Texas VFW Urges Eligible Vets to Apply for PACT Act Benefits by August 9th Deadline

UPDATED: 5/27/23

Austin (WBAP/KLIF) – The legislative director for the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars talks up the agency’s stance on a number of issues, including a failed effort by the Texas legislature to ban some hemp products – which the agency opposed – to major federal legislation that expanded a toxic exposure-related lawsuit against Camp LeJeune.

Mitch Fuller (pictured above) says legislation passed last year was the “largest health care and benefit expansion in VA history. The deadline for eligible veterans to apply is August 9th.

The Max PACT Act signed last year, gave millions of veterans exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals while in uniform, or their survivors, going back decades, the potential to receive compensation. The VA now assumes that certain medical conditions, including cancers, stemmed from toxic exposures during military service if the veteran with the condition served in a certain place at a certain time.

To apply visit VA.gov or 800-698-2411 (TTY: 711). You can file a claim for PACT Act-related disability compensation or apply for VA health care now.

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Original post: 4/11/23

Texas Agency Fights to Protect the Hemp Market for Vets [LISTEN]

Austin (WBAP/KLFI) – The Texas Department of Veterans of Foreign Wars vows to protect the the state’s hemp market as one state lawmaker takes aim to criminalize some retail products.

SB-264 authored by State Senator Charles Perry of Tyler would add restrictions and criminal penalties for some consumables, like the widely available Delta 8 which he says produces a high similar to marijuana. Perry says that such products were not what he nor other lawmakers had in mind when they authorized the production, manufacture, retail sale of industrial hemp in Texas in 2019.

Mitch Fuller says that the Texas Department of Veterans of Foreign Wars oppose the bill and its top priority is to protect the hemp market, making sure that all men and women veterans have access to all alternatives to prescribed opioids