Case: 20-2168 Document: 27 Page: 1 Filed: 06/09/2021
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
JOSEPH J. SNYDER,
Claimant-Appellant
v.
DENIS MCDONOUGH, SECRETARY OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS,
Respondent-Appellee
______________________
2020-2168
______________________
Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims in No. 19-3918, Judge William S. Greenberg.
______________________
Decided: June 9, 2021
______________________
JENNIFER ANN ZAJAC, Paralyzed Veterans of America,
Washington, DC, argued for claimant-appellant. Also represented by LINDA E. BLAUHUT.
KYLE SHANE BECKRICH, Commercial Litigation Branch,
Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, argued for respondent-appellee. Also represented by JEFFREY B. CLARK, ELIZABETH MARIE HOSFORD,
ROBERT EDWARD KIRSCHMAN, JR.; BRIAN D. GRIFFIN, DEREK
SCADDEN, Office of General Counsel, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC.
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2 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
______________________
Before TARANTO, LINN, and CHEN, Circuit Judges.
TARANTO, Circuit Judge.
Joseph Snyder served in the U.S. Army for less than 50
days in 1974—during the Vietnam era, a “period of war,”
38 C.F.R. § 3.2(f)—his service ending with an honorable
discharge when a knee injury rendered him unfit. Four
decades later, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS). He sought disability benefits for ALS from
the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under
38 U.S.C.
§ 1110, which provides for compensation for service-connected disability—specifically, for “disability resulting
from personal injury suffered or disease contracted in line
of duty, or for aggravation of a preexisting injury suffered
or disease contracted in line of duty, in the active military,
naval, air, or space service, during a period of war,” subject
to exceptions (for dishonorable discharge and willful misconduct or abuse of alcohol or drugs) inapplicable to Mr.
Snyder. A decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court) rejecting his claim for benefits
based on ALS is before us.
In the Veterans Court, Mr. Snyder relied, to meet the
fundamental requirement of service connection, solely on
an argument about a VA regulation, adopted in 2008 and
made final in 2009, that provides a presumption of service
connection for veterans with ALS if specified preconditions
are satisfied. 38 C.F.R. § 3.318(a), (b). Mr. Snyder undisputedly does not satisfy one of those preconditions—that
the veteran “have active, continuous service of 90 days or
more.”
Id. § 3.318(b)(3). Nevertheless, Mr. Snyder argued
in the Veterans Court that the 90-day-service precondition
is unlawful, because contrary to the statutory scheme and
arbitrary and capricious, and that the presumption should
remain in place with the precondition nullified, entitling
him to a finding of service connection.
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 3
The Veterans Court rejected Mr. Snyder’s contention
that the 90-day-service precondition is unlawful. We have
jurisdiction to review that legal conclusion. 38 U.S.C.
§ 7292(a). We decide the legal issue de novo. Bazalo v.
West,
150 F.3d 1380, 1382 (Fed. Cir. 1998). We affirm.
I
Mr. Snyder challenges the validity of a portion of 38
C.F.R. § 3.318, which establishes a presumption of “service
connection”—the term used for the requirement of § 1110
and the counterpart provision for peacetime service,
38
U.S.C. § 1131; see Walker v. Shinseki,
708 F.3d 1331, 1334
(Fed. Cir. 2013)—for veterans who develop ALS, under certain prescribed preconditions. Section 3.318 provides:
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis manifested at any time after discharge or
release from active military, naval, or air service is
sufficient to establish service connection for that
disease.
(b) Service connection will not be established under
this section:
(1) If there is affirmative evidence that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was not incurred
during or aggravated by active military,
naval, or air service;
(2) If there is affirmative evidence that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is due to the veteran’s own willful misconduct; or
(3) If the veteran did not have active, continuous service of 90 days or more.
