RED TAPE: VA Stalls PACT Act Benefits To January While Veterans Die

With two weeks to live, VA told one veteran’s advocates that it would not process his PACT Act benefits until January 2023, at the earliest.

It always amazing me how often VA red tape gets in the way of an otherwise good deed by Congress. Citing to that same red tape, VA says it’s unable to process PACT Act claims for at least three months past the initial start date of October 1, 2022.

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In most companies and governments, especially in an election year, this kind of major error would get someone fired. These mid-terms are supposed to get hot, and blown lay-ups like simply processing PACT Act claims should stoke any fire for change making it a bit hotter for administrative insiders and Congress.

We shall see…

Latino Veteran On Death Bed

Today, Rudolfo “Rudy” Ruiz, Sr is one of at least 4 veterans in Brown County of Minnesota dying from toxic exposures trying to win PACT Act benefits claims. The veteran’s uncle, Gabriel Rios, said a County Veteran Service Officer has Rudy’s claim fully developed and ready for an adjudication since August. Many other veterans are in a similar boat.

Rather than process the claim under PACT Act benefits requirements, VA told the family and those helping that it will wait until January 2023 at the earliest to process the claim under the PACT Act. With only two weeks to live, Rudy “is on death row” according to his uncle Gabriel.

“A lot of people compare the Army with prison,” Gabriel said on The Richard Leonard Show. “The way I am looking at this, these soldiers are on death row.”

Gabriel is now caring the 4 minor children of the single dad.

Rudy’s metaphoric sentence?

Death From Lymphoma

He was convicted of serving honorably in the Minnesota National Guard for 14 years with 2 tours to Iraq. At 44, the dying veteran is now paying the penalty for his service.

Death from lymphoma without benefits for him or his children. That is, not until January 2023 at the earliest so the family was told.

His 4 children will now live without their dad while the mom is basically out of the picture. They probably won’t have VA death benefits until VA finally processes the matter next year (unless a VA official is able to process the claim through other method). Gabriel will not get support from VA for his sacrifice to care for the children, either.

The process of the illness was quick with symptoms first happening a short time ago.

Doctors gave Rudy only a few months to live. While trying to get his affairs in order for his children, doctors shortened their prognosis to two weeks or less as of this writing.

Lymphoma of any type is listed as a presumptive condition for those veterans exposed to burn pit toxins while serving in Iraq. While VA is stalling the process processing under the presumptive, it could be possible to process under direct exposure based on evidence in the record.

It does not sound like VA has addressed that option, at least not for Rudy, but hopefully someone in VA will get this sorted out before his death using available methods.

Gabriel created a Go Fund Me to help support Rudy’s minor children, but no amount of money will replace their dad and sole caregiver.

GO FUND ME: Help The Rudy Ruiz Family

Interview With Rudy’s Uncle

Leonard set up time to interview Gabriel shortly after learning about Rudy’s situation. While there is not much time left for Rudy, this video will help get the word out not only about what happened to Rudy but the gameplaying going on within the walls of 810 NW Vermont at VA Headquarters.

While VA was busy grabbing political headlines with its announcement ti will start processing abortions for veterans for the first time in history, agency leadership apparently dropped the ball on PACT Act claims.

RELATED: VA Processes First Abortion

Priorities, priorities.

Now, get this.

VA Says It Lacks ‘Systems’?

Rudy Ruiz Response

After all the hoopla of the Biden Administration and Congress in August about the PACT Act, VA now alleges it lacks the funding, systems, and policies needed to grant Rudy’s benefits.

We received information from a comment sent by VA about claims like this stating, in part:

“We must wait for funding approval from Congress and to put the needed systems in place before we can process these claims. If VA cannot award entitlement to service-connection for the claimed condition under the current authority, then we must hold it until we receive additional PACT Act processing policy guidance.”

Here is a copy of the complete excerpt we received:

Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on IT systems to help VA Benefits Administration process claims quickly. Those systems seem to work on other claims including adjuidcating burn pit related cases like Rudy’s prior to the PACT Act’s passage.

What’s the problem now?

Congress said it allocated $400 billion in nondiscretionary spending for the PACT Act.

Where’s the money while our lawymakers are gladhanding for votes?

VA has known the PACT Act was coming for a while. It already has sufficient policies in place to allow adjudication for some terminally ill veterans like Rudy without further delays.

RELATED: Was Burn Pit Registry Effective?

What’s the hold up on doing the job of helping veterans? Need more union employees?

Did VA get the big $400 billion headline without the bag of loot at the other end from Congress? Why not use some of the discretionary funding sent to VA for its chronically busted IT systems to help fund these benefits?

We have lots of questions with no answers other than this smells a lot like BS.

