President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to set aside differences and pass sweeping legislation that would provide health care and benefits to veterans sickened by environmental exposures.
But he stopped short of endorsing either of the two pieces of legislation currently approved in the House and Senate, saying he'd like to see "both bills on my desk so I can sign."
Biden traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to tour a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic and speak with veterans, current service members and federal workers about the "unity agenda" he presented in his State of the Union address March 1, a portion of which included veterans' issues.
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In the address, Biden pledged to improve health care and services for post-9/11 veterans sickened as a result of deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
On Tuesday, he reaffirmed that commitment, calling it a "sacred obligation."
"No other generation has been deployed, redeployed, redeployed and redeployed. This takes nothing away from the World War I, World War II and Vietnam generations, but it's one thing to serve, come home and then go back and go back," Biden said. "We owe you. We owe you all."
Last week, the House voted 256-174 in favor of the Honoring Our PACT Act, a sweeping $208 billion measure that would give veterans who have or develop nearly two dozen illnesses easier access to VA health care and benefits.
Thirty-four Republicans joined House Democrats in approving the bill.
The Senate unanimously approved a much smaller package that, unlike the PACT Act, would extend VA health care to all veterans who deployed to military operations overseas since Sept. 11, 2001, and extend health coverage to roughly 1 million veterans exposed to burn pits and other battlefield pollutants.
The $1 billion measure would create a one-year enrollment period for VA medical care for post-9/11 combat veterans who served after 1998 but never enrolled and would extend the enrollment period for all formerly deployed post-9/11 combat vets from five years to 10.
Sponsors of the Senate bill, Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., and committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kan., described it as the first step in a three-part plan to determine presumptive conditions and provide disability benefits to affected veterans.
Tester and Moran, who negotiated the bill, noted its appeal to Republicans who have balked at the cost of more comprehensive measures, saying the stepped approach is the "best way to get this through" and adding that the VA has the authority to designate presumptive conditions without congressional input.
"The goal here is to get this done by the end of this Congress," Tester said during a press conference in February.
Biden said both pieces of legislation are bipartisan measures that "unite the American people," adding that they will deliver needed care to veterans and families.
Citing the extended time it took for many veterans to access benefits for illnesses related to Agent Orange, Biden said it took "far too long to reach" decisions on presumptive conditions.
"I refuse to repeat the mistake when it comes to the veterans of our Iraq and Afghan wars," he said.
The VA announced last year that three new presumptive conditions would be added to the list of exposure-related illnesses: rhinitis, sinusitis and asthma.
On Tuesday, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said 12,500 veterans with those conditions have begun receiving health care and benefits as a result.
The VA announced this month that nine rare respiratory cancers also would be added to the list.
"We'll keep our promise to those vets and get them the benefits and care they've earned," McDonough said.
Biden announced that McDonough is now part of what the president is calling his "Cancer Cabinet," which will guide federal investment in research and health care to improve treatments.
The administration plans to roll out several initiatives this year to address exposure-related illnesses at the VA, to include training staff to consider the impact of environmental exposures on health, improving tracking of veterans' illnesses and educating them on available benefits.
The VA also will bring together physicians who specialize in environmental illnesses to care for diagnosed vets, according to the department.
Advocates say they are excited about the forthcoming changes at the department, but the majority still say the PACT Act would ensure that the federal government will deliver on its promises. More than 40 veterans organizations and advocates support the bill, which they say would guarantee that veterans affected by environmental exposures would get the benefits they need.
"This culture has to change. If we can't bear the consequences of war, maybe we should consider not starting so many," comedian and advocate Jon Stewart said during a press conference in support of the PACT Act last week.
-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Miltiary.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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