The Senate overwhelmingly passed the PACT Act Tuesday night, a bill to expand health care benefits for veterans who developed illnesses from exposure to wells to burn during military service. The 86-11 vote was met with cheers from the Senate floor.
The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk, and the White House says he expects to sign it. The vote came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday afternoon that he and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had reached an agreement.
“This is a wonderful moment, especially for all the people who have made this happen and who are watching,” Schumer said after the vote. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Watching the final vote from the Senate floor Tuesday night, comedian Jon Stewart, a vocal supporter of the bill and veterans, could be seen with tears in his eyes. Stewart has been on Capitol Hill rallying support for the bill and lobbying senators to pass it.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a situation where people who have already given so much have had to fight so hard to get so little,” he said after the vote. “I hope we learn a lesson.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal had a message for the Department of Veterans Affairs Tuesday night: “I have a message to the VA: You better get it right. You better get it right. These veterans have waited too long.”
Mr. Biden said after the vote that he hopes to sign the bill “so that veterans and their families and caregivers affected by toxic exposures finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they earned and deserve.”
We will never be able to repay the debt we owe to those who have worn the uniform, but today Congress made a promise to our veterans and their families.
The PACT Act will be the largest expansion of VA health care in decades. We should all be proud of this moment. pic.twitter.com/l72HcsNJLw
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 3, 2022
The legislation It will extend benefits for an estimated 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill would remove the burden of proof from veterans seeking care for conditions related to exposure to burn pits that a number of conditions, including various cancers, are linked to exposure.
Burns are holes in the ground that the US military dug near bases in countries that had limited infrastructure where troops would dump trash and burn it for disposal.
Mariam Zuhaib / AP
The invoice initially approved by the House and the Senate in June, but due to a language issue, it had to go back to the House and Senate before it could be sent to President Biden’s desk. The legislation passed the House again, but did not advance beyond a procedural vote in the Senate last week. Twenty-five Republican senators who had voted in favor of the bill in June voted against moving the bill forward last week, citing an objection to how the legislation is paid for.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has opposed since June a provision in the legislation’s language that would shift $400 billion in pre-existing veterans discretionary spending to mandatory spending. A measure paid for by mandatory spending generally does not have to be passed every year, as discretionary spending does. Toomey argues that this changed designation frees up funds that could be used on non-veteran-related items.
Mr. Biden has blamed the fires for the health problems of his late son, Beau Biden, who died of a brain tumor in 2015. In a 2019 speech to the Service Employees International Union, then-candidate Biden said because of the “exposure of his son to ditches, in my opinion. , I can’t prove it yet, he came back with the fourth stage glioblastoma.”
— Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.
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Kathryn Watson