38 C.F.R. § 3.318 (emphasis added).
This presumption is entirely a regulatory creation. Although Congress has enacted several provisions that
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4 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
establish service-connection presumptions applicable in
certain circumstances, see, e.g., 38 U.S.C. §§ 1112, 1116–
1118, Congress has created no statutory presumption applicable to ALS. The Secretary promulgated § 3.318 pursuant to the general rulemaking authority granted by
38
U.S.C. § 501(a) to “prescribe all rules and regulations
which are necessary or appropriate to carry out the laws
administered by the Department . . . , including . . . regulations with respect to the nature and extent of proof and evidence and the method of taking and furnishing them in
order to establish the right to benefits under such laws.”
The law being carried out, the Secretary specified, was the
requirement of “service connection” stated in
38 U.S.C.
§ 1110. See Presumption of Service Connection for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
73 Fed. Reg. 54,691, 54,692 (Sept.
23, 2008) (Interim Final Rule) (reciting § 501 authority applied to service-connection requirement of § 1110).
The Secretary’s proposal and adoption of the regulation
followed receipt of a VA-commissioned report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM)
that reviewed studies of the relationship of ALS to military
service. See Institute of Medicine, Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis in Veterans: Review of the Scientific Literature
(Nov. 2006) (IOM Report); see also Interim Final Rule, 73
Fed. Reg. at 54,691. The IOM Report notes that ALS is a
neuromuscular disease that causes nerve cells in the brain
and spinal cord to degenerate and, accordingly, is almost
always fatal. IOM Report at 1. It also states that, although
about 5–10% of ALS cases are inherited, the cause of the
remaining cases is still unknown. Id. Nevertheless, the
IOM Report states, the scientific literature indicated that
there was “limited and suggestive evidence of an association between military service and later development of
ALS.” Id. at 3; see also id. at 35 (identical language in bold
as final conclusion of the IOM Report).
Central to that conclusion in the IOM Report, see id. at
32–35, is a study by M.G. Weisskopf and colleagues
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 5
published not long before the IOM Report. The Weisskopf
study compared the incidence of ALS-related deaths among
those with military service and those without. M.G.
Weisskopf et al., Prospective Study of Military Service and
Mortality from ALS, 64 Neurology (1) 32 (2005)
(Weisskopf). The Weisskopf study analyzed a population
(previously assembled for unrelated purposes) of 408,288
individuals, of whom 281,874 had served in the military,
including during World War I, World War II, the Korean
War, or the Vietnam War. 1 Id. at 32. The study split those
participants who had military service into equal “quintiles”—according to years of service—and calculated the
median length of service, measured in whole-number
years, for the participants in each quintile. See id. at 33
(“The total number of years of service was categorized by
quintile. . . . For total years served, this was done by assigning medians to each quintile and modeling the median
values as a continuous variable.”); id. at 34 (table showing
“Adjusted relative risk (RR) of ALS by years of military service, 1989–1998,” rows for no military service and each of
five quintiles, by “Median years”). 2 Considering factors
like age, smoking, and alcohol intake that might have affected rates of ALS, the Weisskopf study found that the relative risk of developing ALS was higher for those with
military service than those without, that “[t]he increased
risk of ALS was largely independent of the number of years
served in the military,” and that the increased risk was
“largely independent of the branch of military service, the
years when service occurred, or the number of years
served.” Id. at 34–35 (emphases added).
1 The study’s results focused on participants’ service
in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; only 592 people reported service during World War I. Weisskopf at 35.
2 The median years of service, from the first quintile
to the fifth quintile, respectively, were: 2 years, 3 years, 4
years, 5 years, and 9 years. Weisskopf at 34.
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6 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
The 2006 IOM Report observes that, while other studies had focused only on the Gulf War, the Weisskopf study
was “the first to suggest a relationship between military
service before the Gulf War and ALS mortality.” IOM Report at 34. The report notes greater limitations of the other
studies reviewed, id. at 26–31, 35, but as to the Weisskopf
study, it states that “overall it was a well-designed and
well-conducted study” and that, despite “limitations inherent in an analysis of a cohort assembled for other purposes,
the findings are intriguing.” Id. at 34. “The implication is
that military service in general—not confined to exposures
specific to the Gulf War—is related to the development of
ALS.” Id. The IOM Report adds: “The findings, if validated
in other studies, suggest that exposures during military
service, even among those with no wartime service, might
be responsible.” Id.
