Bill Would Aid Veterans Suffering Agent Orange-Linked Disabilities

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) joined two colleagues Thursday in introducing a bill to provide disability benefits for Vietnam War combat veterans suffering from diseases they link to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

The legislation cleared the Senate last year, but not the House, because of time pressures and opposition by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.). Montgomery continues to oppose the bill, his spokesman said, pending results of studies by the Centers for Disease Control about whether several maladies can be linked conclusively to Agent Orange.

The bill, sponsored by Kerry, Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), would provide disability benefits to Vietnam veterans for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and soft-tissue sarcoma, and survivors benefits for spouses until April 15, 1992. Congress then could vote to extend the benefits or to make them permanent.

The legislation’s revival follows a recent federal court ruling in California that found government regulations on Agent Orange cases too restrictive.