In this issue:
Budget Deal Eliminates Sequestration
FRA Asks to Process AOBWN Claims Now!
SecDef Nominee Chairman Approved


Budget Deal Eliminates Sequestration
As NewsBytes goes to press, the House is expected to pass a two-year budget deal (H.R.3877) this week that in effect repeals the Budget Control Act spending caps, known as sequestration.  The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week. President Trump and Congressional leaders reached an agreement on the budget package earlier in the week. The FRA opposes sequestration because it poses a threat to national security and would substantially impact service member pay and benefits. These automatic cuts require that 50 percent come from Defense, even though Defense makes up only 16 percent of the total federal budget.

The budget deal adds more than $320 billion in spending for two years and will clear the way for appropriations (spending) bills for FY2020 and FY2021. Specifically, the bill provides $738 billion in Defense spending for FY2020. In addition, the agreement suspends the debt ceiling for two years. The suspension will allow the federal government to borrow and spend without having to worry about being limited by the debt ceiling. Congress had been operating under a debt holiday that ended in March 2019, when the Treasury Department was using “extraordinary measures,” such as borrowing from retirement accounts, to keep government operating.       

FRA Asks VA Secretary to start Processing AOBWN Claims Now!
The FRA signed onto a letter, along with other VSO groups, urging the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert Wilkie to begin adjudicating Blue Water disability claims immediately. The letter is in response to the VA Secretary’s decision not to start processing these claims until Jan. 1, 2020. The letter states that delaying processing until Jan. 1, 2020 will unnecessarily delay thousands of aging and ill Vietnam veterans and survivors from getting benefits. Many of these men and women have waited decades for recognition that they too were exposed to Agent Orange herbicide and suffer negative health consequences as a result. It is unacceptable to make these veterans wait until January to have their claim processed.  

The Procopio court decision mandated that veterans who served in Vietnam’s coastal waters will be treated the same as those Vietnam veterans who served on land.  Subsequently, the House and Senate both approved H.R.299, the Blue Water Vietnam Veterans Act, which was signed into law on June 25, 2019 (P.L.116-23). This legislation adds a new section 1116A to title 38, which extends the presumption of Agent Orange exposure to veterans who served in the waters offshore beyond the 12 nautical miles recognized by Procopio, up to 90 nautical miles from Vietnam’s shoreline in some locations, based on a series of grid coordinates.  The law, which takes effect on January 1, 2020, also expands benefits to veterans exposed to Agent Orange while serving along the Korean DMZ and to children born with spina bifida due to a parent’s exposure in Thailand.  

SecDef Nominee Chairman Approved
Mark Esper was confirmed by the Senate to be President Donald Trump’s new Secretary of Defense (SecDef), ending a seven-month vacancy in the position. It was the longest vacancy of that position in the history of the Department of Defense. Esper won overwhelming bipartisan support in the 90-8 vote. He is a 55-year-old West Point graduate and served as an infantry officer with the 101st Airborne. Esper deployed with the Screaming Eagles during the 1990 - 91 Gulf War. His battalion was part of the famous “left hook” that led to the defeat of the Iraqi Army. For his actions, Esper was awarded a Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. More recently, he served as Secretary of the Army and is a former top lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon. He had been serving as acting Pentagon chief following SecDef Shanahan’s departure.

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