In accordance with the conclusions of the IOM Report
and the Weisskopf study, the Secretary proposed an interim final rule—effective immediately but subject to notice and comment before adoption as a permanent rule—
establishing a presumption of service connection for “any
veteran who develops [ALS] at any time after separation
from service.” Interim Final Rule, 73 Fed. Reg. at 54,691.
The Secretary noted the observed link between ALS and
military service and also found that it was “unlikely that
conclusive evidence [of the causes of ALS] will be developed
in the foreseeable future.” Id. Given the rapidly progressive and degenerative nature of the disease, as well as “continuing uncertainty regarding specific precipitating factors
or events that lead to development of [ALS],” the Secretary
determined that there would be “great difficulty” for veterans seeking benefits for ALS to prove service connection in
the absence of the presumption. Id. at 54,692.
After explaining the basis for adopting a presumption
at all, the Secretary enumerated three circumstances for
which post-military-service ALS would not suffice to establish service connection. See id. First, service connection
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 7
would not be established “if there is affirmative evidence
that ALS was not incurred during or aggravated by” the
veteran’s military service—which is what justifies the “presumption” label. Id. (emphasis added); see also 38 C.F.R.
§ 3.318(b)(1). Next, service connection would not be presumed if, consistent with the exception in § 1110 itself,
there is “affirmative evidence that ALS was caused by the
veteran’s own willful misconduct.” Interim Final Rule, 73
Fed. Reg. at 54,692; see also
38 C.F.R. § 3.318(b)(2). Finally, and relevant here, service connection would not be
presumed “if the veteran did not have active, continuous
service of 90 days or more.” Interim Final Rule, 73 Fed.
Reg. at 54,692; see also
38 C.F.R. § 3.318(b)(3).
As to the 90-day-service precondition, the Secretary
reasoned:
Although the Weisskopf study relied upon by the
IOM report concluded that veterans have an increased risk of developing ALS compared to civilians regardless of years of service, a minimum-service requirement of 90 days would not be inconsistent with the study’s findings because the study
focused on veterans’ “years” of service and did not
consider minimum periods of service. We believe
that 90 days is a reasonable period to ensure that
an individual has had sufficient contact with activities in military service to encounter any hazards
that may contribute to development of ALS.
Interim Final Rule, 73 Fed. Reg. at 54,692. The Secretary
noted that 90-day-service requirements also apply to presumptions of service connection for chronic and tropical
diseases, citing 38 U.S.C. § 1112(a) and
38 C.F.R.
§ 3.307(a)(1).
Id. Thus, the Secretary concluded, “Congress considered 90 days to be the minimum period necessary to support an association between such service and
subsequent development of disease” and “for any shorter
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8 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
period, it is more likely than not that ALS was not associated with service.”
Id.
After receiving comments, the Secretary adopted the
interim rule as a final rule, which was later adopted as
§ 3.318. See Presumption of Service Connection for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 74 Fed. Reg. 57,072, 57,072
(Nov. 4, 2009) (Final Rule). The Secretary noted:
The ALS Association expressed support for this
regulation and stated its belief that 90 continuous
days of service in the military and a diagnosis of
ALS are sufficient to establish presumptive service
connection for that disease. New § 3.318 generally
establishes presumptive service connection for ALS
if a veteran had at least 90 continuous days of active military, naval, or air service and developed
ALS at any time after separation from such service.
We made no changes based on this comment.
Id. at 57,073.
