Blumenthal Statement on VA Plan to Extend Benefits to Veterans Exposed to Contaminated Water at Camp Lejeune

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, released the following statement after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced plans to make veterans exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune eligible for disability compensation:

“For decades, tens of thousands of servicemembers and their families were potentially exposed to chemicals now connected to deadly cancers and other serious illnesses. Today’s announcement that this exposure will qualify as service-connected is a critical first step toward providing disability compensation for men and women harmed in the line of duty. Generations of Marines, sailors and their families lived and worked at Camp Lejeune, and now the VA and Secretary McDonald must do everything in their power to expedite this regulation and conduct aggressive outreach to potentially-affected veterans.”

Between 1953 and 1987, nearly one million veterans, civilian employees, and their families at the Camp Lejeune, a Marine training base in North Carolina, were exposed to toxic drinking water, one of the  many in illnesses, disabilities, and death. As of February 2015, VA had received 9,636 toxic water disability claims from Camp Lejeune veterans, denying 8,909 and granting 778. Earlier this year, Blumenthal introduced the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015 with Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) which would increase support for research into the health conditions facing descendants of veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their time of service.

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