VETERANS: Senator Murray Helps Defeat Amendment that Would Have Blocked Compensation for Agent Orange Exposure

Press Release

Murray: Amendment would have reversed decades of policy on how we treat veterans suffering from diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure

Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, helped defeat an amendment that would have created a nearly impossible standard that must be met before VA can establish a presumption of service connection based on exposure to Agent Orange. In a speech before the vote, Senator Murray described the amendment as another hurdle Vietnam veterans would have to overcome in their 40 year struggle for compensation. The amendment, which Murray led the fight against on the floor of the U.S. Senate, ultimately failed to be included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill when Murray successfully asked that the amendment be tabled and prevailed by a vote of 69-30.

"These veterans have been waiting, and getting sicker, and dying for 40 years or more. How much longer do we think they should wait? The time for waiting is over," said Senator Murray on the Senate Floor before the vote. "Vietnam veterans have paid enough for that war. They should not end up paying for our debt. It is us who owe them a debt."

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