II
Under the statute conferring jurisdiction on this court
for this case, we must “hold unlawful and set aside” regulations that are (1) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law; (2)
contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity; (3) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or
limitations, or in violation of a statutory right; or (4) without observance of procedure required by law. 38 U.S.C.
§ 7292(d)(1). Mr. Snyder challenges the validity of
§ 3.318(b)(3)’s 90-day-service requirement, first, as exceeding the Secretary’s statutory authority and, second, as arbitrary and capricious. Snyder Opening Br. at 16–29, 29–
39. We must reject these challenges.
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 9
A
In promulgating 38 C.F.R. § 3.318, the Secretary invoked
38 U.S.C. § 501(a) as legal authority. We agree with
the Secretary that § 501(a) supplies the required statutory
authority for the regulation and that § 3.318, as an exercise
of the § 501(a) authority to adopt conditional presumptions
of facts required by
38 U.S.C. § 1110, is not contrary to
other statutory provisions cited by Mr. Snyder.
Section 501(a) grants the Secretary the authority to
“prescribe all rules and regulations which are necessary or
appropriate to carry out the laws administered by the Department and are consistent with those laws,” including
“regulations with respect to the nature and extent of proof
and evidence and the method of taking and furnishing
them in order to establish the right to benefits under such
laws.” 38 U.S.C. § 501(a). Section 501(a) confers “broad”
rulemaking authority. Nat’l Org. of Veterans’ Advocates,
Inc. (NOVA) v. Sec’y of Veterans Affairs,
669 F.3d 1340,
1345 (Fed. Cir. 2012). Such broad authority, defined in
general terms, encompasses particular topics that are not
themselves expressly mentioned as long as they come
within the generally defined grant: “A regulation does not
contradict the statutory scheme . . . simply because it addresses an issue on which the scheme is silent.” Lofton v.
West,
198 F.3d 846, 850 (Fed. Cir. 1999).
Relying on § 501(a)(1), the Secretary has issued regulations—like the one at issue here—establishing a service-connection presumption for certain conditions without a
statutory scheme explicitly permitting such presumptions.
See 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iv) (establishing a service-connection presumption for veterans exposed to herbicide
agents “in or near the Korean DMZ”);
id. § 3.307(a)(6)(v)
(same for veterans who “regularly and repeatedly operated,
maintained, or served onboard C-123 aircraft” “during the
Vietnam era”); id. § 3.307(a)(7) (same for diseases “associated with exposure to contaminants in the water supply at
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10 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
Camp Lejeune”); id. § 3.316 (same for diseases associated
with “specified vesicant agents”). These presumptions, if
otherwise supported on their merits and duly promulgated,
come within the Secretary’s power to issue “regulations
with respect to the nature and extent of proof and evidence”
that will suffice “to establish the right to benefits” claimed.
38 U.S.C. § 501(a)(1). A presumption, while not itself “evidence,” is a measure “with respect to” the evidence that is
necessary or sufficient under an applicable statutory
standard. A presumption “affords a party, for whose benefit the presumption runs, the luxury of not having to produce specific evidence to establish the point at issue. When
the predicate evidence is established that triggers the presumption, the further evidentiary gap is filled by the presumption.” Routen v. West,
142 F.3d 1434, 1440 (Fed. Cir.
1998) (emphases added).
Here, the presumption of service connection for ALS
created by § 3.318 goes to the “nature and extent” of the
evidence that a veteran must provide to prove service connection. A veteran with ALS need not “produce specific evidence,” id., showing that the disability “result[ed] from
personal injury suffered or disease contracted in line of
duty” or showing the specified “aggravation” in service, 38
U.S.C. § 1110. Instead, if the preconditions are satisfied,
the presumption supplies the required evidence. 3 Evidentiary rules like this one are within the Secretary’s rulemaking authority under § 501(a)(1).
3 The Board of Veterans’ Appeals determined that
Mr. Snyder had not made a case-specific showing of service
connection. J.A. 17. That is hardly surprising, given that
the causes of ALS are unknown. In the Veterans Court,
Mr. Snyder relied solely on the regulatory presumption together with his argument that the presumption must be
modified to eliminate the 90-day-service precondition.
