Tester calls on senators to pass veterans toxic exposure bill

Sen. Jon Tester called out during a press call Thursday his Senate colleagues who switched their vote on his bill for providing treatment to U.S. military veterans who were exposed to toxic substances.

"It hurts me to say this but this is a sad week for the United States Senate," Tester said. "(Wednesday), dozens of Senate Republicans turned their backs on our nation's veterans and their families by failing to advance the Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022.

"Look, this is a slap in the face of every member of our all-volunteer military, those who have served and sacrificed, because promises were made and those promises included they would be taken care of when they get returned home if they were damaged by the war and their service to this country."

The bill had passed the Senate in June, was amended in the House and Wednesday's vote was to advance it to a vote on the Senate floor to approve the House changes. That vote failed to get the 60-vote minimum.

Tester said he thought the bill was going to pass, and that he doesn't know what caused so many Republicans to change their vote.

He said some have speculated that it was because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced they had negotiated a deal on a bill dealing with issues including climate change and creating a minimum tax on large corporations.

The bill is predicted to cut the U.S. deficit by $300 billion and is being called the inflation reduction act.

Montana's Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was one of the senators who opposed moving it to a vote Wednesday. He did not vote June 16, when the Senate first passed it.

A spokesperson for Daines said Friday that a budgeting "gimmick" in the bill would allow money to be spent on Green New Deal initiatives. That, coupled with proposals in the Schumer-Manchin negotiation, is too much spending.

"Do the Democrats want to invest in veterans' health care or spend hundreds of billions of dollars on their Green New Deal and raise taxes on Americans - they can't have it all," the spokesperson said.

A Tester spokesperson Sunday - as well as Tester Thursday - said the idea that new spending would be added by the toxic exposure bill is incorrect.

"The PACT Act will provide relief to more than 60,000 veterans in Montana living with the effects of toxic exposure, and Chairman Tester continues to work aggressively to pass this bill and uphold our promises to those who served and sacrificed," the spokesperson said. "Unlike Republican's claims, the PACT Act explicitly requires Congress to appropriate and VA to use the fund only for toxic-exposure health care and benefits. There is absolutely no automatic spending or 'slush fund.'

"Holding the PACT Act hostage because Republicans are unhappy about an unrelated bill is as nonsensical as it is cruel, leaving more veterans to suffer and die as a result," the spokesperson said.

A bill decades in the making

Named after Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, who died in 2020 from toxic exposure as a result of his military service, the Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act will expand health care for Post-9/11 combat veterans, create a framework for the establishment of future presumptions of service connection related to toxic exposure, expand VA's list of service presumptions, and improve resources to support VA's claims processing.

Tester said the bill would provide care to the veterans who are exposed to toxic substances, care they can't get through the VA now.

"It is the biggest issue facing our veterans today," Tester said, "Make no mistake about it. If it wasn't, every veterans service organizations out there wouldn't have it as their No. 1 issue and wouldn't have been talking to me about it for the last 15 years."

" ... Generation after generation of Montana veterans have been exposed to toxic substances during their time in uniform," he added. "These folks have developed rare deadly cancers, respiratory conditions and other debilitating illnesses that often occur years after their service, but occur because of a direct result of their exposure.

"For hundreds of thousands of veterans, generations of our all-volunteer military and their families, the PACT Act would finally recognize the toxic wounds of war," Tester said. "This includes more than 66,000 veterans in Montana alone that may have been exposed to toxic substances during their service."

When asked why the bill failed to gather 60 votes to advance it to a final vote Wednesday, after it passed the Senate 84-14 June 16, he said he doesn't know.

"That's a hell of a good question," Tester said.

If it is because of a different bill, or because people think it is too expensive, it doesn't make sense because it is virtually identical to the bill that passed June 16, he said.

After it passed the Senate, Tester said, the House found a minor monetary issue about raising funds because of the VA being able cancel leases, and that was removed. But when it came back, Republicans switched their votes and stalled its progress.

Tester said Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Penn., wants an amendment added to it capping how much could be spent to prevent VA from taking other funding if new toxic exposure illnesses are found later. That seems to be the problem Republicans have with the bill, he said.

He said Toomey had made the assumption that the VA was going to transfer money and create another $400 billion in spending.

"I don't buy that," Tester said. "Number one, The VA can't transfer any money. It's up to Congress to do that."

He added, "Anything they do, they have to justify to us. They cant just willy nilly go out there and do whatever the hell they want. ... This is more about Congress doing their job."

When asked about Republican Senators apparently celebrating after they prevented moving the bill to a vote, Tester said that was bad.

"That's really unfortunate, do fist-bumps to take away benefits from veterans and hang them out so they have to fight for their health care and leave their families out in the cold," Tester said. "That's really something to fist-bump about?"

What's next

Tester said he doesn't know for sure when the bill will come up again, maybe early this week, maybe later this week, maybe in September.

He recommended that any veterans and their families - and anyone else - who wants to see the bill pass call or email their senators to try to, respectfully, express their opinion and get the senators to change their minds.

"Get on the phone and give my colleagues a sense of religion on this issue," he said. "This is important."

He said the members of Congress are there to represent the people, and while nobody's perfect and mistakes are made, Congress should not leave until the bill passes and goes to the president.

"Promises were made, handshakes were taken, words were given and all that stuff evidently was forgotten about (Wednesday)," Tester said.

He said if this is in reaction to the proposed inflation reduction bill, the Senators need to change back to supporting the PACT Act.

"If you want to find a reason to vote against a bill you can find it. If you want to find a reason to vote for it you can find it," Tester said. "But to ... sink toxic exposure because of a totally unrelated bill (that deals with climate change, reducing seniors' health care costs, making large corporations pay some taxes and improving the IRS) is absolutely political malpractice and people need to be held accountable."

He said the members of Congress need to live up to the nation's promise of caring for the members of the all-volunteer military when they return home.

"My colleagues, including those in Montana, can make up all sorts of excuses as to why they decided to change their vote on this bill, because, remember, it passed on June 16. But the bottom line is veterans will suffer and they will die as a result of this delay and these excuses," Tester said. "So I would just advise no more political games, no more playing with veterans' lives for political capital."