House Joint Resolution No. 25 - Blue Water Navy Veterans

• Connecticut General Assembly encourages United States Congress to pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2015 to restore presumptive Agent Orange exposure benefits to Navy veterans who served in Vietnamese coastal waters during the Vietnam War.

• Current Department of Veterans Affairs policy denies Agent Orange presumption benefits to Blue Water Navy veterans unless they can prove "boots on the ground" in-country, despite evidence that sailors were exposed to herbicides through airborne toxins, contaminated water, and water distillation processes.

• Multiple scientific studies, including those by the Australian Department of Veterans Affairs, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Institute of Medicine, document higher rates of Agent Orange-related diseases in Navy veterans and support extending presumptive exposure status to coastal waters.

• Resolution requests Connecticut's representatives in Congress support House Resolution 969 and Senate Bill 681 to align the Agent Orange Act of 1991 with scientific evidence of exposure pathways affecting offshore personnel.