The VA plans to start screening patients for environmental exposures during service in the armed forces, including the Gulf War and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McLain said this screening will happen periodically as part of a veteran’s regular annual screening.

The PACT Act is one of the largest health and benefit expansions in American history. It recognizes toxic exposure as a “cost of war” by addressing the full range of issues affecting toxic-exposed veterans, ensuring generations of veterans who suffer from toxic exposure-related conditions get the benefits and care they’ve earned. This new law also expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for veterans with toxic exposures and veterans of the Vietnam era, Gulf War era, and post-9/11 era.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough and Congressmember Salud Carbajal visited Santa Barbara’s Veterans Administration Clinic on Tuesday to talk with the medical staff about the new toxic exposure testing and treatment bill that President Biden signed on August 8. The cabinet secretary was touring clinics in Carbajal’s district — in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and the new Ventura clinic that opened on September 27 — to spread the word about the new program.

PACT Act fraudsters may call veterans and falsely portray themselves as a VA employee or claim they can help them receive benefits. They have also sent emails and run commercials promising the same assistance — for a fee. Of course, some will mention specific service locations (North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune is a big one) and/or medical conditions, such as leukemia or liver cancer, that might make a vet eligible for payments.

“The Department of the Navy is committed to resolving all claims related to this matter in a fair and timely manner. All claims will be processed as quickly as possible; however, due to the large amount of claims anticipated to be received, we cannot forecast an expected processing time. Submitting your claim via email will assist in expediting your claim,” the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps says.

McDonough and the group discussed the Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act — a law passed Aug. 8 providing benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits and toxins during their service, and access to other V.A. programs.

In addition, Burks also hailed passage of the PACT Act, which expands free health care for roughly 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Burks says the PACT Act also offers benefits to dependents of affected veterans.

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.

Last week, Senate Republicans blocked the passage of the PACT Act, which would expand health care access to veterans exposed to burn pits. Their opposition — ostensibly because they wanted to vote on an amendment offered by Sen. PAT TOOMEY (R-Pa.), but difficult to divorce from the broader context of Democrats’ breakthrough on reconciliation talks

Democrats are also hoping to pass the PACT Act to extend medical care to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service, a bipartisan measure that Senate Republicans blocked last week.

“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.

"They've gotten serious, serious conditions -- cancers, lung diseases. They've sacrificed everything. They risk life and limb and the very least we can do as a country is ensure they receive top care," Schumer said.

Plans called for an around-the-clock fire watch of advocates at the Capitol to last until Monday afternoon, when the Senate is again scheduled to vote on the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, better known as the PACT Act. The goal was to emphasize — throughout the weekend — the importance of action on the issue, even if no lawmakers were present to see it.

Biden said on the FaceTime call that the country has a “sacred obligation” to care for those who go into war and care for them and their families after they return. He said opposing the legislation is “despicable,” and he has to believe that the bill’s opponents are “going to make up for the mistake they made.”

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would schedule another procedural vote to break a GOP filibuster on Monday, trying to force the Republicans to let it pass. As of Thursday afternoon, Schumer had not formally scheduled a vote for Monday but has the ability to call for a vote at any time.

Cruz responded to the comedian with a 1.59 minute video posted on Twitter, in which he said he would support the bill if a Democrat "accounting gimmick", which he argued could lead to an additional $400 billion in spending, is removed.

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.

During House Floor remarks earlier this month, Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) spoke about The Honoring Our PACT Act.

The bill contains two major components. First, it extends the grace period by which military veterans serving near burn pits can get medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Their eligibility for veterans affairs care will double from five years after their discharge to 10 years.

"Senator Toomey has blocked it. And now he wants to introduce amendments completely rewriting the way that it's paid for out of some false and very convenient fiscal concern that he never had for the defense budget or for the wars that created these toxic exposure difficulties in the first place," comedian and activist Jon Stewart said in an interview with Fox News.