Two service members stand near a burn pit. (Photo: Andrew Burton/Reuters)
The U.S. House on Wednesday passed the Honoring Our PACT Act, which would grant extensive medical benefits to veterans exposed to toxins during their service.
The bill will now go back to the Senate with some changes before being passed to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he is expected to sign it immediately.
The PACT Act creates a presumptive bias that many ailments suffered by veterans were caused by their service. Millions of veterans are expected to benefit from the legislation and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been slowly preparing for a massive backlog of new patients, one that could take years to address.
The bill has widespread support among lawmakers, the VA, veterans services organizations including The American Legion, advocates like Jon Stewart, and a strong majority of veterans and service members.
The PACT Act was first introduced by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) last year. The House passed the bill earlier this year before the Senate passed it in June. However, when the bill was sent back to the House for a final vote, technical problems were discovered in the language of the bill, creating a delay.
Exposure to burning oil fields in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War have been cited as an example of toxic exposure during military service. (Photo: U.S. Air Force Archive)
This article was corrected on July 14 to reflect the bill being sent back to the Senate before heading to the president’s desk for signature.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
5 cancers colon, kidney, liver 2operations, esopagael still under going treament,6 endocopyic’s,heart attack, all due to the contaminated water at Camp Lejuene. Pass the Pact Act . I did my duty, Honorable Discharge. Cpl. USMC. Now do yours
RUMOR or FACT the elements of the PACT act have been folded into the Gold Star Families resolution and that’s what we all should be watching. We were led to believe this was a done deal and now rumors are between abortion riders and 400 billion in non-veteran costs the Toxic bill is hung up in politics
Need to make a correction..It has to be passed again by the senate before it goes to POTUS.
Correction made. Thanks for the input, Jeff!