A procedural vote that would have opened the way for a vote on legislation to increase benefits for the estimated 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was defeated by the Senate on Wednesday.
Bipartisan backing helped the bill—known as the Honoring Our PACT Act—pass both the House and the Senate in June, but a glitch in the legislation’s phrasing required that it return and be approved by both chambers.
On a procedural vote to advance the bill on Wednesday night, 25 Republican senators changed their stance from June and voted against it.
Veterans have been compelled to justify to the Department of Veterans Affairs that their ailments were caused by exposure to fire pits despite returning home with a variety of conditions, including fatal malignancies.
By assuming that a number of illnesses could be connected to exposure to hazardous vapours from burn pits, the Act would have relieved veterans and their families of the burden of proof.
The bill has the ardent backing of Vice President Joe Biden. He urged Congress to act on burn pits at the State of the Union in March because he thinks they may have contributed to his son Beau’s terminal brain cancer.
Veterans Service Organizations and the bill’s sponsors lamented the sudden about-face of senators who had just last month voted in favour of the legislation at a press conference held in front of the U.S. Capitol in anticipation of the bill’s passage.
At the press conference, Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana said, “I have never seen anything that’s happened like what happened yesterday and what compounds it and makes it that much more difficult.
We in essence yesterday took benefits away from the people who have been impacted by war – that we sent off to war.”
Other speakers at the press conference, such as Jon Stewart, a former host of “The Daily Show,” used foul language to criticise Congress.
“This is embarrassing for the Senate, the nation, the founders, and everything they purport to stand for. America is f***** if this is America first “said Stewart.
Veterans who were exposed to toxic fumes from open-air burn pits—holes in the ground where the military would dump trash and burn it, occasionally using jet fuel as an accelerant—have been urged to have easier access to health care by the speakers at the press conference.
The press conference was intended to be a joyful occasion, but instead, the speakers expressed their shock that the legislation, which appeared to be finalised in June, has not advanced.
Aleks Morosky, a former U.S. Army soldier who works for the Wounded Warrior Project, and representatives from a number of other Veterans Service Organizations were present at the occasion.
According to Morosky, “we guarantee to support people who serve in the military if they get hurt.”
“If the PACT Act had been passed today, that assurance for veterans with toxic wounds would have been fulfilled.
However, that assurance is still being broken.”
Despite agreeing with the legislation’s goal, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey abstained on both the June and the current vote.
Toomey opposes the legislation because it contains provisions that would convert money from discretionary to mandatory spending, freeing up $400 billion in discretionary funds for whatever purpose, including initiatives unrelated to veteran benefits.
Republicans who voted yes in June totaled 25, who joined Toomey in casting a no vote on Wednesday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy was absent as he recovers from hip surgery, and several senators were absent due to COVID, so the Senate fell short of the necessary 60 votes to end the filibuster.
Tester claimed that Toomey’s concerns should be addressed by the Senate Appropriations Committee, but Toomey and other Republican senators obstructed the procedural vote.
On Wednesday, Toomey declared that he and others were ready to pass the bill and resolve the problem by voice vote.
Unless the Republicans are allowed to pass amendments on discretionary vs. mandatory spending, it will be challenging for the Senate to pass the bill and send it to the White House before the August recess.
This is because some senators are isolating themselves after testing positive for COVID.
At a press conference on Thursday, Ohio’s Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown stated that the Senate shouldn’t adjourn until this bill has been passed and is on its way to the White House.
There will be veterans who pass away between now and the time this bill is passed, Tester said on Thursday.
“This delay might not sound like a big thing but number one, we don’t have the bill passed.”