ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
President Clinton expanded medical benefits Tuesday for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and promised to ask Congress to cover the veterans' children suffering from crippling birth defects.
Clinton said his goal was to ``ease the suffering our nation unintentionally caused its own sons and daughters'' by use of the herbicide during the Vietnam War.
He directed that prostate cancer and peripheral neuropathy, a nerve disease, be added to a list of conditions linked to Agent Orange and covered by the Veterans Affairs Department.
And he said he would ask Congress to approve benefits for exposed veterans' children who suffer from spina bifida, a crippling birth defect.
This will be the first time offspring have qualified for veterans' benefits linked to the herbicide. - Associated Press
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