The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a bipartisan bill aimed at expanding health care for post-9/11 combat veterans, including those suffering from conditions related to toxic exposures.

What You Need To Know

  • The Senate unanimously passed a bill aimed at expanding health care for post-9/11 combat veterans, including those suffering from conditions related to toxic exposures

  • The bill would give post-9/11 combat veterans access to Department of Veterans Affairs health care by expanding the period of health care eligibility from five years after discharge to 10 years

  • Burn pits were used in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of human waste, chemicals and other hazardous material

  • According to a survey conducted by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 86% of post-9/11 veterans reported exposure to burn pits and other toxins, with 88% believing they may be or are already experiencing symptoms from burn pits or toxic exposure

The bill, known as the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act, would give post-9/11 combat veterans access to Department of Veterans Affairs health care by expanding the period of health care eligibility from five years after discharge to 10 years. It would also establish a one-year open enrollment period for any post-9/11 combat veteran who is outside that window.

The measure would also direct the VA to incorporate a clinical screening regarding a veteran’s potential exposures and symptoms commonly associated with toxic substances, mandate education and training related to toxic exposure for VA personnel and strengthen federal research on toxic exposures.

"Our bill is a necessary step in connecting an entire generation of veterans with the VA care they need and cannot wait for any longer," Montana Sen. Jon Tester, one of the bill's co-sponsors, wrote in a statement. "This kind of swift action is a testament to what can be accomplished when we all row in the same direction, and I encourage my House colleagues to join us in getting this bill across the finish line to quickly deliver relief where it’s most needed."

"Supporting our veterans has a way of bringing us together, and I appreciate my Senate colleagues understanding the urgency of this bill and working to quickly pass it by unanimous consent," Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, the bill's other sponsor, added. "Addressing the needs of veterans exposed to burn pits cannot wait, and I urge my colleagues in the House to follow suit, pass this important legislation and bring us one step closer to fulfilling our duty to Post-9/11 veterans."

The House of Representatives must now take up the bill before it can get to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to colleagues in January that such legislation is a priority to get passed in 2022. President Biden signed other legislation related to burn pits into law earlier this year.

Burn pits were used in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of human waste, chemicals and other hazardous material. According to a survey conducted by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 86% of post-9/11 veterans reported exposure to burn pits and other toxins, with 88% believing they may be or are already experiencing symptoms from burn pits or toxic exposure.

Just 53% of those who have been exposed are registered in the VA's burn pit registry, per the survey.

Roughly 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans experienced some kind of exposure to burn pits during their service, and about a third of those veterans cannot access VA health care.

In November of last year, on Veterans Day, the Biden administration kicked off a major a federal effort to better understand, identify and treat medical conditions suffered by troops deployed to toxic environments.

For President Biden, the issue is a personal one: The president has said he believes there is a link between burn pits and the death of his son, Beau, who died in 2015 from an aggressive form of brain cancer.

"He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go," Biden said in 2019. "And because of exposure to burn pits, in my view – I can't prove it yet – he came back with stage four glioblastoma."

There is not yet scientific evidence to establish that link.

The actions the White House took included:

  • Making it easier for veterans to prove that they were exposed so they can receive benefits faster
  • Adding new presumptive conditions, noting that Department of Veterans Affairs began processing disability claims for asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis based on presumed exposure to particulate matter in August
  • Instructing the VA to assess a possible connection between exposure and other conditions, including rare cancers

“You have endured and survived challenges most Americans will never know. You've come through the trials and testing. Brave dangers and deprivations. Faced down the tragic realities of war and death,” Biden said in remarks at Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans Day. “You've done it for us. You've done it for America — to defend and serve American values. To protect our country and our Constitution against all enemies, to lay a stronger, more secure foundation.”

"On Veterans Day and every day, we honor that great debt and recommit ourselves to keeping our sacred obligation as a nation to honor what you’ve done," Biden added, pledging to work with Congress in a bipartisan manner on "expanding presumptive conditions for toxic exposure and particulate matter, including Agent Orange and burn pits."

The issue has also drawn other high-profile supporters, notably Jon Stewart, the former "Daily Show" host, who has accused Congress of not doing enough for U.S. veterans who were exposed to toxic hazards and advocated for legislation to aid them as recently as this year.

"These individuals who volunteered to fight in these wars are now fighting their own government," Stewart said in May on Capitol Hill.

"Congress' reticence and inaction has caused our veterans community over these many years to negotiate against itself," he continued. "To negotiate against the need that they have and the need that their population has against the purse strings that the VA and the Congress were holding over them."

"Defense contractors can’t view the U.S. Congress as Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, while veterans are back there like Oliver with a bowl of gruel asking, ‘Please, sir, may I have some more?" he continued. "It's bull**** and it's got to stop. And if these bills can finally end this cycle for the veterans ... then we have to get this done."

Stewart, who made similar efforts for 9/11 first responders, dedicated an episode of his new show, "The Problem" on Apple TV+, to this issue.

"Now veterans are dying and going bankrupt because the DoD and VA are forcing them to indisputably prove a connection they already internally admit exists," Stewart says in the episode. "And what makes it so incredibly demoralizing is that they are holding the veterans to a standard of proof far beyond the one our own government used to send them to war in the first place."