Veterans Lash Out At Senate Republicans For Blocking the PACT Act Out Of Pure Spite (Updated)

Above: Tim Houser, a Desert Storm veteran from Twinsburg, Ohio, attends a news conference with veterans and Senate Democrats about the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act on Capitol Hill July 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. Photo credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images

NBC News reports, Blindsided veterans erupt in fury after Senate Republicans suddenly tank PACT Act:

Blindsided veterans erupted in anger and indignation Thursday after Senate Republicans suddenly tanked a widely supported bipartisan measure that would have expanded medical coverage for millions of combatants exposed to toxic burn pits during their service.

Supporters of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — or PACT Act — overwhelmingly expected the House-passed bill to sail through to the president’s desk for signature.

But in a move that shocked and confused veteran groups Wednesday night, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the bill’s passage, including 25 who had supported it a month ago.

“We really expected yesterday to be a procedural vote that would go with easy passage,” said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit veterans’ organization. “That was the absolute expectation.”

The PACT Act would have expanded VA health care eligibility to more than 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans who were exposed to toxins while serving in the military.

The Senate passed the original legislation 84-14 in June. It underwent minor changes when it moved to the House, where it passed 342-88. When the bill returned to the Senate, the bill had not changed much but the view — and vote — of 25 senators did.

Bullshit excuse: It is retaliation for the Schumer-Manchin Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation bill announced on Wednesday night. These Republicans who profess to support veterans (they have frequently voted against veterans over the years)  are once again using them as pawns, out of pure spite.

While it’s unclear what prompted the flip [no it’s not, I just explained it], veterans believe the move was political.

UPDATE:

Cornyn just admitted that Senate Republicans delayed the burn pits bill out of spite. https://t.co/qTpqzBwbPb

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 31, 2022

“We’ve seen partisanship and games within Congress for years,” Butler said. “But what is shocking is that so many [Republican] senators would literally be willing to play with veterans’ lives so openly like this.”

“They’re manufacturing reasons to vote against legislation that they literally voted for just last month,” Butler added. “And so it’s really a new level of low.”

UPDATE: Now this is “really a new level of low.” Of course, Ted Cruz.

Steve Daines of Montana is the Republican on the other end of that fist bump. He’s not as famous or active on social media as Cruz, but just as bad for US soldiers who’ve been sickened as a result of the conditions they endured during their service. https://t.co/JsomSqtiDa

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 29, 2022

Veterans who were exposed to toxins during deployments said the lives of sick and dying people who served the nation are on the line.

“It’s angering. It’s frustrating,” said Tom Porter, 54, who developed asthma after spending a year in Afghanistan with the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2010 to 2011.

In the first week of his deployment, Porter said he suffered a serious reaction with his lungs and could not breathe.

Le Roy Torres, 49, who was diagnosed with a lung disease and a toxic brain injury after he was deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army, said he was devastated about the failure of the bill and urged lawmakers to reconvene immediately.

“I know these senators are getting ready for a break. But I didn’t get a break when I was deployed,” he said. “They should not be allowed to go home until they figure this out.”

“I was taught in the Army not to accept defeat and never quit,” he added. “I’m going to keep pressing on this issue.”

Torres’ wife, Rosie, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Burn Pits 360, said the 25 senators who flipped their votes “should be ashamed of themselves.”

In protest, she and other advocates plan to camp on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Thursday night.

“These veterans fought for our freedom during the war,” she said. “It’s partisan tactics on the backs of veterans that are sick and dying.”

* * *

President Joe Biden, who has championed the PACT Act, said he believes his late son Beau Biden’s brain cancer was linked to exposure to burn pits while he was deployed in Iraq in 2008.

Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., who voted against the legislation in June, has remained vocally critical of the bill. Yesterday, after the vote, he said that the bill included a “budget gimmick” that moved $400 billion over 10 years from “discretionary to the mandatory spending category,” which he considered unreasonable. His view did not change in Wednesday’s vote.

The views of Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., certainly did, however.

Johnson voted for the bill in June, but voted against it on Wednesday. He said in a statement that the bill “opens the door for more reckless government spending.”

Why Republicans, like Johnson, changed their minds a month after passing the legislation remains unclear [are these reporters just dense?], and it was confounding and unclear to veterans and advocates who shared their ire in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

The comedian Jon Stewart, who has advocated for 9/11 first responders and military veterans for years, excoriated Republican lawmakers outside the Capitol Thursday, angrily describing their opposition to the bill as “an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country, to the Founders.”

“Their constituents are dying and they’re gonna get it done in recess,” Stewart said in fiery and expletive-laden remarks. “You know, tell their cancer to take a recess, tell their cancer to stay home and go visit their families. This is disgrace. If this is America first, America is [expletive].”

UPDATE: The Hill reports, Democrats tee up another vote on burn pits bill for Monday:

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday that Democrats will try to pass a bill that would expand health care coverage for veterans exposed to toxins and burn pits a second time on Monday, after Senate Republicans blocked the bill from moving forward on Wednesday.

Schumer said at a press conference that Democrats will “give our Republican friends another opportunity” to vote on the bill on Monday. He said Democrats offered Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) an opportunity to propose an amendment to the bill after he announced his opposition to the measure because he said it would create $400 billion in unrelated spending, which he called a “budgetary gimmick.”

Schumer said Toomey could have proposed the amendment after the bill received the 60 votes necessary to advance but insisted on the amendment being in the bill beforehand.

Schumer said he stands by his offer to Toomey and will give him the right to bring the amendment to the Senate floor and try to get the votes to support it.

The House and Senate previously passed the bill overwhelmingly, but the Senate needed to take it up again because the House made some minor changes in its version.

The bill would expand care for Vietnam War-era veterans exposed to Agent Orange and post-9/11 veterans who were exposed to burn pits and add 23 toxic and burn pit exposure conditions to the Department of Veterans Affairs database.

Veterans groups slammed Toomey and other Senate Republicans for opposing the bill, saying they blocked essential care that veterans need.

You have from now until Monday to contact the 41 Senate Republican cowards who voted against medical care for our service veterans. Some of them are up for election this year. None of them should be retured to office. Tell them thy will pay for this betrayal.