March 31, 1998

Talking Points on the President's VA Offset

Last May, the office of the General Counsel of the Department of Veterans Affairs issued a decision that nicotine dependence may be considered a disease for the purposes of the laws governing veterans' benefits -- translating into a $10.5 billion expansion of VA disability compensation to veterans, spouses and dependents, according to CBO (five-year estimate). The President in his budget submission to Congress last month included language to repeal the VA General Counsel's decision. That provision was included in the budget resolution reported by the Budget Committee as a mandatory offset.

It is possible an amendment may be offered on the Senate Floor to strike this provision. Such a move would be poor policy and create a virtually limitless precedent for future compensation of non-service-related disabilities. If overturned, the ultimate loser will be the veterans themselves who-- regardless of the legitimacy of their illness or injury--will be forced to wait a year or more for their claims to be reviewed by an overburdened system.

Senators concerned about veterans should keep in mind the following points:

• What is being discussed was never an existing VA benefit -- and was never intended to be. Instead, this is a new and ill-advised expansion of benefits that was not authorized by statute, and that was twice rejected by the President (in this year's and last year's budgets), and by the former VA Secretary Brown, who said, "It is inappropriate to compensate for death or disability resulting from veterans' personal choice to engage in conduct damaging to their health."
• The VA Counsel decision runs counter to an existing precedent. In agreeing with the President's decision to reject it, the budget simply conforms the VA benefits program to previous law. Congress in 1990 amended the Veterans' Benefits law to provide that no compensation would be paid to a veteran if the disability were a result of abuse of alcohol or drugs (benefit denial also applies to a veteran's own willful misconduct).
• No veteran -- current or future -- will be denied medical care if we accept the President's rejection of this program. All veterans continue to be entitled to treatment at VA facilities for any medical condition -- including tobacco-related illnesses.
• Left standing, the VA Counsel's decision places any veteran who contracts any disease that can be connected to tobacco in any way and at any time after their service and the current presumptive period ("grandfather" period when an illness automatically qualifies as service-related) on the same level as a veteran disabled in combat.

• What is being discussed is not medical treatment, but cash payments. If the VA Counsel decision stands, average payments of $12,100 per year could be made to an individual who still continues to work. Surviving spouses (until death) and dependents also are entitled.
• Reversing the VA Counsel's decision does not affect the fact that all veterans -- current and future -- will receive the same consideration to determine whether their illness is service-connected. This includes tobacco-related illnesses. Any veteran contracting a tobacco-related illness during his active service or during the presumptive period following it, will receive disability payments -- just as under current law.
• Reversing the VA Counsel's decision does not mean that veterans, who years after leaving the service, contract lung cancer or other serious illnesses related to smoking would be denied increased benefits -- the only change being made would be that smoking could not be the sole factor in making the determination. Under current law, any veteran could file a claim that their illness was "service-connected," for example, due to exposure to hazardous chemicals. Denial would only happen if it were concluded that no service-connected exposure occurred.
• All veterans -- current and future -- can still receive Social Security benefits for tobacco-related disability. The VA Counsel's decision would allow them to automatically receive VA benefits on top of these Social Security benefits.
• All veterans will suffer if the system has to absorb the enormous burden of ferreting through the new claims that repeal of the President's provision would prompt. Currently, there is a 500,000 claim backlog seeking disability review. Should this provision be removed, this backlog is estimated to quadruple to 2 million and translates into a wait of a year or more.

Senators concerned about the broader implications of this policy should consider:

• If this precedent of automatically qualifying a disease as service-related is allowed, where does this blanket-inclusion stop? A virtually limitless process of illness allowance could begin. This is not the intent of veterans' compensation law.
• Stopping this bad precedent simultaneously allows Congress to fund much-needed transportation construction. Without this offset, this transportation construction will have to be scaled back nationwide by $10.5 billion over the next five years.
• If Congress cannot exercise fiscal restraint over something that does not and has never existed, that does not affect medical benefits of any individuals, and that does not bar them from full consideration and full compensation of truly service-related disabilities, then what does this bode for the long-term entitlement reform Congress faces?

As unprecedented and ill-advised as this benefits expansion is, it should not be imposed without congressional consultation. We should accept the President's proposal now, and the Veterans' Affairs Committee should thoroughly investigate the future course of action if any.

TOP

PUBLICATIONS

MAIN PAGE