First, settle the Lejeune lawsuits quickly. In the PACT Act, Congress authorized over 1 million people to sue the military for the toxic exposure at Camp Lejeune. Litigation lawyers are running ads online, on television, and in print. The bombardment of these ads, along with a long public trial, could cause lasting damage to the entire military recruiting effort.

Burn pits are large areas where military waste is incinerated in the open air. Chemicals, weapons and ammunition, metals, medical and human waste, plastics and rubber are all burned, often with jet fuel as an accelerant, resulting in toxic pollution. A 2020 survey by the advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that 86 percent of respondents were exposed to these burn pits or other toxins during their service.

Biden was joined by McDonough, members of Congress, veterans who had been exposed to toxins and representatives of Veterans Service Organizations. He was introduced by Danielle Robinson and Brielle Robinson, the surviving wife and daughter of Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, whom the PACT Act is named after.

President Biden is expected to sign into law the Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act on Wednesday, which will expand access to VA health care and benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxins during war.

There had been overwhelming bipartisan support for an expansion of the benefits that veterans can claim because of their burn pit exposure, but political wrangling continues as veterans’ health declines. There is little medical mystery here, but denials of the cause of their conditions, denials of benefits and the continued use of burn pits prolong their pain.

“My concern about this bill has nothing to do with the purpose of the bill,” Toomey said. “This budgetary gimmick is so unrelated to the actual veterans issue that has to do with burn pits, that it’s not even in the House version of this bill.”

The upper chamber must pass the measure again, as the House version of the bill includes technical changes from the measure passed last month. The bill then heads to President Biden’s desk, where he is expected to sign it.