"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.”"

“These veterans don’t have time! They’re running out of time. They need health care now, and if they don’t get it, they’re dying!” said Natalia Kempthorne-Curiel, who traveled with her father Nathan Kempthorne to the demonstration.

"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.