section 3006 of this title.” 38 U.S.C. § 3007(a) (1988) (recodified in 1991 as 38 U.S.C. § 5107(a) by Pub.L. No. 102-40, § 402(b)(1), (d)(1), 105 Stat. 238, 239). Former section 3006 provided that “[t]he head of any Federal department or agency shall provide such information to [VA] as [VA] may request for purposes of determining eligibility for or amount of benefits or verifying other information with respect thereto.” 38 U.S.C. § 3006 (1988) (recodi-fied in 1991 as 38 U.S.C. § 5106 by Pub.L. No. 102-40, § 402(b)(1), 105 Stat. 238). Thus, in the present case, at the time of its 1990 decision, the Board’s duty to obtain the appellant’s SSA records, which were certainly highly pertinent to the his pension claim, was explicitly outlined by statute. See generally Hayre, 188 F.3d at 1331 (<HOLDING>); Masors, 2 Vet.App. at 187-88. The fact that
recognizing that the rehabilitation act as amended in 1978 provides individuals a private cause of action to obtain relief for handicap discrimination on the part of the federal government and its agencies holding that the mother can be deemed to have waived the physicianpatient privilege only with respect to the medical history and records pertaining to the period when the plaintiff was in utero during which time there could be no severance of the infants prenatal history from his mothers medical history recognizing that reasonable efforts by the va to obtain records regarding medical history from other federal departments or agencies are an important part of the vas affirmative duties under former section 3007a and 38 usc  5107a holding that where there are deficiencies in the record the alj is under an affirmative obligation to develop the relevant medical history even when the claimant is represented by counsel holding that where there are deficiencies in the record the alj is under an affirmative obligation to develop the relevant medical history