Tens of thousands of Navy veterans are excluded from VA benefits related to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam war.A bill making its way through Congress would extend benefits to cover blue-water veterans, who were stationed in ships off the Vietnamese coast.Early this month, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie sent a letter to lawmakers asking to stop the bill, saying its provisions are based on sympathy instead of science.Veterans groups are pushing a bill making its way through Congress that would extend VA benefits to tens of thousands US Navy veterans who were potentially exposed to Agent Orange while serving off the coast of Vietnam. The bill is the latest glimmer of hope for veterans who have fought for decades to receive the benefit, and would finally recognize their exposure to the toxic herbicide but come at an estimated cost of $5.5 billion to US taxpayers.The VA is attempting to delay this provision, saying that this vast increase in health care costs should only come after more study, which is likely to publish next year.Science does not support the presumption that blue water Navy veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie in a letter to the Senate.The letter is yet another roadblock facing Vietnam veterans who claim their health has suffered due to exposure. Operation Ranch HandAgent Orange was one of several chemical herbicides used during the Vietnam War to destroy enemy cover and food crops. Although primarily delivered via aircraft, the defoliant was also carried on vehicles, back-mounted equipment, and sprayed from ships. Operation Ranch Hand lasted about a decade before a scientific study reported that one of the chemicals caused birth defects in lab animals. The military stopped its use of herbicides in 1971; throughout the next decade veterans began reporting instances of cancer and birth defects in their children. The legitimacy of their claims would be argued for the next 20 years, until the Agent Orange Act of 1991 directed the VA to conduct research into the chemicals potential side effects. In the decades since, Vietnam veterans have slowly started to gain recognition of their Agent Orange exposure and its sometimes life-threatening consequences. As recently as 2010, the VA extended the list of diseases it would recognize as being linked to the herbicide. Just three years ago, the agency started accepting claims for veterans who served in Agent Orange-contaminated aircraft in the post-Vietnam era. But since 2002, the VA took what advocates and veterans say was a step backwards by invalidating claims presented by blue-water veterans, saying there was no conclusive scientific evidence that the vets, who served in warships off the coast, were ever exposed to Agent Orange.VA: Too much money, not enough scienceThe question is whether the veterans were exposed to the herbicide through chemical runoff that made its way into the South China Sea and was then converted into drinking water through the ships distillation plants. Where the ships were located makes all the difference.The VA discredits arguments that US ships made water close enough to land to have used contaminated water. According to the Institute of Medicine, which is now known as the National Academy of Medicine, any chemical runoff would likely have been diluted by coastal waters before reaching the ships intakes. But, as reported in extensive coverage by ProPublica,veterans have said ships often distilled water well within that range.Surprisingly, both sides of the ordealthe VA, which claims blue water veterans were not exposed and veterans advocacy groups that say they wereuse the same IOM study to argue their side. Thats because the IOM merely states it is possible the Navy vets were exposed.The VA now says thats exactly why they should wait before extending benefits to blue-water veterans.In a Senate hearing on August 1, Dr. Paul Lawrence, the VA under secretary for benefits, noted this as just one of three reasons the VA opposes the bill.One of the provisions would increase the fee charged to borrowers under the VA's home loan program. Lawrence said the VA is opposed to "increasing the costs that some veterans must pay to access their benefits."He also maintained that the increased loan fees could not offset the costs associated with an extension of Agent Orange-related benefits. Secretary Wilkie's letter reinforced this idea, stating that Congress had underestimated the health care costs by a whopping $5.4 billion. He also argued that the addition of tens of thousands of eligible veterans would only exacerbate an already extensive backlog of Agent Orange-related claims.These arguments echo one made in July, just days before the Senate hearing, by former VA Secretary and Vietnam Navy veteran Anthony Principi. In an op-ed published in USA Today, Principi argued that Congress should stand on the side of science and pass "sensible laws that maintain the integrity of our legislative process."The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act soared through the House of Representatives with a vote of 382-0. Whenor even ifit will become law rests in the hands of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs which, since receiving Wilkie's letter, has yet to decide.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: One bite from this tick could ruin red meat for the rest of your life
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