“The VA is committed to protecting veterans and their families from scammers who are trying to steal those hard-earned benefits,” Amerson said. “We have these two main goals with this partnership. The first is to develop — with the VA — and conduct training either in person or online. ... Second, we really want to encourage veterans and families to report cybercrime ... it's so important to report because that's what helps allocate resources.”

“When it comes to benefits vets have earned and deserve, we’re processing their claims faster than ever before,” McDonough said during the NPC Headliners Luncheon Monday. “[VA is] making sure we’re delivering for vets on time, every time, through initiatives like claims automation—cutting claims processing time for certain conditions from several months, to several days.”

“We’ll bring generations of new vets into VA health care and increase the health care benefits of many more, and this will result in better health outcomes across the board,” said McDonough.

“We’ll deliver benefits to more survivors of vets who passes away from toxic exposures, and we’ll invest in our workforce and our infrastructure to deliver those additional services, modernizing 31 healthcare facilities. This is a great thing.”

"I'm proud to announce for the first time today, on National Cancer Awareness Day, that we're expediting benefits delivery for veterans with cancer conditions covered in this law," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said during a speech at the National Press Club.

More so, the agency is urging more veterans to submit claims quickly. Joshua Jacobs, the VA’s senior adviser for policy and acting Veterans Benefits Administration undersecretary, said veterans should submit their claims before August so their benefits begin from the day the PACT Act became law and they will receive back pay.

Before founding the club, Harrell spent nine years in the service with tours to Kuwait and Cyprus. However, Iraq was where he said he lived the closest, about a football field away from the burn pit.

"History is being made by these leaders right here," said Rosie Torres, who cofounded the advocacy group Burn Pits 360 with her husband, former Army officer Le Roy Torres, and others more than a decade ago. "I want to recognize the veterans that didn’t go home, the ones that have walked the halls for 13 years. … We did it all for the fallen that are not here.”"

The reversal also came after Democrats struck a surprise deal to push through a sweeping climate, energy and tax plan this month over unified Republican opposition — a central piece of their domestic agenda that Republicans have derided as a spending spree.

“We fought for this country freely, and we expect now that people will fight for us and fight for our basic health care,” said Samantha Turner, an Army veteran who served near burn pits in Kuwait. Turner, who has sleep apnea, now uses a machine to breathe at night.

“It’s our job to provide those vets and their survivors with benefits and care for those conditions and if passed, the PACT Act will finally do that,” McDonough said. “This is a monumental moment for veterans and a monumental moment for our partnership as well.”

Their myriad “service-related conditions” will hopefully become easier to prove when, as expected, Biden signs the Honoring Our PACT Act this month. One of those conditions is glioblastoma—the cancer that killed Biden’s late son, Beau, after his service in Iraq.

“There’s a lot out there that needs attention,” Bozella said after listing a variety of issues confronting veterans. “And without undersecretaries to really shepherd these processes and be the person who’s held responsible under the secretary, this work is not being done in a timely fashion.”