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It's Official!!!
VA to Grant Benefits to All Veterans with ALS

ALSA Advocacy NEWS ALERT
09-22-08

We did it! Tomorrow, September 23, the Veterans Administration will publish regulations officially establishing ALS as a service connected disease! Effective immediately, all veterans with ALS will now have access to the highest level of VA benefits without having to prove that their disease was caused by service in the military.

This is a tremendous victory for all veterans and is the culmination of years of work by The Association, our VA Issue Team and veterans across the country. It is clear that our outreach - testifying before Congress, partnering with the VA, advancing research to identify the connections between ALS and military service and educating the public about this issue - have paid off. The Association has championed legislation (H.R. 5454) that would have established ALS as a service connected disease. However, thanks to our efforts at Advocacy Day and throughout the year, this legislation no longer is needed!

ALL Veterans with ALS Eligible for Benefits

This new policy means that ALL veterans with ALS will receive the benefits they need, deserve and have earned. Importantly, it is broad in scope and applies to all veterans diagnosed with ALS regardless of when or where they served and regardless of when they were diagnosed with the disease following service in the military. A summary of the regulation can be found here (PDF). The text of the regulation is available here (PDF).

Tomorrow and in the coming days, The ALS Association will post additional information about the regulation, including answers to frequently asked questions, an overview of benefits available to veterans with ALS, as well as guidance veterans can use to obtain service connected veterans benefits. The ALS Association would like to thank VA Secretary James Peake, Congressman Henry Brown (R-SC) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for their efforts to work with us and the ALS community in support of veterans across the country. We also would like to thank all veterans with ALS whose outreach to Congress has helped make this important benefit possible.

Additional information will be available on our website on September 23. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Advocacy Department at advocacy@alsa-national.org .

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