On Friday, President Biden will visit a Delaware National Guard base named for his late son in an effort to encourage veterans to take advantage of new healthcare options made possible by legislation he signed in August. At noon, he will hold a town hall with veterans and military survivors.
The statute, known as the PACT Act, enables veterans to be evaluated for toxic exposure. Agent Orange, which was used for deforestation during the Vietnam War, and burn pits, where waste was incinerated on military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan, are examples of such substances.
The administration has hosted numerous events across the nation to raise awareness of the new benefits. According to the White House, more than 730 thousand veterans have already been screened.
The president’s oldest son, Beau Biden, served as a major in the Delaware National Guard. In 2015, he passed away from brain cancer, and the president has speculated that exposure to burn pits on his Iraqi camp may have been the cause.
While the president is not confident burn pits caused his son’s brain cancer, he committed in his 2022 State of the Union address to “find out everything we can” and help veterans with service-related diseases.
Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (PACT Act) was passed by Congress following years of veteran campaigning. Before the law, the government refused almost three-quarters of disability claims involving exposure to burn pits.
In addition to screenings, the statute instructs the Department of Veterans Affairs to assume that certain respiratory diseases and malignancies are associated with burn pits. This permits veterans to qualify for disability payments without having to demonstrate direct cause.
In January, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin processing all PACT-related benefit claims. The VA has already begun reviewing claims from terminally ill veterans and has stated that it will expedite the processing of claims filed by veterans with cancer in order to speed their access to care and benefits.
As a result of the law’s expansion of eligibility to an estimated 3.5 million additional veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has employed more than 2,000 people to administer benefits and plans to hire more in the coming months.
“As more veterans and survivors petition for their PACT Act benefits, we anticipate a short-term increase in inventory and backlog,” Joshua Jacobs, a top VA official, told members of Congress this month during testimony on Capitol Hill.
In May 2015, Beau Biden passed away as a result of his disease. Sunday is also the 50th anniversary of the deaths of the president’s first wife, Neilia, and their young daughter, Naomi, who perished in a 1972 car accident.
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