Chairman Jon Tester of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee recently unveiled legislation that would provide generations of veterans suffering from toxic exposure the benefits and care they need and are entitled to receive as a matter of principal.
“Providing health care and benefits to veterans suffering from the effects of toxic exposure is a cost of war that must be paid,” said Tester. “It’s clear that we need to establish a process that is veteran-focused, consistent, and science-based. In one of the largest expansions of VA health care ever seen, my COST of War Act includes bipartisan ideas from veterans and advocates to provide all generations of toxic exposure veterans-no matter their age or which war they served in-their earned benefits and care. The bottom line is that it’s time for Congress to settle its debts for the men and women who stood in harm’s way to serve this country.”
Among its many provisions, the COST of War Act of 2021 will:
- Ensure that toxic exposure veterans get immediate and lifelong access to VA health care, including up to 3.5 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans;
- Establish a consistent, transparent framework based on medical and scientific evidence to drive the establishment of new presumptions of service connection between a condition and a toxic exposure;
- Reduce the burden on toxic exposure veterans claiming a direct service connection without a presumption, by requiring VA to examine a veteran’s military records for proof of toxic exposure and to consider whether other evidence shows such records are wrong or incomplete.
- Acknowledge that for certain toxic exposure veterans the science supports the creation of new presumptions of service connection, including Agent Orange veterans suffering from hypertension or Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) and Burn Pit veterans suffering from various lung-related conditions or glioblastoma;
- Focus federal research to support toxic exposure veterans and ensure that the toxic exposure framework is based on sound science;
- Strengthen VA’s toxic exposure processes from health care to disability benefits, by requiring specialized toxic exposure training for VA health care and disability claims processing personnel; and
- Guarantee toxic exposures are accurately recorded before veterans seek VA health care and benefits, by requiring an independent study on the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record.
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano also hosted a press conference to announce the unveiling of his complimentary measure to the Senate’s COST of War Act, the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021, or the Honoring our PACT Act.
“Every day more and more veterans speak out about exposure to environmental hazards and other toxic substances during their military service. It’s led over 240,000 veterans to sign up for VA’s burn pit registry. However, with 70 percent of burn pit claims denied, it’s clear that VA’s process hasn’t been working. No veteran should be forced to prove that their government exposed them to toxic substances. Our bill fixes that,” said Chairman Takano. “This has been a long time coming. Last Congress, we took major strides and finally passed the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act– but it took 40 years… But we cannot continue to tackle this topic one disability or exposure group at a time — we need to reform and overhaul the process within VA so that the agency can provide support to veterans without the need for continued congressional intervention.”
The Honoring our PACT Act intends to:
- Provide healthcare for potentially as many as 3.5 million veterans exposed to airborne hazards and burn pits
- Streamline VA’s review process
- Concede exposure to airborne hazards and burn pits
- Require medical exams and opinions
- Establish a presumption of service connection for 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers related to burn pits and airborne hazards exposure
- Create a presumption of exposure to radiation
- Expand Agent Orange exposure & add hypertension and MGUS to the list of presumptions
- Require VA provide standardized training & conduct outreach
- And improve data collection between VA & DOD and commission studies