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 11
Mr. Snyder suggests that because § 3.318 distinguishes
veterans who meet particular requirements from those
who do not, the regulation is an unlawful modification of
the statutory definition of “veteran” in 38 U.S.C. § 101(2).
See Snyder Opening Br. at 23–27. That contention is meritless. Section 3.318 does not modify the definition of “veteran,” and there is no dispute that Mr. Snyder meets the
definition. See Secretary Response Br. at 20. Nothing in
§ 101(2) requires that all veterans be subject to the same
regulatory evidentiary requirements, no matter their circumstances. Various regulations make evidentiary distinctions without express statutory authorization. See,
e.g.,
38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iv) (presumption applies only to
veterans who operated “in or near the Korean DMZ”);
id.
§ 3.307(a)(6)(v) (presumption applies only to veterans who
“regularly and repeatedly operated, maintained, or served
onboard C-123 aircraft” “during the Vietnam era”); id.
§ 3.307(a)(7) (presumption applies only to veterans who
served at Camp Lejeune).
Mr. Snyder also points to 38 U.S.C. § 5303A to support
his argument that the Secretary exceeded his statutory authority. See Snyder Opening Br. at 22–24. But that provision, like § 101(2), is not inconsistent with regulations that
make evidentiary requirements dependent on particular
circumstances that not all veterans share. Section 5303A
adds a general minimum-service requirement to the requirement of being a veteran for general-benefits eligibility, 38 U.S.C. § 5303A(b)(1), (2), but defines numerous
exceptions to that added requirement, id. § 5303A(b)(3).
The provision does not preclude the Secretary’s regulatory
relaxation of evidentiary requirements for service connection for veterans having particular physical disabilities and
also meeting specified conditions.
We therefore reject Mr. Snyder’s argument that
§ 3.318, with its 90-day-service requirement, exceeds the
Secretary’s statutory authority and contradicts certain
statutory provisions. Mr. Snyder has not challenged the
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12 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
procedural propriety of the promulgation of § 3.318. But
he does argue that the rule, with its 90-day-service requirement, is arbitrary and capricious. Snyder Opening Br. at
29–39. We turn to that challenge.
B
Arguing that the 90-day-service requirement is “arbitrary and capricious,” Mr. Snyder contends that (1) the Secretary did not offer a reasonable justification for comparing
ALS to chronic and tropical diseases when imposing a 90-
day-service requirement, id. at 31–37, and (2) the
Weisskopf study found that military service was associated
with an increased risk of ALS regardless of time served, id.
at 37–39. Applying the deferential standard of review required for our assessment of this challenge, we must reject
Mr. Snyder’s argument.
Under 38 U.S.C. § 7292(d)(1), whose pertinent language is identical to that of the judicial-review provision of
the Administrative Procedure Act (APA),
5 U.S.C.
§ 706(2)(A), we must “set aside any regulation relied on by
the Veterans Court that is ‘arbitrary, capricious, an abuse
of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,’”
Hansen-Sorenson v. Wilkie,
909 F.3d 1379, 1384 (Fed. Cir.
2018) (quoting
38 U.S.C. § 7292(d)(1)). We follow the practice of treating the first two terms in the list as forming a
single “arbitrary-and-capricious standard.” FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project,
141 S. Ct. 1150, 1158 (2021). That
standard requires the agency’s action to “be reasonable and
reasonably explained.”
Id.
