A bill to cover millions of veterans’ care for cancer and lung problems linked to burn pits is heading to President Joe Biden’s desk after a final vote in the House next week, where it is expected to pass.

The Senate voted 84-14 Thursday to pass the Honoring Our PACT Act, H.R. 3967 (117), requiring broadened Department of Veterans Affairs coverage for toxic exposure related to burn pits. The vote brings the bill one step closer to law after years of advocacy from veterans support groups and health care organizations that have argued a range of health conditions from emphysema to glioblastoma, the cancer that killed Biden’s son, retired Major Gen. Beau Biden, can be linked to burn pits used to incinerate toxic waste for years at overseas military locations.

“This is the greatest advance in veterans’ health care in decades,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said in statement that the House will vote again on the measure, which it passed in March, next week. Biden, who has pushed for recognition of burn pit health risks since the campaign trail, is expected to swiftly sign the bill into law.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected the legislation would increase federal spending by more than $300 billion over 10 years. That has drawn opposition from groups such as the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which has said it supports broader coverage but that it needs to be offset by other spending cuts.

The U.S. military stopped using burn pits at bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere nearly a decade ago, but it estimates that at least 3.5 million veterans were exposed to enough toxic fumes to cause respiratory problems and some cancers. But even with that recognition, the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to deny a majority of disability claims linked to burn pit exposure.

Between 2007 and 2020, 12,582 veterans claimed conditions related to burn pit exposure, VA Deputy Executive Director of policy and procedures Laurine Carson told House lawmakers in September 2020. The agency approved 2,828, or roughly 20 percent of those claims.

A VA spokesperson pointed POLITICO to VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s statement last month, where he compared the legislation’s impact to the Agent Orange Act of 1991 that expanded coverage for more than 2 million Vietnam War veterans exposed to the dangerous toxin.

“We support the expansion of access to VA health care in the PACT Act and will work to ensure that the expansion of eligibility for health care does not result in the delay or disruption of care for those Veterans already receiving health care from VA,” McDonough said.

The number of claims is expected to swell in the wake of the new legislation, which orders the VA to recognize that a dozen types of cancers, chronic …read more

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/senate-burn-pit-bill-biden-00040195