A large bipartisan majority passed the long-awaited bill with an 84-14 vote. She will now go to the House of Representatives, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged to move quickly and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. The bill is a modified version of the Honor Act in our PACT that was passed by the House earlier this year.
“Today is a historic day long awaited by our nation’s veterans,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday before the vote. “In a few moments, the Senate will finally pass the PACT Act, the most significant expansion of health care benefits to our veterans in generations.”
Schumer continued: “The cruelty of forcing veterans who got sick while fighting for us because of exposure to these toxins to have to fight for years in the VA to get the benefits they deserve — Well, that will end soon. Praise God. “
Burning pits were commonly used to burn waste, including daily rubbish, ammunition, hazardous materials and chemical compounds at military sites throughout Iraq and Afghanistan until about 2010.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, these large open-air burning pits, which were often blown up at or near military bases, released dangerous toxins into the air that, after exposure, may have caused short and long term health conditions.
A 2020 survey of members of the Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans of America advocacy organization found that 86% of respondents were exposed to burning wells or other toxins. The VA has denied approximately 70 percent of veterans’ fire claims since Sept. 11, according to previous statements by Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican and GOP member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
The legislation has been in process for years and, once signed, would be a great bipartisan victory.
“The Senate has a unique opportunity in life today to make history,” Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Wednesday in the Senate Chamber before a procedural vote. key to advancing the bill toward final approval. “This bill is not about Democrats versus Republicans. It’s not about a political stance. It’s about Americans defending those who have served and sacrificed on behalf of this country … In fact, it’s even more so. “This is a bug that has been ignored for too long.”
The passage of the bill – named First Class Sergeant Heath Robinson honoring our promise to address the Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022 – will also be a great success for Biden, who has championed the legislation and has been personally affected by the problem. .
Biden believes the burns may have caused the brain cancer that killed his son Beau, a veteran of the Iraq war, in 2015. During his speech on the state of the Union earlier this year, Biden he asked Congress to pass this legislation.
“This is not just about our men and women of service, the people who served in the military, but their families,” Tester added. “Because when people go to war, it’s not just the service person who does it, it’s everyone in their family. And what this bill will do is address decades of inaction and failure of our government, expanding the ‘VA health care eligibility for more than 3.5 million combat veterans exposed to burnt pits.’
Among the priorities of the bill, it would greatly expand the resources and benefits of health care to former members of the military service exposed to cremation graves and could provide coverage to up to 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxins. Adds 23 conditions related to burning and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the list of VA diseases that have been incurred or aggravated during military service, eliminating the burden on veterans of proving that their toxic exposure caused these conditions.
The bill also calls for investments in VA health centers, claims processing and VA workforce while strengthening federal research on toxic exposure, which has also been a priority for Biden.
“We still have our work as Congress, as the Senate, to make sure that the promises made in this bill are promises that are fulfilled,” Moran said in a speech Wednesday. “This bill was designed to fix a broken system that has been combined for decades of mosaic solutions.”
Veterans groups have long pressured lawmakers to pass comprehensive legislation for burns, as former service members struggled to cope with the medical and financial consequences of exposure to toxic burns.
Comedian and political commentator Jon Stewart, advocate for the first perpetrators and victims of 9/11, has also been a prominent figure in the effort to draw attention to the issue and push for a legislative solution.
“The end result is that our country exposed our own veterans to the poison for years, and we knew it, and we didn’t act urgently and adequately,” Stewart said earlier this year at a virtual roundtable with the Committee. of Veterans Affairs of the House. “And so we lost men and women who served this country. They died for our inaction.”
CNN’s Clare Foran, Ted Barrett, Kristin Wilson and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.