WASHINGTON, D.C. – Retired Navy Cdr. John Wells will address the House Disability and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee today at 10:30 a.m. EST, speaking as Executive Director of Military-Veterans Advocacy (MVA), a tax exempt nonprofit corporation based in Slidell, Louisiana.
Wells and MVA have long advocated for a reversal of a policy change that eliminated Navy veterans who served in the coastal waters of Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s from care and benefits related to Agent Orange exposure, despite extraordinary evidence that sailors were, in fact, exposed to the defoliant – a chemical later determined to cause cancer and numerous other health problems, MVA reps said.
In 1991, the federal government recognized the need to provide Agent Orange-related care to these sailors and veterans, but in 2002 the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed course and stripped these veterans, many severely or terminally ill, of related benefits, MVA reps said. Wells has traveled to Washington, D.C. dozens of times in recent years to advocate in the halls of Congress and at the Veterans Administration for a restoration of these benefits.
Wells will testify today in favor of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which has more than 250 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. His testimony is expected to be carried live on the House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee website.
