Opinion ID: 3049466
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Dioxin Act and the Challenge to the VA

Text: Regulations Limiting the Number of Service- Connected Diseases The class action of which these proceedings are a part was initially filed against the VA in 1986 by Vietnam veterans who challenged a VA regulation, 38 C.F.R. § 3.311, governing their eligibility for disability benefits based on diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange. Nehmer III, 284 F.3d at 1160; Nehmer I, 712 F. Supp. at 1408-09. The veterans claimed that the regulation did not comply with the Veterans’ Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act of 1984, Pub. L. No. 98-542, 98 Stat. 2725 (1984) (“Dioxin Act”). Nehmer I, 712 F. Supp. at 1408-09. The Dioxin Act “dramatically alter[ed] the process governing [veterans’] Agent Orange disability claims.” Id. at 1407. “Rather than have the VA determine in individual adjudicatory proceedings whether a particular veteran’s claimed dis8738 NEHMER v. USDVA ease was caused by Agent Orange exposure, the Act authorize[d] the Administrator of the VA [ ] to conduct rulemaking to determine which diseases will be deemed service connected for all diseases claimed to be caused by Agent Orange exposure.” Id. at 1407-08. The regulation implementing the Dioxin Act provided that any veteran who served in Vietnam “shall be presumed to have been exposed to a herbicide containing dioxin while in Vietnam.” 38 C.F.R. § 3.311a(b) (1988). But it also stated that only a single disease — chloracne — “is sufficient to establish service-connection for resulting disability.” Id. § 3.311a(c); see also id. § 3.311a(d) (stating that there is not a “cause and effect relationship between dioxin exposure” and “Porphyria cutanea tarda,” “Soft tissue sarcomas,” and “[a]ny other disease” besides chloracne). The district court invalidated the regulation because, although Congress intended the VA to “predicate service connection upon a finding of a significant statistical association between dioxin exposure and various diseases,” the VA had erroneously required proof that a causal relationship existed. Nehmer I, 712 F. Supp. at 1420, 1423. The district court also voided all adverse VA benefit decisions based on the invalid regulation. Id. at 1423.