WASHINGTON — One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year since the law took effect.
There is no overall deadline to submit PACT Act-related claims, but the deadline to qualify for retroactive benefits dating back to the law’s enactment, which earlier had been set for Aug. 9, has been extended until Aug. 14.
Biden signed the Sgt 1st Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or the PACT Act, last August, expanding health care eligibility for up to 3.5 million post-9/11 veterans, and for those who served during the Vietnam and Cold War eras.
So far, $1.85 billion for PACT Act-related claims has been distributed to veterans and families, according to the administration.
The law also opened eligibility for Gulf War era, Vietnam era and veterans of earlier wars and military projects who were potentially exposed to a host of toxic substances, including tactical herbicides like Agent Orange, radiation from nuclear device testing or cleanup and contaminated drinking water.
“We’re determined to address this problem, come hell or high water, and compensate these veterans and their families who have suffered the consequences of this tragedy,” Biden said during remarks at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City.
The stop was the last of a multi-day Biden trip to Western states, including both official events and fundraisers, to tout the administration’s accomplishments ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
‘It’s personal for my family’
During his remarks, Biden described burn pits the size of football fields, 8-to-10-feet deep, where “everything you can imagine is thrown,” including tires, chemicals, and jet fuel, he said.
Biden’s son Beau Biden, a veteran, suffered from a rare form of brain cancer and died in May 2015, years after being deployed to Iraq.
He spent a portion of his deployment in living quarters about 400 yards from a burn pit, Biden said.
“(Troops) breathe that toxic material for months at a time, in the case of my son and his buddies for an entire year, causing headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer,” Biden said.
“This is not about my son, but it’s an example of how close it was … It’s personal for my family, but it’s also personal for so many of you,” he said.
The bill’s namesake, Sgt. Robinson, died of lung cancer in 2020. He served with the Ohio National Guard in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, and later attributed his cancer to breathing in emissions from burn pits where he was stationed.
Robinson was among many veterans denied VA coverage for their illnesses because they couldn’t definitively prove the health issues were service related.
