Two and a half years after lawmakers passed landmark legislation allowing victims of toxic water at Camp Lejeune to take legal action against the government, hundreds of thousands of people are still waiting for justice.

What You Need To Know

  • Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation to expedite Camp Lejeune water claims

  • Hundreds of thousands of toxic water claims have yet to receive offers

  • New bill would expand number of courtrooms to handle cases

  • Bipartisan bill also puts in place attorney caps

 

On Thursday, two members of Congress, a Democrat and a Republican, introduced legislation to update the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, which was signed into law in 2022. The new bill would aim to expedite the resolution of claims arising from exposure to tainted water at the military base.

The federal government acknowledges that drinking water on the North Carolina base from 1953 to 1987 was tainted by chemicals blamed for causing various cancers, Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses.

But since the legislation was signed, only a small number of victims eligible for compensation because of exposure to the water have received financial settlements from the government.

Spectrum News has reported that some victims who filed claims against the government have died waiting for compensation.

The Navy tells Spectrum News it has received 408,000 administrative claims, but of those claims only 403 settlement offers have been extended and 243 accepted. The total value is $38.85 million.

As of February 28, the Department of Justice reports 2,675 claims are in pending litigation.

“This is the perfect example of why we need government accountability,” Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy tells Spectrum News.

New Legislation

Spectrum News spoke with Murphy and Democratic U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross on Wednesday. They were planning to introduce the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act in the House on Thursday. But after speaking with Spectrum News the bill was pulled.

In a statement to Spectrum News after the interview Murphy said, “We’re working on the bill and will be introducing soon. It’s important to ensure we receive feedback from everyone involved and are united in purpose. This is an important issue, and I’m glad there’s bipartisan, bicameral support to deliver justice to those veterans and family members who were impacted.”

However, the legislation was introduced in the Senate on Thursday by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut.

“Currently, veterans and other victims exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune are running into roadblocks that are denying them their day in court before a jury for the often-crippling and deadly medical conditions they have suffered,” Tillis said in a statement. “I am proud to introduce this legislation with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

What's in the Bill

The bill would make technical changes to the original legislation to alleviate the backlog of toxic water claims.

Currently, victims have three ways of seeking compensation from the federal government.

“You can either just stay out of the courts and resolve it with the Navy, or you can file a lawsuit and hopefully settle it without having to have a trial, or you can go to trial,” Ross said. “What this bill is trying to do is make sure each route is as streamlined as possible.”

The bill would expand the number of courthouses that can hear the cases to the entire Fourth Circuit of the federal judiciary, which covers West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina. Currently, the cases can only be heard in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

“The biggest issue is that all of the cases were being heard in one courthouse in North Carolina, which is one of the most overburdened courthouses for all cases in the entire country,” Ross said. “One of the things this bill does is allow cases to be heard in more than one venue.”

The bill would also state that victims must show general causation between exposure to the water and illness, makes clear that jury trials are permitted and caps attorney fees at 20% for settlements and 25% for awards at trials.

Spectrum News previously spoke with Jerry Ensminger, who was serving in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune when his daughter was conceived and born. At the age of 6 she was diagnosed with leukemia, and in 1985 she died shortly after her ninth birthday. He has spent years as an advocate for Lejeune water victims.

In 2023 Ensminger told Spectrum News he had heard of lawyers charging rates as high as 50 to 60%. He said he understands attorneys need to charge significant fees but calls those rates “ludicrous.”

“This is a reasonable cap on fees, and I think most people appreciate that,” Murphy said.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Navy announced a voluntary elective option for qualifying claims. The elective option was aimed at narrowing the scope of the government’s review with the goal of producing quicker settlement offers.

But Ensminger previously told Spectrum News the voluntary elective option was far from adequate for the financial burden victims suffered from the toxic water.

Ross and Murphy introduced a similar version of the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act in 2024, but it didn’t get a vote.