Did the Veterans Health Care Bill Get Blocked Again
In this April 28, 2011, photograph, an Afghan National Ground forces pickup truck passes parked U.Due south. armored military vehicles, every bit fume rises from a burn down in a trash burn pit at Forward Operating Base Caferetta Nawzad, Helmand province s of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Firm is poised to pass legislation that would dramatically boost health intendance services and inability benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits in Republic of iraq and Afghanistan.
The House on Thursday passed legislation that would expand access to health care for veterans exposed to toxins, such as chemicals emanating from burn down pits, during their armed forces service.
Lawmakers passed the bill largely along political party lines, 256-174. 30-four Republicans joined Democrats in support.
Passage of the beak came two days after President Biden announced during his State of the Union address that the Department of Veterans Affairs volition add nine respiratory cancers to its list of service-connected disabilities to expand benefits eligibility for afflicted veterans.
The bill passed in the House would expand VA health intendance eligibility for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits by establishing a presumption of service connexion for near 2 dozen types of respiratory illnesses — like chronic bronchitis and asthma — and cancers.
It's estimated that most three.5 million U.S. service members have been exposed to burn pits, according to the Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit veterans organization. A survey from the nonprofit constitute that 86 percent of its members reported exposure to burn pits or other toxics, with 89 per centum reporting symptoms that might have been caused past that exposure.
"When we sent our service members into impairment'south way, nosotros made a pact to treat them when they came home. But for too long, Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs take been slow to have responsibility and cost of that intendance, citing high costs or lack of absolute, scientific proof of affliction connections to service," said Firm Veterans' Affairs Commission Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.). "The event is a disability claims process that is cumbersome and one that places the burden of proof for toxic exposure on veterans themselves."
"When our country goes to war, we don't nickel and dime the Department of Defense. And we shouldn't endeavour to compression pennies when it comes to covering the care for toxic-exposed veterans," Takano said.
Biden said during his Country of the Union accost that his tardily son, Swain Biden, may have adult his brain cancer from exposure to a burn pit while serving in Iraq.
Such burn pits were frequently used at armed services sites in Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan to incinerate garbage like homo waste, munitions, plastics, jet fuel and pigment.
"They came habitation, many of the globe'southward fittest and all-time trained warriors in the world, never the same," Biden said. "Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin."
That was the function of his accost interrupted by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who in a breach of decorum yelled out that Biden put service members in coffins, referencing the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Transitional islamic state of afghanistan last summer.
Republicans argued the legislation could exacerbate VA backlogs and would add as well much to the deficit, given its nearly $300 billion price tag over a decade.
"We are non doing correct by our veterans by beingness fiscally irresponsible in their proper name. And I say that equally a veteran myself," said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), a fellow member of the Firm Veterans' Affairs Committee who previously served in the Army.
Republicans further pointed to the Senate passage of a like only narrower beak last month to aggrandize post-9/11 combat veterans' window of eligibility for health benefits from five to x years after discharge from military service, arguing that the House should only articulate that measure and transport it to Biden's desk.
"Every 24-hour interval that the Business firm fails to send it to the president is another day that a ill veteran doesn't get the care they need," said Rep. Mike Bost (Ill.), the top Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Senate Veterans' Diplomacy Commission Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced more comprehensive legislation similar to what passed in the House on Thursday that would create new presumptions of service connexion for veterans exposed to toxins and boost federal enquiry into toxic exposures.
It's expected that the Firm and Senate will ultimately reconcile those measures and send a combined package for Biden'southward signature.
Rachel Frazin contributed.
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Source: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/596710-house-passes-bill-to-expand-health-benefits-for-veterans-exposed-to-toxic
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