VA Formally Announces the Construction of a New National Cemetery in Albuquerque. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced it will begin building a new National Cemetery in Albuquerque in 2025. The facility, to be named the Albuquerque National Cemetery, will be in the city’s west side, on 230 acres at the junction of Atrisco Vista Blvd. and the Shooting Range Access Road—just south of the Double Eagle II Airport. “The new Albuquerque National Cemetery will serve nearly 78,000 Veterans,” said Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters.

 

THE PACT ACT

VA Extends Presumptions of Service Connection for Three New Cancers. VA is including three new cancer types in the list of presumed service-connected disabilities due to military environmental exposure under the PACT Act. Through a sub-regulatory policy letter published to the Federal Register, the following three cancer types have been included in the list of presumptive diseases: • male breast cancer. • urethral cancer. • cancer of the paraurethral glands. Presumptive service connection means VA automatically assumes service connection for the disease and provides benefits to eligible veterans who have submitted claims with evidence of a diagnosis. This policy establishes presumptions of service connection for eligible Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans who deployed to Afghanistan, Somalia, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Uzbekistan, and the entire Southwest Asia theater of operations, which includes Iraq.