§1174 Regulations Regarding Presumptions of Service Connection Based on Toxic Exposure

Summary

Within 160 days after getting a recommendation to add or change a presumption that a medical condition is linked to military service, the Secretary must act. If the Secretary decides the presumption or change is justified, the Secretary must start formal rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act to write or update the regulation and must include any time period when the health problem must show up. If the Secretary decides it is not justified, the Secretary must publish a notice in the Federal Register that explains why. The Secretary may also write a rule to remove a disease from an existing presumption, including ones added by the 2022 PACT Act, but may do so only if evidence shows a lack of a positive link between the disease and the exposure; simply having no evidence is not enough to remove it. If a disease is removed or the covered times or places of exposure are changed, any veteran already receiving compensation for that disease, or any survivor already receiving dependency and indemnity compensation for a death tied to that disease, keeps their payments. Those payments cannot be cut just because the presumption was removed.