政治家和家庭成员呼吁国会采取更多措施来帮助那些受到潜在致命疾病影响的士兵由有毒的烧伤坑引起。
参议院退伍军人事务委员会周二举行听证会，退伍军人事务部长丹尼斯·麦克多诺作证，讨论《尊重我们的契约法案》，该法案将扩大退伍军人的健康福利，改善对老年人的护理烧伤引起的疾病和接触有毒物质。
焚烧坑是专门用于焚烧废物的露天狭长地带。它们通常用于伊拉克和阿富汗的美国基地，处理医疗废物、人类排泄物、橡胶、塑料和其他散发有毒烟雾的物质。这些物品将被集中在一个特定的焚烧坑中，用柴油或喷气燃料点燃。
《契约法》将扩大推定与一个人的任期有关的条件清单。目前，符合条件的退伍军人因这种情况获得残疾金，但要获得与非推定条件相关的福利，他们必须证明自己的疾病与他们的军事职责直接相关。
该法案于3月初在众议院获得通过，34名共和党人和所有民主党人一起投票赞成，但尚未由参议院投票表决。
据麦克多诺说，退伍军人事务部已经在运行一个试点项目，为创造新的假定条件建立协议。该试点计划于4月结束，使用“所有可用的科学”和数据来确定新的指导方针。
他在听证会上说，“在完成这项工作后，我预计会在今年春天完成，我们会把整件事提交给你看，你可以看到我们提出的建议，以及外部对我们建议的审查结果。”。“在我看来，我们新的假定过程的底线是，我们必须把退伍军人放在过程的中心，我们必须增加可供我们做出我们需要做出的决定的科学来源。”
佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯。，很快反驳了这种方法是否真的以退伍军人为中心的过程，指出虽然更广泛的覆盖面可能更昂贵，但它至少将资源分配给了实际利益。
“我希望我们都能同意，如果我们在退伍军人医疗保健上花1美元，那就花在医疗保健上，而不是一个官僚机构来决定老兵实际上是否受到辐射，”他说。
与此同时，参议员杰里·摩兰。，表达担忧该法案的批评者对此表示赞同，包括其他几位共和党国会议员，说:“[契约法案]还包括一些条款，这些条款可能会使退伍军人管理局超出其运营能力，实际上无法保证退伍军人能够获得承诺的福利。”
麦克多诺承认这些问题，并表示该部最近聘请了1，742名新的索赔裁定人，以帮助改善目前积压的240，000份索赔。他说，如果《契约法》获得通过，将需要雇用更多的审判员和工作人员来帮助确保其承诺。
夏威夷州民主党参议员Mazie Hirono后来认识到这一需要，并表示国会有责任为退伍军人事务部提供实施该法案的资源，因为退伍军人目前不仅在经济上，而且在后勤上付出了代价。
“我认为，我们要求退伍军人证明服役关系的最困难的一个方面是，他们承担举证责任，谁承担举证责任，谁的负担就非常重，”Hirono说。
参议院委员会估计，多达350万在9月11日之后服役的退伍军人可能经历了辐射，许多人可能患有尚未诊断的疾病。
在该委员会举行听证会之前，纽约州民主党参议员查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)、纽约州民主党参议员柯尔斯顿·吉利布兰德(Kirsten Gillibrand)和加利福尼亚州民主党众议员劳尔·鲁伊斯(Raul Ruiz)周二在国会大厦外举行了一场新闻发布会，讨论通过《契约法》的紧迫性。一些老兵、倡导者和死于有毒物质相关疾病的士兵家属也加入了他们的行列。喜剧演员乔恩·斯图尔特也参加了集会，他长期以来一直主张增加对那些因烧烫伤而患病的人的资助。
舒默将《契约法》的重要性描述为在结束和愈合过程中不可协商的一步。
他说:“我们拒绝正视那些战争的最大代价之一，那就是为我们战斗和牺牲的退伍军人的医疗保健需求。”。“一旦他们回来，我们的工作就是确保照顾好他们。”
吉利布兰德在911幸存者、第一反应者和目击者的背景下，特别谈到了暴露和疾病之间的联系。
“我们知道这些燃烧坑释放了什么毒素。吉利布兰德说:“我们知道，闷烧的毒素是由喷气燃料、塑料、人类排泄物、医疗废物、建筑材料、衣服、任何类型的物品、电脑、电子产品引起的，可以燃烧。”。“这些东西和911事件中被烧毁的东西是一样的，所以这就是为什么我们知道释放的毒素会导致这些癌症。这就是为什么有一个假设，如果你服过役，你生病了，你就有保险。这是我们的承诺。”
Evelyn Hockstein/路透社
退伍军人权益倡导者乔恩·斯图尔特在新闻发布会上谈到通过《退伍军人法》的必要性...
