Thirty-four years ago, Vietnam veterans won a huge legislative victory in terms of VA disability. The Agent Orange Act of 1991 was introduced and led by Representative G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-MS-1) and won near unanimous (Senate had 1 non-voting count) votes in both chambers of Congress. This ten-page law awarded presumptive VA disability for specific diagnoses. With this presumption, all the veteran needs to do is to prove deployment to the applicable locations in a specific time period, and an official diagnosis to the listed conditions. At the time the only presumptive conditions were non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, and chloracne. This law also outlines an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to study associations between diseases and the exposure to herbicides used in past times of war.

This law was just the beginning for Vietnam veterans because only a fraction of all impacted veterans were eligible. As more time passed, more veterans will become eligible as more legislation passed. Stay tuned for more updates!