We have recognized that “treating like cases differently
can be arbitrary and capricious,” Hansen-Sorenson, 909
F.3d at 1384 (emphasis added and internal quotation
marks omitted), but whether cases are “like” is a matter
initially for the agency, and on that question, as on other
factual and policy questions, distinctions need not be based
on “conclusive proof,” Carpenter, Chartered v. Sec’y of Veterans Affairs,
343 F.3d 1347, 1353 (Fed. Cir. 2003). Our
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 13
review of a regulation for compliance with the arbitrary- and-capricious standard is “deferential.” Prometheus Radio Project, 141 S. Ct. at 1158. We may not “substitute
[our] own policy judgment” for that of the Secretary. Id.;
see also McKinney v. McDonald,
796 F.3d 1377, 1383 (Fed.
Cir. 2015). In reviewing a challenge like Mr. Snyder’s, “[a]
court simply ensures that the agency has acted within a
zone of reasonableness and, in particular, has reasonably
considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained
the decision.” Prometheus Radio Project, 141 S. Ct. at 1158.
Although “we may not supply a reasoned basis for the
agency’s action that the agency itself has not given, we will
uphold a decision of less than ideal clarity if the agency’s
path may reasonably be discerned.” Bowman Transp., Inc.
v. Arkansas–Best Freight Sys., Inc.,
419 U.S. 281, 285–86
(1974) (citing SEC v. Chenery Corp.,
332 U.S. 194, 196
(1947)). We conclude that § 3.318 passes muster under
those standards.
The Secretary set forth most of his reasoning in announcing the Interim Final Rule. 73 Fed. Reg. at 54,691–
92. The Secretary made clear that the question was what
facts might justifiably support a presumption of the statutorily required element that a veteran’s ALS is connected
to “military service,” id. at 54,691, i.e., to “activities in military service,” id. at 54,692—more specifically, what facts
“support a presumption that the resulting disability was
incurred in the line of duty during active military, naval,
or air service,” id. That focus on the needed connection to
active military service reflects the statutory standard of 38
U.S.C. § 1110, which the Secretary cited. Interim Final
Rule, 73 Fed. Reg. at 54,692.
The Secretary relied on the IOM report and particularly the IOM Report’s description of the Weisskopf study
as providing “‘limited and suggestive evidence’” of an ALS
association with military service, id. at 54,691, to conclude
that “there is sufficient evidence indicating a correlation
between ALS and activities in military service” to support
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14 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
“a presumption of service connection” for veterans with
ALS, id. at 54,691–92. The Secretary simultaneously concluded, however, that the justified presumption was conditional on a minimum period of service of 90 days. Id. at
54,692. “[W]e believe that, for any shorter period, it is more
likely than not that ALS was not associated with service.”
Id.
The Secretary’s rationale is easy to discern. First, the
general logic is that the statutory requirement at issue is
one of causal connection to activities in military service
and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, at some
point near the de minimis end of the spectrum of service
length, there is too little time in service for there to have
been enough activities in service to make the causal connection likely. See id. (deeming it appropriate to adopt “a
reasonable period to ensure that an individual has had sufficient contact with activities in military service to encounter any hazards that may contribute to development of
ALS”). That logic is reasoned and reasonable.
Second, focusing on the record regarding ALS, the Secretary found no reliable evidence of a correlation between
ALS and service of periods as short as 90 days. Specifically,
the crucial Weisskopf “study focused on veterans’ ‘years’ of
service and did not consider minimum periods of service.”
Id. (emphasis added). That reading of the Weisskopf study
is supported by the study itself, which, as quoted above,
makes clear that time measurements were in units of
years, not any smaller units, and which supplies no evidence of a service-ALS correlation for veterans with service
of periods substantially shorter than a year.
Third, the Secretary concluded that 90 days was “a reasonable period to ensure” a minimum degree of contact
with hazards that may contribute to development of ALS.
Id. Specifically, the Secretary observed that Congress had
used a 90-day-service period for its presumption of service
connection for chronic and tropical diseases. Id. (citing 38
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SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 15
U.S.C. § 1112(a) and its regulatory counterpart,
38 C.F.R.
§ 3.307(a)(1)). If, as we have concluded, it was reasonable
for the Secretary to adopt some minimum period of service
for that purpose, Mr. Snyder has not given us a basis for
deeming it unreasonable for the Secretary to borrow the
particular period Congress chose to achieve the same purpose for another substantial class of conditions. See
38
U.S.C. § 1101(3), (4) (listing numerous diseases that are
“‘chronic disease[s]’” or “‘tropical disease[s]’”).
