Trump's VA Chief to Decide on New Agent Orange Ailments

Bob McDonald won't be the VA secretary to decide if thousands more Vietnam War veterans — those with bladder cancer, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism or Parkinson's-like symptoms — should be eligible for VA health care and disability pay because of research associating the ailments with possible exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides used in the war. The decision to add any of these ailments to the list of 17 conditions VA already presumes are tied to herbicides will be left for President Trump's VA Secretary, department officials told us Wednesday. For more details, see this Military Advantage blog post.