丹妮尔·罗宾逊的丈夫希斯曾在伊拉克服役，于2020年因一种罕见的肺癌去世，她谈到了她的巨大损失，并描述了在临终关怀医院的最后时刻陪伴在他身边。
“我需要你们所有的参议员理解躺在你垂死的丈夫身下的地板上7个小时，帮助他死去是什么感觉，”罗宾逊说。
虽然对许多人来说已经太晚了，但罗宾逊呼吁参议员以帮助目前正在与疾病斗争的退伍军人以及未来可能被诊断出疾病的人的名义通过契约法案。
她说:“如果你通过了《尊重我们的契约法》，你将帮助这么多处于同样情况的退伍军人，他们现在正在接受临终关怀，那些可能不得不来的人，以及那些有希望照顾那些患有可以治愈的癌症的人。”
Democrats, families push Senate to approve legislation to help soldiers sickened by burn pits
Politicians and family members are calling on Congress to step up and do more to help soldiers who were affected by potentially deadly diseasescaused by toxic burn pits.
The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing Tuesday with Secretary for Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough testifying to discuss the Honoring our PACT Act, a bill that would expand veteran health benefits and improve care forillnesses brought on by burn pitsand toxic exposure.
Burn pits are any open-air swaths of land dedicated to incinerating waste. They were commonly used on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of items like medical waste, human waste, rubber, plastics and other materials that emit toxic fumes. Such items would be centralized in a given burn pit and lit ablaze with diesel or jet fuel.
The PACT Act would broaden the list of the conditions presumed to be related to one's tenure of service. At present, eligible veterans receive disability payments for such conditions, but qualifying for benefits related to non-presumed conditions mandates they prove their illness is directly linked to their military duties.
The bill was passed by the House in early March, with 34 Republicans joining every Democrat in voting for it, but has yet to be voted on by the Senate.
Veterans Affairs has already been running a pilot program to establish protocol for creating new presumptive conditions, according to McDonough. The pilot, which is slated to end in April, uses "all available science" and claims data to determine new guidelines.
"Upon completion of that, which I anticipate is yet this spring, we'll submit the whole thing for you to see, and you can see both what we've proposed and what the outside review of what we've proposed finds," he said at the hearing. "The bottom line, in my view, about our new presumptive process is that we have to put the veteran at the center of the process, and we have to increase the sources of science available for us to make the decisions that we need to make."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., quickly pushed back on whether this approach really centered the process around veterans, noting that while broader coverage can be more expensive, it at least allocates resources toward actual benefits.
"I would hope that we can all agree that if we're spending $1 on VA health care, spend that on health care, not a bureaucracy to determine whether or not the veteran in fact, was exposed or not," he stated.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., aired concernsechoed by critics of the bill, including several other Republican Congress members, saying, "[The PACT Act] also includes provisions that perhaps will stretch the VA beyond its operational capacity, effectively providing no guarantee that veterans will be able to access the benefits promised."
McDonough acknowledged these concerns and stated the department has recently hired 1,742 new claim adjudicators to help ameliorate the current backlog of 240,000 claims. More adjudicators and staff would need to be hired to help ensure the promises of the PACT Act if passed, he said.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, later recognized this need and stated it was Congress' duty to give Veterans Affairs the resources to implement the act, as veterans currently pay the price not only financially but also logistically.
"I think one of the most difficult aspects of what we require of veterans to make the service connection evident is that they bear the burden of proof, and whoever has the burden of proof has a really high burden," Hirono said.
The Senate committee estimated that up to 3.5 million veterans who served after Sept. 11 could have experienced exposure, and many may be suffering from illnesses that have yet to be diagnosed.
Prior to the committee's hearing, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., held a press conference Tuesday outside the Capitol to address the urgency of passing the PACT Act. They were joined by several veterans, advocates and families of soldiers who died due to toxic exposure-related illnesses. Comedian Jon Stewart, who has long advocated for increased funding for those suffering from diseases brought on by burn pits, also attended the rally.
Schumer described the importance of the PACT Act as a nonnegotiable step in bringing closure and healing.
"We refused to face up to one of the biggest costs of those wars, and that is the health care needs of veterans who fought and sacrificed on our behalf," he said. "It's our job to make sure we take care of them once they come back."
Gillibrand specifically talked about the link between exposure and disease, in the context of Sept. 11 survivors, first responders and witnesses.
"We know what toxins were released at these burn pits. We know that the smoldering toxins set fire by jet fuel, of plastics, of human waste, of medical waste, of building materials, of clothing, of any type of item, computers, electronics that could be burned," Gillibrand said. "Those are the same things that were burned on 9/11, so that's why we know the toxins that were released cause these cancers. And that's why having a presumption that if you served and you're sick, you are covered. That is our promise."
Danielle Robinson, whose husband Heath served in Iraq and died from a rare kind of lung cancer in 2020, spoke about her devastating loss and described staying by his side during his last moments in hospice.
"I need all of you senators to understand what it is like to lay on the floor underneath your dying husband for seven hours, helping him die," Robinson said.
While for many it is too late, Robinson called on senators to pass the PACT Act in the name of helping veterans currently battling illness, as well as those who may be diagnosed in the future.
"If you pass this Honoring Our PACT Act, you're going to help so many veterans who are in the same situation, on hospice right now, for those that may have to come and hopefully to take care of those that have cancers that can be curable," she said.
