Sen. Chuck Schumer
DUNKIRK – U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer was in Dunkirk Thursday to draw attention to an ongoing crisis involving health-care benefits for Veitnam veterans.
Schumer is calling on the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Veterans Affairs to add new conditions to the Agent Orange presumptive conditions list. Schumer said he is demanding a detailed explanation as to why the agencies continue to block billions in health care coverage and benefits for thousands of Vietnam veterans.
A 2016 National Academies report found suggestive evidence that bladder cancer and hypothyroidism were associated with veterans’ service, as well as clarified that veterans with “Parkinson-like symptoms” should be considered eligible under the presumption that Parkinson’s disease and the veterans’ service are connected.
According to Schumer, some 32,000 Western New Yorkers served in the war in the 1960s and 70s.
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