RELATED: DOD A No-Show At Burn Pit Hearing

When you see your Senator or Congressman campaigning before re-election on November 8, be sure to tell them about the case of Rudy Ruiz.

As for the assertions from VA, it sounds like these bureaucrats are posting excuses that defy the campaign boasting we’ve been hearing about the PACT Act and its passage.

Burn Pit Death Penalty On Kids

There could be an easy fix with substitution for the veteran called DIC so the children can move forward with the claim. The challenge will be that the veteran is a single dad, so some steps may need to be taken first to ensure the kids are able to move forward as minors.

Some of you may recall my daughter lost her mother to burn pit linked pancreatic cancer in 2017 leaving our daughter without her mother as a teenager.

That is a tough time for a daughter to loose her mom.

As the father picking up the pieces, the death of a parent at such a young age will have a lasting impact. The children will need significant levels of support from their family, the community, and the agency presently dragging its feet.

Let’s get this done for Rudy Ruiz and the other veterans impacted by the PACT Act. If you have heard similar stories, let’s get the word out.

VA Public Affairs did not respond to our request for comment.

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19 Comments

  1. I engineered an AI program in order to find out the best way to get mental health care amidst any VA resistance. The program determined that the best single sentence or group of words to say was, “There will be bombings because of the rapes.” It said that this must be said loudly over and over again until proper care had been delivered. Isn’t that crazy?

  2. The people have lost control of the executive branch… that’s what’s happened. Congress can’t do anything about what they do and the fed judiciary only serves the executive. Even in cases where the fed judiciary doesn’t serve the executive, their rulings can be dismissed as just friendly advice. It’s up to the agencies and administrations whether or not they want to comply. Add to that it’s almost impossible to get fired from these agencies and you have the disaster that we are seeing now. Run!

  3. As a poster stated before, Congress itself has no control over these bastards nor does it have control over other rogue federal agencies. You see how in committee meetings they just put on a show or outright refuse to give any information? Even if the federal courts issue orders or judgements again them they STILL probably have the option to ignore any rulings handed down and just continue on with their chicanery. The executive has become a rogue, corrupt, and dangerous branch of government. Just zero transparency or accountability whatsoever and impossible to get fired. Many of them should literally be at the end of a rope but no instead still grifting and abusing. Needs to be SHUT DOWN NOW!!!! Too many people have already suffered enough and FKN DIED!!!!

  4. It is a terrible injustice for someone who served this country! An update to this story if anyone truly cares is he has passed away and still has no answer.

  5. Benjamin you speak about picking up the pieces. I will say you are not alone. Although I truly do not believe you have any idea. You might be shocked. I will say too the VA needs to be eliminated.

  6. Fellow veterans, after reading this post, I had my first meeting with a new primary care doc in a new market. like you, I have struggled with discrimination from VA employees and decided to do something about it. I ordered a body cam to use during I teractions with VA. I brought what I had on hand this morning, a gopro, and made no attempt to conceal it. The VA doc refused to allow me to record. I walked out and made a decision. I’m disenrolling from the VA Health Neglect System (sic). I wish you luck with yours and in your quests for peace. I’m done with the abuse, neglect, and exploitation my disability. I hope you all get yours and get out before they abuse, neglect and exploit you to death, too.

    v/r
    “On Time Three Charlie”
    Kirkuk, 2004

    1. You should have refused to leave and either they escort you out or they just don’t do anything with you sitting there during your appointment time..in both cases denial of care. Because you just voluntarily left though it’s not technically denial of care. You could have sued! Epic fail!

    2. Rudy’s children should not be left without. For the VA to use lacking systems in place for the excuse is a crock. This is what has been the problem with the VA all along.
      The VA has too many systems in place and too much overreach and the VA employees cannot think for themselves. RED TAPE and GROUP THINK loses the day always. As for Scuba, I want to point out something.
      Ben, just because Scuba left the VA does not mean the VA will not attack him or exploit him or insert variables to sabotage him while non attending the VA in the civilian sector. The VA finds ways to sabotage veterans regardless. This needs to stop. Veterans are not owned by the VA. Veterans do not kneel to the VA. God is the ultimate authority not the VA. Ben I can prove about the VA overreach out here. The VA needs a dose of it’s own medicine. VA and Veterans service organizations being paid for doing xy or z by companies to open doors for veterans. Veterans should have the opportunity of equality to open their own doors. This one area of the overreach that needs to stop. Veterans have choices and the choices should be respected. The federal government owns nobody.

  7. John your wrong. The VA should not be dissolved. They need to be forced to obey the law. And veterans need to learn to hire a lawyer right from the start. You can do that in this day. The PACT ACT is the first move to pull jurisdiction out of the VA hands. What’s wrong with all Administrative Bureaucracies is that they are
    trained to do one thing: That is lie and deny when it comes to claims for money. That is both state and federal.

