Sovereign Immunity and Military Federalism

"Le Roy Torres was a Texas State Trooper who also served in the U.S. Army Reserve. While deployed to Iraq, he allegedly suffered lung damage from trash “burn pits” that made it impossible for him to resume service as a state trooper. Torres asked to be reassigned to a less physically demanding position, but the Texas Department of Public Safety refused, leading Torres to resign as a trooper. He sued Texas for monetary damages under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), which grants service members reemployment rights for their civilian jobs following their stints in military service."
Had Torres been employed by a private security company, He'd be well within His rights, under USERRA, to sue. Since He was a Texas State employee, He's had to go to the Supreme Court just to get permission. There's nothing in the article about what He's doing with VHA on the matter of a disability claim, but I do know the VA is revamping all the "Burn Pit" claims recently.
Some of You TX folk might have better info, share it.
SGT James Murphy, CPT Jack Durish,
SPC Gary Welch, SGT Mark Anderson,
CPL Douglas Chrysler, Maj Marty Hogan,
CSM Charles Hayden, SMSgt David A Asbury,
MSgt Robert "Rock" Aldi, SSG William Jones,
SSG Michael Noll, MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
SGM Erik Marquez, CW3 Harvey K.
SFC William Farrell, CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
Sgt (Join to see), SSG (Join to see)
1SG Dan Capri, LTC (Join to see)