- Contact the Committee

Chairman Specter, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Graham, Ranking Member Evans, Distinguished Members of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees and Guests.

I welcome the opportunity to address your joint committee on behalf of American Ex- Prisoners of War. With your permission I intend to be very frank.

Another year has passed and 4,000 more POWs have died. They died without your committees taking definitive action concerning specific medical conditions known beyond any reasonable doubt to be the long term consequences of the brutal and inhumane conditions every POW experienced. Many thousands have died without receiving the help your committees know is warranted - and which you have a moral as well as legislative responsibility to provide. Sadly, most members of your committees haven’t even bothered to become cosponsors of bills addressing their needs - thereby assuring the legislation would never even be considered!

Out of our continuing concern for this failure we have written every single member of the House and Senate asking their help.

We also hope the firm commitment expressed by President Bush during his recent visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center will strengthen your resolve. He emphasized that our country will do everything necessary to help our servicemen and women overcome the disabling consequences of wounds and injuries suffered in Iraq. He was echoing the solemn promise of President Abraham Lincoln “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan”. How well have you kept your promise with respect to POWs?

We note the legislative action you took in response to VA’s request to drop the 30 day minimum time as a POW to qualify for special presumptive benefits that lessen the burden of proving the causal connection of the captive experience to identical medical conditions. While we appreciate any action you take we are troubled by the fact that, contrary to VA’s request, you limited it to medical conditions now so generally recognized as occurring soon after capture , that in fact, presumptive status is not essential. You even left out other conditions that do develop during the first 30 days that are not so obvious to VA adjudicators. These include diseases as hepatitis that can quickly develop due to the grossly unsanitary conditions POWs are forced to survive in or to diseases that are the physiological consequences of the extreme emotional stress , as gastro-intestinal disorders.

In reality, no limitations were necessary since the VA can always rebutt presumptives on the basis it would be wholly unlikely to result from a brief time in confinement. In addition, the number of POWs held captive less than 30 days who might use the benefit is extremely small and entails little or no additional cost. It simply makes it easier for a deserving POW to obtain a benefit he is clearly entitled to receive. Presumptives simply simplify the process. They are not an additional benefit.

We also note that you codified cirrhosis of the liver as a presumptive which VA had administratively established in June 2003. While this is a positive step, you disregard the fact that the VA POW Advisory Committee and the National Academy of Science, which did the validating research, both indicate the designation “chronic liver disease” more accurately reflected the findings. As now restricted it only benefits POWs during the end stage of their liver disease. Due to grossly unsanitary conditions jaundice and hepatitis were often rampant during captivity.

In conclusion, we note the benefit provided by Congress to many citizens as a result of tax-reduction legislation. Surely we owe POWs similar benefits on the basis of their sacrifices for their country and their resultant disability. As President Harry Truman said, “ The buck stops here”. Isn’t it your responsibility to take action on these issues and do it before thousands more POWs die without receiving the benefits they unquestionably deserve?

Thank you. We will now receive any questions you may have.