The measure — signed into law on Aug. 10 — includes almost $300 billion in new financial benefits for veterans suffering from illnesses caused by burn pit smoke in Iraq and Afghanistan, Agent Orange spraying in Vietnam, and several other military toxic exposure events.

I served in the Marine Corps for nearly 25 years, training thousands of new recruits. I lived for almost 12 years at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where my daughter Janey was conceived and her mother unknowingly consumed water contaminated with known carcinogens — such as trichloroethylene, or TCE, and perchloroethylene, or PCE — during her pregnancy.