Lawmakers Reach Bipartisan Agreement on Historic Toxic Exposure Legislation
June 06, 2022
On May 18, 2022, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and ranking member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) announced a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive legislation affecting all generations of toxic-exposed veterans.
The bill is known as the SFC. Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, would afford these veterans their earned health care and benefits under the Department of Veterans Affairs.
PACT Act of 2022
The PACT Act was named in honor of SFC. Heath Robinson of the Ohio National Guard, who was deployed to Kosovo and Iraq. Sadly, Robinson died in 2020 from Lung Cancer, which he believed was due to burn pit exposure.
If passed into law, the PACT Act would:
- Expand VA Health Care eligibility to Post-9/11 combat veterans, which includes more than 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans;
- Create a framework for the establishment of future presumptions of service connection related to toxic exposure;
- Add 23 burn pit and toxic exposure-related conditions to VA’s list of service presumptions, including Hypertension;
- Expand presumptions related to Agent Orange exposure; including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa, and Johnston Atoll as locations for presumed Agent Orange exposure;
- Strengthen Federal research on toxic exposure;
- Improve VA’s resources and training for toxic-exposed veterans; and
- Invest in:
- VA Claims Processing;
- VA’s Workforce; and
- VA Health Care Facilities.
PACT Act Next Steps
After the Senate passage, the PACT Act of 2022 must be passed by the House before being signed into law by the President.
If the bill becomes law, the conditions included will be presumed to have been caused by toxic exposure. In other words, the veteran no longer has to prove that their disability was caused by toxic exposures in service.
However, in the meantime, a veteran can still be granted benefits for their disabilities on a direct basis. This means that medical evidence establishes a veteran’s disability was as likely as not caused by an in-service toxic exposure.
If you are a veteran or surviving family member of a veteran who has developed disabilities related to Agent Orange or burn pit exposure, please call Legal Help For Veterans, PLLC for assistance at (800) 693-4800.