WASHINGTON – Comedian and activist Jon Stewart returned to Washington on Monday, holding a rally outside the US Capitol to push recalcitrant Senate Republicans to finally pass a bill that would expand treatment for soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals.
“This is the lowest-hanging fruit of a functioning society. Like, if we can’t do this, the rest of us don’t have a chance,” said Stewart, who described the stalled bill as a symptom of deepening political dysfunction. “This is the canary in the coal mine.”
Behind him were veterans and their families, including Susan Zeier, the mother-in-law of Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, who died of lung cancer at age 39 two years ago. The Department of Veterans Affairs denied him the type of benefits it provides to soldiers and their families when they are injured on active duty. The project is named after Robinson, who left behind a 9-year-old daughter.
Comedian and activist Jon Stewart speaks during a rally to call on the Senate to pass the PACT Act on Monday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Senators lie, veterans die,” said a sign held by one of the attendees behind Stewart. The sign brandished by another simply listed the names of the 25 US senators, all Republicans, who blocked passage last week.
Stewart hoped his presence would break the impasse before lawmakers leave for their usual August recess. By turns angry and exasperated, he highlighted the seemingly uncontroversial quality of the legislation. “It’s not like the Democrats snuck ‘abortion for all’ into a gay pride bill,” the former “Daily Show” host joked to Yahoo News after conclude the demonstration.
The imperiled legislation, also known as the PACT Act, would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand health care services for service members exposed to hazardous chemicals from so-called incinerators where trash was incinerated, with the help of fuel for airplanes, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is believed that at least nine respiratory cancers may be caused by breathing in particles emitted by burn pits.
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“Passing the PACT Act is the highest priority of the entire veterans community,” American Legion Legislative Officer Jeffrey Steele told Yahoo News.
Veterans and supporters of the Honoring Our PACT Act are seen during a news conference after Republican senators blocked the measure, which was meant to help military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, outside the U.S. Capitol on July 28 . (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Senate had initially approved the bill in June with broad bipartisan support, but the removal of a single sentence on taxation required a new vote, leading to last week’s surprise defeat. In a surprise move that shocked veterans and their supporters, 25 GOP Republicans who had previously supported the bill decided not to move forward.
“This is bulls***,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a supporter of the PACT Act, said at a rally last Thursday after the development. Stewart’s fiery speech at the same rally quickly became an Internet sensation. He is a longtime supporter of veterans’ issues and also fought for the passage of the Zadroga Act (also sponsored by Gillibrand), which created a compensation fund for first responders sick from working at Ground Zero after of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“It was the original cremation pit,” Stewart said of the crumbling World Trade Center, whose collapse released a similar multitude of toxic chemicals. The difference, Stewart said, was that Ground Zero was the product of a terrorist attack, while the burn pits were the result of careless practice.
“The contracts that ran the cremation pits did it to them,” he said. “Not because the technology didn’t exist to not do it. But because it was cheaper. ‘And they are only soldiers. Who gives a ***?”
Republicans have maintained that the bill is too expensive. Some believe last week’s move was little more than a show of frustration after a surprise announcement of a $700 billion reconciliation package that would address President Biden’s priorities on climate change and other health spending .
Senator Pat Toomey. R-Pa., is leaving the Senate chamber following the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the U.S. Capitol on June 23. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the leader of recent Republican opposition to the PACT Act, said he would vote for the bill as long as the Senate also approves an amendment he introduced to fix what he has described as “budget gimmick” that he says would allow Democrats to spend billions on issues unrelated to veterans’ care.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough has questioned Toomey’s characterization, noting that his proposed changes would put a cap on how much can be spent on care per year, and end all care spending from burned after 10 years, forcing Congress to eliminate it. the program or renew it through a new vote.
A vote on Toomey’s amendment is expected this week. Veterans who gathered on Capitol Hill vowed to hold rallies until the PACT Act is passed. “We don’t think Congress should go anywhere for the August recess until this bill is finished,” said one of the speakers who followed Stewart. “We will stay. They have to stay.”