On Thursday, the U.S. Senate surprisingly failed to move forward with a bill that would greatly expand Veterans’ rights to healthcare, disability compensation, and even to sue the government for toxic exposures. The Senate is expected to reschedule the vote and the bill will likely make it into law in some form.
The bill, known as the PACT Act (the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act), has been widely referred to as a bill for Veterans who were exposure to toxic smoke from burn pits. And it does so much more that that too.
The PACT Act would do a lot of good for Veterans, recognizing toxic exposures due to burn pits, herbicides like Agent Orange, and the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It’s too much to list completely here, but among the highlights it would:
- Offer access to VA healthcare, nursing homes, and other services for certain Veterans exposed to toxic hazards or with combat service, regardless of service connection for disability compensation.
- Create a working group to consider adding new presumptive disabilities for service connection and force VA to consider public input about presumptions annually.
- Expand Gulf War and burn-pit presumptions to Veterans who served in countries previously left out (Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey)
- Add hypertension to the list of diseases presumed related to Agent Orange exposure.
- Expand presumptions of exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange to Vietnam Era Veterans who served in some countries other than Vietnam (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam, American Samoa, or Johnston Atoll).
- Add a huge number of respiratory illnesses and cancers to the list of diseases presumed related to burn pits.
- Increase funding for and mandate VA to engage in research, healthcare outreach, and Veteran health screening.
- Grant to Veterans who served at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a right to sue the government for damages based on the harmful health affects associated with toxins that the government knew were in the water there.
On Thursday, the bill – which previously passed with 84 votes in the Senate and then returned to the Senate after minor edits by the House – got only 55 votes of the 60 votes needed for cloture (a procedure to end discussion and move on to the actual vote on the bill). The cloture vote is expected to be rescheduled after some negotiation over budget concerns, and Senators are confident that the bill will pass in something close to its current form.
Contact your Senator to let them know what parts of the bill are most important to you, and urge them to keep those parts in!
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