Mr. Snyder contends that the Secretary should have
compared ALS to other presumptions having no minimum
service requirements. Snyder Opening Br. at 36–37. But
the presumptions Mr. Snyder points to, both statutory and
regulatory, involve “exposure to a substance or set of substances with known risks, either directly or through presence in a particular place, such as Vietnam,” Secretary
Response Br. at 39, or a type of circumstance (time as a
prisoner of war) associated with specified medical conditions. 4 The ALS presumption does not: It is not known
what causes ALS, either generally or within the range of
activities that are part of military service. We have “no
basis for concluding that the Secretary cannot reasonably
distinguish the ALS situation” from situations that involve
a “specific harm-causing chemical agent, use of specific
equipment, or periods of time at a specific location.” Hansen-Sorenson, 909 F.3d at 1384.
There was no evidence requiring the Secretary to make
a different choice. Mr. Snyder has not pointed to such evidence in the rulemaking record but ignored by the Secretary. In fact, in adopting the Final Rule, the Secretary
4 These include service-connection presumptions for
diseases associated with time spent as a prisoner of war (38
U.S.C. § 1112(b)); exposure to radiation (id. § 1112(c)), exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam (id. § 1116), and service in the Persian Gulf War (id. § 1118).
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16 SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH
noted that the ALS Association endorsed the 90-day-service requirement, and Mr. Snyder has not identified any
contrary comments that went unmentioned by the Secretary. Final Rule, 74 Fed. Reg. at 57,073. Supportive comments “in the rulemaking record” can “buttress[]” a finding
that an agency’s regulation is reasonable. Carpenter, 343
F.3d at 1355–56. Mr. Snyder also has not pointed to evidence that was readily available to the Secretary but not
obtained. See CS Wind Vietnam Co. v. United States,
832
F.3d 1367, 1380 n.7 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (recognizing that “an
agency’s ‘failure to adduce empirical data that can readily
be obtained’ can sometimes require setting aside an
agency’s decision” under the APA (citing FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc.,
556 U.S. 502, 519 (2009))). Indeed,
the Secretary expressly “welcome[d] comments on any relevant peer-reviewed literature concerning ALS that ha[d]
been published since the November 2006 IOM report.” Interim Final Rule, 73 Fed. Reg. at 54,692. And the Secretary was under “no general obligation . . . to conduct or
commission [his] own empirical or statistical studies.” Prometheus Radio Project, 141 S. Ct. at 1160.
In these circumstances, neither the evidence nor logic
required the Secretary to limit his options to either ignoring length of service altogether or declining to adopt a presumption at all. The Secretary could reasonably choose a
familiar short period to avoid what he reasonably found
would be too demanding an evidentiary standard (no presumption) or too lenient a standard (no minimum service
period) for applying the statutory requirement of service
connection to veterans with ALS. We conclude that the
Secretary “reasonably considered the relevant issues and
reasonably explained the decision” and made a choice
within the “zone of reasonableness.” Prometheus Radio
Project, 141 S. Ct. at 1158; see also McKinney, 796 F.3d at
1383–84 (upholding a regulation where the agency “examine[d] the relevant data and articulate[d] a satisfactory explanation for its action” (internal quotation marks
Case: 20-2168 Document: 27 Page: 17 Filed: 06/09/2021
SNYDER v. MCDONOUGH 17
omitted)). We therefore hold that the 90-day-service requirement of § 3.318(b)(3) is not arbitrary and capricious.
III
For the foregoing reasons, the decision of the Veterans
Court is affirmed.
The parties shall bear their own costs.
AFFIRMED
