Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The PACT Act is Here

Finally Addressing Toxic Exposures & Filling A Gap In Health Policy For Veterans

It’s about damn time! Today, President Biden signed into law what many officials are calling the most significant expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than 30 years.

The Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act will expand access to VA health care and benefits for veterans who have been exposed to toxins.

Named in honor of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson, a decorated combat medic who died from a rare form of lung cancer, this historic bipartisan legislation will help deliver benefits and services to more than five million veterans, who may have been impacted by toxic exposures while serving our country.

Like so many important pieces of legislation, this bill almost didn’t make it. Politics and drama go hand in hand these days.

Watch this impassioned speech from Jon Stewart calling out Senate Republicans on July 28. Both chambers of Congress previously approved the bill, with the Senate voting 84-14 in June in favor, but the bill was forced into another vote after “administrative issues” were found in its text.

Ultimately, this bill passed, and yes it is LONG overdue.

I’ve been hearing from military families and veterans for more than a decade.

So many people are familiar with the millions of Americans affected by the spraying of Agent Orange, a dangerous herbicide mixture that contained carcinogenic dioxin, during the Vietnam War, but most are unaware of the toxins found on our home soil and in our water.

These issues have been swept under the rug for too many years, and the science continues to catch up, showing the real health impacts of exposure to these contaminants. It’s a huge heartbreak.

The VA’s own hazardous materials exposure website, along with scientists and doctors, agree that dangers exist for military personnel exposed to contaminants.

Connecting toxic exposure to individual health concerns is hard work and takes time. The concentrations of the toxins are measured in parts per billion or trillion—numbers that seem so tiny, and yet over time they can cause harm. Officials have been slow to act whether the toxins are on home soil or abroad.

But the PACT Act shifts the burden away from veterans.

Previously, veterans had to try and prove that health woes resulted from their service. The legislation now lists 24 different conditions and illnesses, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to brain cancers, that are “presumptive,” meaning that affected veterans are automatically eligible for insurance coverage and disability compensation from the VA—without having to prove a thing.

Much of the buzz around this bill was helping those affected by burn pits. In military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, open-air combustion of trash and other toxic waste in burn pits was a common practice. Debris thrown into these pits included batteries, plastics, rubber, chemicals, amputated limbs, and ammunition, according to Burn Pits 360, a veterans group that advocated for the PACT Act.

In the decades since Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, almost 300,000 veterans have reported exposure to pollution from burn pits, according to the VA website.

At home, the EPA has identified at least 149 current and former military bases with groundwater contamination. More than two-thirds of all Superfund sites are closely connected to the military.

The drinking water and soil at these bases has been polluted by a range of dangerous chemicals left over from military activities, including jet fuel, cleaning products, degreasing solvents, firefighting foams, and explosives.

Retired Michigan congressman and veteran John D. Dingell, who died in 2019 at age ninety-two as the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history, told Newsweek in 2014, “Almost every military site in this country is seriously contaminated.”

Contamination from these bases, which are scattered throughout the American landscape, ranges from radioactive waste found in McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, California, to PFAS found at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, to PCBs, chemical warfare agents, and radioactive waste found at the former army installation of Fort McClellan near Anniston, Alabama.

Clearly, more help is needed for anyone who has lived and served on these bases as well.

Here’s what the PACT Act aims to do:

• Expand and extend eligibility for VA health care for Veterans with toxic exposures and Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras

• Add more than 20 new presumptive conditions for burn pits and other toxic exposures

• Add more presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation

• Require VA to provide a toxic exposure screening to every Veteran enrolled in VA health care

• Improve research, staff education, and treatment related to toxic exposures

If you’re a Veteran or survivor, you can file claims now to apply for PACT Act-related benefits.

One community that I’ve come to know well is those who lived and worked at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, considered by scientists and federal investigators to be the worst and largest water contamination our country has ever seen.

If you or a loved one lived or worked at Marine Base Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between 1953 and 1987 and are impacted with illnesses, you may be eligible to file a claim under the new law. Call (888) 822-3635 or visit www.camplejeunelegal.com

Now that this new law is on the books, we all need to hold the VA responsible for implementing the legislation. It’s important now more than ever that the VA creates a clear communicate plan so that veterans can understand the benefits they may qualify for and to set expectations. 

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Let us know your thoughts and concerns about the new PACT act in the comments below!