[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6798 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6798

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a presumption of 
service connection for certain cancers occurring in veterans who served 
   in the Republic of Vietnam and were exposed to certain herbicide 
                    agents, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 1, 2008

  Mr. Kagen (for himself, Mr. McDermott, and Mr. Baca) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a presumption of 
service connection for certain cancers occurring in veterans who served 
   in the Republic of Vietnam and were exposed to certain herbicide 
                    agents, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Between 1962 and 1971, the Air Force sprayed 
        approximately 107 million pounds of herbicides in South Vietnam 
        for the purpose of defoliation and crop destruction.
            (2) It has been incontrovertibly established that exposure 
        to Agent Orange leads to long-term, systemic health problems 
        that can occur years after the exposure.
            (3) The amendments to title 38, United States Code, enacted 
        by the Veterans' Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996 
        (Public Law 104-262) provide that a veteran does not have to 
        demonstrate a link between a certain health condition and 
        exposure to Agent Orange and other toxic substances used during 
        the Vietnam War in order to receive certain medical care 
        provided by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
            (4) Instead medical care is provided unless the Secretary 
        of Veterans Affairs has determined that the condition did not 
        result from exposure to Agent Orange.
            (5) The Veterans' Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 
        1996 (Public Law 104-262) recognizes the Institute of Medicine 
        as a resource by which the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should 
        determine the association between the occurrence of a disease 
        and Agent Orange.
            (6) One established standard for the Secretary of Veterans 
        Affairs to deny a presumption of service connection for a 
        disability is that a disease shall be established by the 
        Institute of Medicine to have limited or suggestive evidence of 
        no association between the occurrence of the disease and 
        exposure to herbicide.
            (7) Cancers of the gastrointestinal tract are recognized by 
        the Institute of Medicine to exceed the statutory threshold for 
        a presumption of service connection.

SEC. 2. PRESUMPTION OF SERVICE CONNECTION FOR CERTAIN CANCERS 
              ASSOCIATED WITH EXPOSURE TO HERBICIDES DURING THE VIETNAM 
              ERA.

    Section 1116(a)(2) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
            ``(I) Cancers of any tissues through the opening of the 
        gastrointestinal tract to the end, including any and all 
        carcinomas arising from tissues of endo-dermal origin, 
        beginning in the oral pharynx, extending through the esophagus, 
        duodenum, cecum, transverse and descending colon, as well as 
        biliary and pancreatic tissues, not to exclude the rectum, 
        becoming manifest to a degree of disability of 10 percent or 
        more.''.
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