Many veterans exposed to toxic water between Aug. 1, 1953, to Dec. 31, 1987, at North Carolina's Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune will have to wait a little longer for relief after Congress failed to act.
"If we don't pick this up immediately in January and push this through in 25, I think there will be many more veterans who go to their graves without seeing closure, without seeing justice," said David Cook, executive director of the military and veterans group Special Operations Association of America.
A problem with the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, which allowed certain veterans from the base to sue the U.S. government for damages, was that it did not include language explicitly giving veterans the right to a jury trial.
To fix that, bills were introduced in the Senate and House judiciary committees this year clarifying the language, while also ensuring cases can be sped up by expanding eligibility to all district courts in the 4th Circuit Court jurisdiction instead of just the one federal court in North Carolina.
But the legislation failed to advance out of committee.
A major roadblock to passage in Congress were two Republicans: Sen. Dan Sullivan (Ala.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, according to a person familiar.
It's unclear exactly why the bill did not advance through Jordan's committee.
Sullivan was concerned about the attorney fee caps in the legislation, at 20 percent for settlements and 25 percent for trials, the person familiar with the matter said.
The source noted that the legislation in the Congress was already a compromise reduction on the attorney fees, and it had wide support from veterans organizations.
The Hill reached out to the offices of Sullivan and Jordan for comment on this story. The Hill also requested comment from two of the main co-sponsors of the legislation, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
A spokesperson for Tillis said the senator is "disappointed Congress could not come together" to pass the bill and that he will continue working with other members next year, but also disputed the account that Sullivan was the obstacle.
"I wouldn’t say that characterization is correct and I don’t think there is a story here," the spokesperson said. "Senator Tillis has been working with members, including Senator Sullivan, to find consensus and get this bill across the finish line. The bill needed more deliberation and we just ran out of time this Congress."
Around 200 veterans from Camp Lejeune have been compensated under a quick payment program, but more than 500,000 are awaiting relief.
Cook said the trouble on the Hill "really comes down to a couple things."
"Number one is that there are a bunch of policymakers up on the Hill who are making decisions for veterans service members," he said.
"And to me, the reason why we raised our right hand taking oath and go to far flung places for not that much money is basically to protect our freedom to choose," he said. "And I thought the lawyer caps, unlike fee caps, was taking away, preemptively taking away, a choice a veteran should be making."
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