Biden signs medical help for ‘burn pits’ veterans
Legislation expands health care services for those exposed
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, whose elder son Beau died of cancer years after deploying to Iraq, signed legislation Wednesday expanding federal health care services for millions of veterans who served at military bases where toxic smoke billowed from huge “burn pits.”
“We owe you,” Biden said. “You’re the backbone. You’re the steel. You’re the sinew. You’re the very fiber that makes this country what it is.”
The law, which Biden described as long overdue, caps a yearslong battle to ensure treatment for chronic illnesses that veterans have blamed on burn pits, which were used to dispose of chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste on military bases. Estimates of affected troops run to 3.5 million.
“So many of you here today remind us that we have fought for this for so many years,” he said during an emotional White House ceremony that reflected the struggles of military families — and the president’s personal experience.
Biden was introduced by Danielle Robinson, the widow of Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, who died of cancer two years ago. The legislation is named for him.
She described her late husband as “a soldier as strong as an ox” but also “the ultimate cuddler” for his daughter Brielle, who stood at her mother’s side clutching a stuffed figurine wearing military camouflage.
“Ours is just one story,” Danielle Robinson said. “So many military families have had to fight this terrible emotional battle. So many veterans are still battling burn pit illnesses today.”
After the Robinsons took their seats for the president’s remarks, Biden addressed Brielle directly.
“I know you miss your daddy. But he’s with you all the time,” he said. “He’s going to whisper in your ear when you have hard decisions to make.”
Then he pointed out that Brielle was sitting next to his grandson, the son of Beau Biden.
“His daddy lost to the same burn pits,” Biden said. “He knows what you’re going through.”
It was the most direct link the president has publicly drawn between Beau’s fatal brain cancer and burn pits. The president made addressing the problem one of his priorities during his State of the Union address in March.
“I was going to get this done, come hell or high water,” he said Wednesday.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said Biden was a driving force behind the legislation.
“He was continually pushing because whether Beau died of this or not, I think Joe thinks that it had some impact, and so he wanted this fixed,” Tester said.
Burn pits were used in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, 70% of disability claims involving exposure to the pits were denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“For too long, too many veterans who got sick while fighting for our country had to fight for their care here at home,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said at Wednesday’s ceremony.
Elizabeth Beck, a city councilwoman from Fort Worth, Texas, who served in the Army Reserve in Iraq, said “we knew something wasn’t right” during her deployment.
“You saw the burn pits. You smelled the burn pits. You felt the burn pits in your body,” she said Wednesday. When she blew her nose, Beck said, “black material would just stream out.”
However, she was reluctant to seek benefits for years because the process seemed too daunting, especially when others had been unsuccessful. Beck described the legislation as “light at the end of the tunnel.”
The law will direct officials to assume that certain respiratory illnesses and cancers were related to burn pit exposure, helping veterans get disability payments without having to prove the illness was the result of their service.
“Veterans who have been sickened to the point of being unable to work, unable to take care of their families, won’t have to spend that time fighting the government to get the health care they earned,” said Jeremy Butler, head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “This is monumental.”
Butler attended Wednesday’s ceremony, along with Le Roy and Rosie Torres, husband-and-wife advocates for veterans’ health care who started the organization Burn Pits 360. Le Roy developed constrictive bronchitis after serving in Iraq, making breathing difficult.
Although the provision involving burn pits has garnered the most attention, other health care services will be expanded as well.
Veterans who have served since the Sept. 11 attacks will have a decade to sign up for VA health care, double the current five years.
And there’s more help for veterans from the Vietnam War era. The legislation adds hypertension to list of ailments that are presumed to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the U.S. military to clear vegetation.
In addition, veterans who served during the war in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll will also be considered to have been exposed to the chemical.