    1. Brigid, you are correct to a point. However, the federal government and governments from top to bottom are too large. The federal government is by law supposed to serve the American people. The American people are not servants or pawns of the American government. By not serving the people they are all breaking the laws of the land. We do not owe them. They owe the American people but they do not see it that way. Although since when does the VA wait on authority? Ben they do what they want regardless of what the Congress and the Senate say. And when the VA employees get called in for hearing nobody knows anything or he or she was not in charge. Bottom line is they would want abortions over delivering care to veterans. The healthcare and or medical care should go back to the power of the states and the private sector. Yes the veterans and dependents need to be compensated for injuries as well as needing to be delivered hand up medical care not death care. They deny and pay themselves. Ben here is how the government truly screws the people. The federal government is over regulated. They squash the people to fit the regulations or they deny if the people do not fit the regulations. They never think for themselves. The decisions are truly not decisions. These regulations are subjective and serve as the group think modality which sabotages the veterans and the non veterans. In other words they will stick a regulation to a situation to deny without all the facts or without all the objective information. The federal government is so disconnected. The federal government is about death to begin with. The federal government has become beyond secular. Ultimately God is the ultimate authority not the federal government. We are not a Democracy. We use democracy in the process when we vote in our elections. Through this Democratic process is how the representers are decided by how the people are represented. Each person’s individual voice is stated by him or her to decide whom they want to represent them. We have a Constitutional Republic that allows each and every person to speak up. We are a Representative Republic of which all people have the right for their own voice to be heard. Veterans have choice and the veterans who are denied the choice to record the VA employees need to file a grievance against the VA. The actions by the VA are blocking veterans rights. So how is the VA the authority? The VA is establishing everything to be one sided in accordance with the VA. Totally cutting out the voice by the veterans. Again why does the VA exist? They do not provide medical care. They provide death. Look at all the memorials. This is their priority not veterans opening businesses or becoming engineers or physicians or having the opportunity to live life with how they choose to live their lives. Benjamin they would not know how to change the VA. Because they are part of the problem. Power and money is all they care about. I truly do not know how they sleep at night.

    2. How will they be forced to obey the law if they can just blow Congress off and ignore the recommendations of the fed courts? They need to bulldoze every VA..give veterans insurance cards. However even then they might not pay and local doctors will refuse to do business with them. This is why I say vets should get benefits and move to more functional countries like Germany. Nothing works in the USA unless you are rich. If you aren’t rich in the USA regardless of what the reason is.. you’re fked. That’s what government is trying to tell you.

  8. First of all the Honor our Pact Act was signed into law on September 9, 2022. Those veterans who were exposed to the burn pits and to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C. will not have to deal with the VA. Go ahead and file a claim with the VA and state if you or your loved one was stationed at Camp Lejeune , lived on base, worked on base, and if you drank the contaminated water during the years of 1953 to 1987.
    You had to serve a minimum of 30 consecutive days or more to file a claim for contaminated water exposure with the VA. And also you may hire a lawyer to take your claim to the North Eastern District Court in the state of North Carolina. The lawyers know this and are advertising on the internet and on cell phones. So get yourself an attorney. You only have 2 years to file your claims under the PACT ACT. This includes those burn pits.

  9. I do not know if anyone will awaken to the VA situation the existence of the VA is NOT for the BENEFIT of the Veterans, the VA is OF, BY and FOR the benefit of the VA. Yes there does MINOR examples of the VA doing their job correctly. However, that is the exception, the VA is run by incompetent bureaucrats that hide in offices and make decisions that benefit the VA not the Veteran. Having spent over three years fighting the VA
    GESTAPO, no matter where you go, the same answer “there is nothing we can do regarding the VA” they are immune to any outside the VA controls, they are independant and ONLY do what they decide is to their benefit.
    THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION MUST BE DISSOLVED, ALONG WITH EXECUTIVE ORDERS, THE BATF AND THE IRS

  10. I have worked with multiple Public Assistance programs over the last 17 years. The evaluation of cases has funding for some recipients in less than 72 hours or less. Other cases do take longer but not more than 30 days. How can it be Welfare is funded for recipients faster than Veterans? Congress needs to clamp down on the VA before some veterans have health issues that never fund them for years?

    We will only make the VA work for us by putting pressure on Congress. We all have phones or electronics to send e-mail. Every veteran must sound off in order for us to push Congress.

    1. Yes, you sound good, HOWEVER the simple fact is that as I have been told by the US Senate, and the House of Representatives on more than one occasion We as members of Congress cannot do anything with the VA except send them a letter to tell us what they is an issue, but that is the 100% full extent of what Congress can do, They are exempt from any outside control THIS IS REALITY calling and writing members of Congress is a JOKE a W of resources. Read the Declaration of Independence for the answer

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