LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The bad news is that Cold War veterans exposed to radioactive materials are dying every day.
The good news is, bills pending or soon to be introduced in Congress could help end a bureaucratic barrier that has denied some of them health care benefits for decades.
WATCH | Senior Political Reporter Steve Sebelius has more on the challenges these veterans are facing and what Congress is doing about it:
At a roundtable held at the National Atomic Testing Museum, veterans from all of America's services told members of Congress about their struggles to obtain health care and benefits, which were denied because many worked in areas that are still classified by the government.
Records are often missing, incomplete, or secret, which makes applying for veterans' benefits much more difficult, if not impossible.
"We're seeing that very stupid, silly, lack of communication between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration is stopping very much needed benefits, disability benefits, from being processed, and health care being delivered," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking minority member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. "That's the least we can do as American people, as the government, to take care of the veterans that were exposed to harmful radiation."
Takano led the hearing, alongside Nevada's Democratic Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee.
Titus and Lee both have sponsored bills that would mandate the government presume that illnesses suffered by vets who worked in areas contaminated by radiation were caused in the course of their duties, opening up Veterans Administration benefits to them.
"We should stop making the veteran spend years and years and years proving that their illness is somehow service-connected," Takano added. "They served us. They took these risks on our behalf. I think we owe them the benefit of the doubt, and that's what the [bill by Titus and Republican Rep. Mark Amodei] does, establish these presumptions. I think we should do it."
Titus said the bill received bipartisan support in the Veterans Affairs Committee, but Republicans insisted the bill's costs be offset by spending cuts elsewhere.
"There was no reason not to move it, but they want to have an offset for the cost, and nobody's willing to come with an offset, so it's kind of a stall there before it can be brought to the floor. But we're still pushing it," Titus said.
There is cause for urgency: Cold War vets are dying, some from what could be service-connected illnesses, every day.
Former Air Force Sgt. Dave Crete displayed a poster with the names of 563 vets who have died, with the words "fallen heroes" at the top.
The poster was printed just two weeks ago, but it's already out of date. Another 10 names need to be added, Crete said.
Crete founded and is chairman of the group The Invisible Enemy. At a similar veterans roundtable in November, he told Channel 13 that he suffers from a variety of illnesses that he believes are service-connected, but for which he's unable to get coverage from the government.
But since then, he said, things have changed.
"The thing that's really changed for The Invisible Enemy is the fact that in [Washington] D.C., they're finally starting to pay attention, and we've got some great advocates in the state, especially Susie Lee, Congresswoman Lee, and Sen. [Jacky] Rosen," Crete said. "When we spoke before, the issue was getting people to know we exist, and now back there they know. And we've gotten past the point of disbelief, because first people don't want to even believe what we say to be true. Now they know it's true, and we're gathering support, amazing support."
One of the issues is known as "masking," the practice of keeping Defense Department records classified, so proof of service in particular locations — in Crete's case, the Nevada Test and Training Range — is confidential.
Crete says a new bill set to be announced this week would designate the range as an area of toxic contamination exposure, and make illnesses suffered by people who worked there presumptively connected to their military service. It would also "unmask" records to provide proof of that service.
"Because right now, if you read the way the law reads, it's if they're not sure, they put the onus back on the veteran," Crete said. "We don't have health departments and scientists and things like that, like they do. But that's their way out of providing a benefit. So we won't have to do that," he said.
Several people suggested the government opposes benefits because of money, but also because it doesn't want to admit it made a mistake by sending soldiers to areas where they could be exposed to toxic substances. (It's such a part of military life that there's now even a form — the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record — in service members' files to document any hazardous exposure.)
During the hearing, Titus — author of a book on nuclear testing called "Bombs in the Backyard" — said there's an official Energy Department designation for areas so contaminated they can never be used for anything else: "national sacrifice zones."
"We cannot let our veterans become national sacrifice zones," she said.
Crete said the term was new to him.
"I've never heard that before," he said. "What a horrible term, because that 'national sacrifice zone' is where I worked. You can't call anything something worse than that."