R - Wyoming ) It has already taken us more than 10 years to get to this point where we are in 1981. Veterans who are experiencing health difficulties do not have the time to wait another 10 years for answers to the medical problems which they are experiencing."
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Alan Cranston ( D - California ) I would note that, that the American public is understandably growing impatient with what are perceived as the government s plodding efforts to resolve the many difficult issues involved and get on with the study
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
CU of the cover Self-Help Guide On Agent Orange . Shots of gallery attending the Veteran s Affairs hearing on the study. We will have the study in phases, there fore it is difficult to say. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ), You say there is not a single point in time when we will have all the answers, is it 25 years? By then we should, yes. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ), Well, that s not acceptable.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Veteran s Affairs hearing on the study of Agent Orange. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ) And how much is it going to cost to develop this exposure index? I m sorry, I don t have the figures at hand. I m sure the Veteran s Administration can give you that. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ) You don t have the figures at hand? I don t have them at hand. I m sorry. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ) Could you give me an estimate? Sorry, I just don t have that. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ) Why is it that you don t know the cost? Shots around the hearing room. Senator Arlen Specter ( R - Pennsylvania ) On this issue of cost, what are we thinking about that seems to be inhibiting us from coming to a conclusion? Are we talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, are we talking about billions of dollars? If the Congress were to say that there is a presumption between anybody who was exposed to Agent Orange and birth defects, cancer, tumors, for compensation, what kind of a price tag would we be looking at? Robert Nimmo, Veterans Administration, We indeed would be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars going into the middle of the next century. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year going into the middle of the next century.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Ron Simon, National Veterans Law Center, Our sense is, as with all the other reviewers, that this thing hasn t gone forward at all. However, for the veterans this is a larger story. This isn t a small time science story, this is the story of an agency that simply doesn t do anything. It s biased against the veterans in every possible way. They re very confident because they know the veterans can t go to court because of federal law. They re not allowed to go to court on any claims. And what they do is simply deny the veterans claims, do nothing, stall, make up complicated excuses, and this protocol is just as the veterans proposed it would be 2 years ago. Nothing, it s absolutely nothing.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Joseph White, Vietnam Veteran, It seems like we re going through the same process as when we went into the service - hurry up and wait.
LAWMAKERS - Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans
Cokie Roberts - since the report was filed in December, there has been no further action on Agent Orange compensation. Some members of Congress want to pay Veterans rather than waiting for the study.