Cotton, Colleagues Support Buffington Petition for Veteran Disability

Press Release

Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) today filed an amicus brief to support a review of Buffington v. McDonough before the Supreme Court.

In 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to give Thomas Buffington the disability payments he had earned, and the U.S. Court of Appeals has since defended the VA's decision. In doing so, the Federal Circuit ignored court precedent and violated a long-standing practice of siding with the veteran when interpreting law.

The senators disagree with the Federal Circuit's decision and are supporting a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court.

Specifically, the senators argue:

"…rather than following Congress's instruction that the courts should interpret these laws, and should do so in favor of veterans, the decision below invoked Chevron deference to endorse an agency "interpretation" that disfavored veterans. By refusing to apply the pro-veteran canon at Chevron's first step, the lower court departed from the plain language of the statute and improperly placed the agency's view ahead of the established rule that any statutory ambiguities must be resolved in favor of the veteran."

Text of the brief may be found here.

"No veteran should have to fight the VA to get the benefits they earned, and no court should defer to the administration instead of Congress and deny that compensation. It was wrong for the court to distort Congress' wishes by invoking Chevron deference--the VA should pay Mr. Buffington what he's owed," said Cotton.

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