Veterans toxic exposure bill coming to the Senate floor

A compromise, bipartisan bill decades in the making set to help veterans exposed to toxic substances while in service finally looks to be headed to the floor of the Senate.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committe, respectively, held a press conference Thursday to talk about the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022.

“This bill will address decades of inaction (and allow) the U.S. government to do the right thing by delivering toxic-exposed veterans their long-overdue health care benefits,” Tester said, adding that “This bill spans generations of veterans.”

He said toxic exposure of U.S. military personnel goes back at least to World War I and has continued right through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the press conference — and later on the Senate floor — Tester said it is the most comprehensive toxic exposure package the country ever has delivered.

“You don’t have to be exposed to Agent Orange or burn pits to understand that price,” he said on the Senate floor. “Veterans in my state and across the country are already paying for it and they can no longer. Now is the time, folks. We’re going to get back from Memorial Day, we will all be at Memorial Day events, and we will celebrate the folks who gave the ultimate sacrifice. When we come back, we need to vote and celebrate those who have survived but yet have the impacts of toxic exposure. I would encourage your support for this bill when we come back the week of June sixth.”

He said during the press conference that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has indicated he will bring the bill to the floor when Congress resumes June 6.

Tester said the bill expands health care for post-9/11 combat veterans, creates a framework for the establishment of future presumptions of service connection related to toxic exposure, expands Veterans Adminstrations’s list of service presumptions, and improves resources to support VA’s claims processing.

He said the bill applies to more-than three-and-a-half million veterans post 9/11 and connects two dozen conditions that can be caused by burn pit exposures.

His office later said about 66,000 Montana veterans could have been exposed to toxic substances during their service.

Tester also said the bill helps provide what VA needs to provide these services.

“To pull this off we had to give the VA the resources it needs to better serve vets in places like Montana and in Kansas and all across this country,” he said.

He said that includes authorizing 31 pending leases for the VA.

“You’ve got to have the facilities if you’re going to be providing health care,” he said.

He said the package includes concerns previously raised by VA Secretary Denis McDonough, primarily the VA’s ability to process claims, which he said he thinks was one of McDonough’s primary concerns.

“But look, this bill is based on science, it’s not based on flipping a coin to determine who gets health care and who doesn’t,” Tester said. “I certainly haven’t heard anything from McDonough since this bill got to be prime time, and he would have, trust me.”

He said this workover of the bill, which originally was sponsored in and already passed the House, puts together parts of seven or eight toxic exposure bills introduced over the years, and deals with the issue comprehensively.

He said the fight isn’t over, it still has to pass the Senate, but veterans service organizations — which lobbied for, helped write and support the bill, will be lobbying for that.

He said the arguments also are on his side, and on the side of veterans.

The bill will be expensive, Tester said. While the Congressional Budget Office has not yet given it a score, he said, he expects its 10-year cost will be between $100 billion and $500 billion.

“It’s going to cost some money, it’s just the way it is. I wish health care was free but it’s not, and when you’ve got respiratory failure and cancers those are the most expensive kind.”

He added that veterans gaining access to health care earlier also will provide savings.

“They can get this stuff taken care of before it becomes, literally, life and death, so there’s some cost savings, too, but, in the end, it’s going to cost some dough.”

He said the bill needs 60 votes in the Senate to pass, and he thinks that can happen.

“My point I would make to those folks is, when we sent these kids off to war, we didn’t talk about the costs, and now that they’re coming back and they need health care, they need to be taken care of, and were going to say we can’t afford it? Well that’s not acceptable in my mind, and I don’t think it’s acceptable in any Montanan’s book.”

“ … To put folks who served this country in an all-volunteer military in harm’s way, and when they get injured we’re not going to take care of them? That’s not how this country was built.”