President Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that his administration has approved more than 1 million claims from veterans injured by toxic exposure while on the job, a move made possible by new legislation he supported. officials said.
The President announced the Comprehensive Toxic Act Commitment Act (PACT Act) in summer 2022 with the goal of expediting benefits to veterans who were suffering from a variety of illnesses that were not eligible for treatment by the department. signed. of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said, “For too long, the president has been fighting for the care of far too many veterans who have become ill after serving and fighting for our country.'' I think I believed that I had to do it,” he said. Monday. He said Biden called on the Veterans Administration to “act quickly to do better and do better.”
Biden is scheduled to visit the Merrimack YMCA in New Hampshire on Tuesday to attend an event announcing the milestone.
Officials told reporters Monday that more than 888,000 veterans and their families have lost about $5.7 billion in health care benefits approved under the law since its passage. He said he was receiving medical benefits.
This includes veterans with cancer, allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, high blood pressure, sinusitis, and other illnesses related to the respiratory system. The law is intended to provide assistance to veterans who have been exposed to toxins, often spewed from open fields near where soldiers lived and worked.
The issue is personal to Biden, who has long suspected that his son Beau developed a brain tumor caused by exposure to burns while serving in Iraq in the Delaware National Guard. I've been guessing. Before signing the bill, Biden outlined the lingering effects of the exposure.
“Toxic smoke thick with poison spread into the air and entered the lungs of our troops,” the president said at the time. “When they returned home, many of the fittest and best warriors we sent to war were not the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer. My son Beau was one of them.”
The president's re-election campaign, which seeks a second term in the White House this year, is particularly keen to highlight his success in gaining bipartisan support. The burn pit bill passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming votes, including opposition from just 11 Republican senators.
The announcement is a positive sign for the department, which has long been criticized by veterans and their advocates for failing to provide benefits in a timely manner and has until recently been plagued by changes at the top.
Eric Shinseki resigned as deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2014 amid a scandal involving delays in treatment at the agency's hospitals, which resulted in veterans dying while waiting to be seen. Officials said Monday that wait times for veterans are decreasing even as hospitals are treating more patients, in part due to the effects of the PACT law.
President Donald J. Trump fired David J. Shulkin, the first Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in 2018. The agency's inspector general criticized Shulkin's work-related overseas travel.