Date: 2024-09-27 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00022888
US POLITICS
PACT ACT SIGNED INTO LAW
President Biden signs bill to help veterans exposed to burn pits
PACT ACT SIGNED INTO LAW
President Biden signs bill to help veterans exposed to burn pits
President Joe Biden speaks before signing the PACT Act. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Original article: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/10/biden-signs-pact-act
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
President Joe Biden has had rather little help from the Republicans in either the House or the Senate, but in spite this serious headwind, he has got a surpringly large amount of important stuff done. There has been a lot of talk about doing something about Veteran's health over the years, but at long last it is Biden that has got something done.
We should be celebrating the Biden progress, but instead the media has a constant refrain that nothing is getting done on Biden's watch. Seems to me that it is the media that is 'asleep at the wheel' !!!!!!!!!
Peter Burgess
Written by Herb Scribner
August 10th, 2022
President Biden signed the PACT Act into law Wednesday, expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
Driving the news: The bipartisan bill is the biggest expansion to veterans' health care and benefits in the last three decades, the White House said.
Details: The Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act makes it easier for veterans exposed to burn pits from the Sept. 11 attacks to gain health care, the White House said.
Burn pits were considered a common method to eliminate waste for military sites during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“My son Beau was one of them,” Biden said before signing the bill.
Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015. He served in the military and Biden has said he believes there is a connection between his son's work on the burn pits and the illness that took his life, per CNN.
Biden said Wednesday that veterans who visited burn pits came home from war with headaches, numbness, dizziness and cancer, among other symptoms.
The new law is expected to help about 3.5 million veterans who have been exposed to burn pits since 9/11.
Comedian Jon Stewart has been advocating for the bill's passage.
What they're saying: 'This is the most significant law our nation has ever passed,' Biden said Wednesday before signing the bill.
'This new law matters,' Biden said. 'It matters a lot. It matters a great deal because these conditions have already taken such a toll on so many veterans and their families.'
He also praised Stewart during his speech Wednesday, saying, 'We owe you big.'
Flashback: Biden said in his State of the Union address that Congress must work on a bill that would address toxic exposures that hurt veterans.
The Senate passed the legislation earlier in August after more than 25 Republican senators blocked the bill from advancing due to spending concerns, Axios' Sophia Cai writes.
Go deeper ... Jon Stewart: Congress giving vets sickened by toxic burn pits the 'cold shoulder' SEE BELOW
Jon Stewart: Congress giving vets sickened by toxic burn pits the 'cold shoulder'
Written by Rebecca Falconer
Sep 16, 2020 - Health
Jon Stewart speaks at a press conference oat the House Triangle on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Comedian, writer and veterans advocate Jon Stewart speaks at a press conference on 'The Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act of 2020' in Washington, DC. , on Tuesday. Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images
Jon Stewart noted on his return to Capitol Hill Tuesday that many veterans affected by exposure to toxic burn pits are suffering the same afflictions as first responders have since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Driving the news: The former 'Daily Show' host who's campaigned for years for the continuation of the 9/11 compensation fund, including making a powerful speech in Congress last year, is advocating for a bill that would cover medical conditions associated with veterans' exposure to the pits during this century's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'It turns out that the warfighters that were sent to prosecute the battle based on the attack on 9/11 now suffer the same injuries and illnesses that the first responders suffer from, and they’re getting the same cold shoulder from Congress that they received. And so the fight starts again.'
The big picture: 'Burn pits were a common way to get rid of waste at military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan,' the Department of Veterans Affairs notes.
While the department states that 'research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits,' Stewart said at a news conference that jet fuel was used as an accelerant for the pits — a 'common ingredient' in illnesses for both veterans and first responders.
Stewart told Fox News in an interview earlier Tuesday that the parallels between the conditions of the veterans and the 9/11 responders 'are incredible.'
'The only difference between what happened with the 9/11 community and what's happening with the veteran community is the 9/11 community was injured by toxic exposure from an enemy attack,' he said.
'Our veterans lived 24 hours a day, seven days a week next to toxic smoke, dioxins — everything. And now they're being told, ‘Hey man, is that stuff bad for you? I don't know we don't have the science.' It's bulls--t. ... It’s about money. And we're here today to say we’re not going to let this happen in the dark.' — Stewart's remarks at the news conference
Of note: The bill Stewart is backing, Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act of 2020, is sponsored by Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who appeared alongside the comedian at the news conference.
Gillibrand compared the veterans' conditions to those exposed to the Agent Orange chemical during the Vietnam War, who were granted presumptive coverage after Congress acted in 1991. 'We have to do the same for the veterans of the war on terror,' she said. 'To put it simply, the bill says that if you were there you are covered. Plain and simple. This bill applies common sense and common decency to a very broken process.'