Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said Congress should support veterans harmed by poison exposure, but the scope and cost of the bill were “astronomical and unwarranted.”
(Simon Klingert | AP) An Afghan National Army pick-up truck passes parked US military armored vehicles as smoke billows from a fire at an incinerator pit at Forward Operating Base Caferetta Nawzad, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, April 28, 2011 .
By Kevin Freking | The Associated Press
| June 17, 2022 at 7:35 p.m
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday approved a wide-ranging expansion of health care and disability benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in response to concerns about their exposure to toxic burn pits.
Passing the bill by a vote of 84 to 14 sets a course that could benefit millions who served after 9/11 and caps years of lobbying by veterans’ groups and others to ignite pits containing the herbicide Agent Orange in the Vietnam Compare era veterans in Southeast Asia were exposed.
The law is expected to increase federal spending by about $283 billion over 10 years and does not include offsetting spending cuts or tax increases to fund it. The House of Representatives approved similar legislation in March that would have cost more than $320 billion over 10 years.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after the Senate passage that the House of Representatives would “act quickly” to include the bill and send it to President Joe Biden for signature. Biden has encouraged the effort. In a statement after the vote, Biden said the bill “fulfills our sacred obligation to care for veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.” He urged the House to act quickly “so I can sign it right away.”
Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney were two of 14 Senate Republicans who voted against the bill. Romney said Congress should support veterans harmed by toxic exposure, but the scope and price tag of the bill, which would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, was “astronomical and unwarranted.”
The military routinely used open cremation pits lit with jet fuel to dispose of tires, batteries, medical waste and other materials during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would expand military veterans’ eligibility for medical coverage through the Department of Veterans Affairs by extending coverage to 10 years after discharge instead of the current five years.
The legislation would also assume that certain respiratory illnesses and cancers are linked to exposure to charcoal pits, allowing veterans to receive disability payments to compensate for their injury without having to prove the illness resulted from their service. Currently, more than 70% of disability requests related to exposure to burn pits are denied by the VA due to a lack of evidence, scientific data and Department of Defense information.
The legislation would also benefit many Vietnam War-era veterans by adding high blood pressure to the list of conditions believed to have been caused by exposure to Agent Orange. And it would extend Agent Orange’s suspicions to veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam and American Samoa.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., described the bill as “the biggest advance in veteran health care in decades.” He said dozens of America’s veterans served their country in perfect health, only to come back and get sick from the poison exposure, and when they applied for disability benefits, they often found they didn’t qualify.
“It’s a bewildering outrage for our nation’s heroes to sacrifice everything for our country, only to come home, get sick, and find the VA isn’t there for them,” Schumer said.
A 2020 study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that health studies provided insufficient evidence to determine whether exposure to emissions from burn pits is linked to 27 adverse respiratory diseases, including asthma, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. The study’s authors said the uncertainty doesn’t mean there isn’t a link — just that there isn’t enough data to draw firm conclusions.
But lawmakers said stories from voters tell a different and more definitive story, and they’re reluctant to wait for an irrefutable link between veterans’ illnesses and their exposure to toxic burn pits.
“Anytime you need to make that connection airtight, it’s difficult with a lot of things,” said Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. “In this case, I think the evidence is such that there is a causal relationship. I’m hearing from so many who were over there and got pretty close to symptoms after their service ended. It’s not every now and then. You hear it quite often.”
Most Republicans voted in favor of the law, but some voted against it on tax grounds. All 14 no votes came from Republicans.
“We really need to help veterans who have contracted illnesses as a direct result of on-duty poison exposure,” Romney told The Salt Lake Tribune. “However, the scope and cost of this bill is astronomical and unjustified. At a total cost of $667 billion, this would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt and dramatically expand eligibility requirements that are not necessarily service-related disabilities.”
“We have a collective responsibility to the veterans who have served our country, and I would support legislation that better addresses disability eligibility requirements based on scientific evidence and research,” the Utah native added.
A spokesman for Lee did not respond to a request for comment from The Tribune.
“That’s way too much money,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said of the $283 billion projected price.
An expansion in health care and disability benefits could also strain an already stressed VA system, which lawmakers have sought to counter by approving 31 new medical clinics in 19 states and encouraging investment in computer systems for processing disability claims.
The Senate version reduced some of the costs early on by gradually rolling out certain performance improvements. Senator Jon Tester, the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the bill was “about righting a wrong that has been ignored for too damn long.”
“A war always costs,” Tester said, “and those costs are never fully paid when the war ends.”