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The Senate overwhelmingly gave final approval Tuesday to legislation designed to help veterans battling illnesses they believe are linked to toxic exposure, particularly those who served in the Iraq wars and Afghanistan.
In a roll call of 86 to 11, the vote served as a political capitulation for Senate Republicans, a week after they blocked consideration of popular legislation apparently out of political excitement because Democrats announced a cross-party deal on a massive unrelated domestic policy bill that could be considered later this week.
Republicans tried for several days to claim that last Wednesday’s blockage of the Pact Act had to do with a technical argument over how much of the federal budget would fund $280 billion in new appropriations for veterans’ health programs.
But 25 Republicans who had recently supported the same bill changed their votes last Wednesday, less than an hour after Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) announce their agreement. on the ambitious non-Compact Act legislation.
Republicans absorbed a series of political blows, led by comedian Jon Stewart and several prominent veterans groups, that, by lunchtime Tuesday, left many ready to settle the matter and vote to send the legislation quickly to the President Biden’s desk.
“It killed the daylights out of them,” Schumer said Wednesday in a celebratory visit to a couple of dozen veterans who have staged a vigil on the North Lawn of the Capitol since last week’s failed vote.
Democratic leaders allowed Stewart and dozens of veterans, their families and other supporters into the chamber’s public gallery for the final round of votes, something that has happened less than a handful of times since the onset of the global pandemic in March 2020 caused officials not to do so. allow the general public to enter the House and Senate chambers.
In the end, 37 Republicans joined 49 Democratic caucus members to vote in favor of the legislation, which requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to presume that certain illnesses came from exposure to hazardous waste incineration, primarily focused on on the subject of the burns of the last wars. in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This would remove the burden of proof from wounded veterans.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) missed the vote due to recent hip replacement surgery.
In the final moments of the debate, activists became emotional. Stewart, who took up the cause after a similar effort helping lead first responders suffering lingering effects from the 9/11 site, put her head in her right hand and began to cry as she began the call The crowd lit up with brief cheers as the gavel fell, and officials quickly admonished for breaking the decorum that requires silence.
When asked to explain the GOP reversal, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not offer a broad explanation and acknowledged that the legislation would pass with broad support.
“These things happen all the time with the legislative process,” McConnell told reporters at his weekly news conference, conceding defeat. “I think in the end the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the end result.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, credited veterans groups and Stewart with taking what was once a relatively obscure health issue and turning it into a national cause .
“He was the one who really made it, the one who elevated it,” Tester said as he joined Schumer in the impromptu celebration outside the Capitol.
Biden also brought the issue to the fore in his March State of the Union address, followed by a trip to a Texas community next week to drive home its importance.
“We’re following the science in every case, but we’re also not going to force veterans to suffer in limbo for decades,” Biden said during a March visit to Texas.
In his remarks, the president noted that his son Beau served in and around Baghdad as general counsel for the Delaware Army National Guard, at bases where waste was burned in mid-air free
The state’s attorney general, Beau Biden, died in 2015 of brain cancer, though no diagnosis ever linked the cancer to his service in Iraq or other overseas postings.
“While we will never be able to fully repay the enormous debt we owe to those who have worn the uniform, today the United States Congress took important steps to fulfill this sacred obligation,” the president said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “Congress has scored a decisive, bipartisan victory for America’s veterans.”
In a show of his own devotion to the cause, the president had planned to surprise veterans vigil outside the Capitol over the weekend with a pizza delivery, but he tested positive for a rebound coronavirus case and resumed quarantine.
Instead, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough arrived with the pizza.
Experts are often unsure of a direct link between specific cancers or diseases and the burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the military often burned large amounts of waste, including plastics, batteries or vehicle parts, which released plumes of dangerous chemicals into the air.
Veterans must then prove that there is a direct connection between their cancer and the chemicals from the burn, a threshold that can sometimes be difficult to meet, especially if the condition doesn’t develop until years after a deployment Studies have shown that Veterans Affairs rejects the vast majority of claims.
“You can talk to any of these people and they’d say we’d rather not be here,” Tester said.
Schumer took a similar approach, happy that the legislation finally passed.
“All’s well that ends well.”