Biden signs bill to expand benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits
President Joe Biden signed legislation on Wednesday expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed legislation on Wednesday expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
The bipartisan bill, known as the PACT Act, is the most significant expansion of veterans' health care and benefits in more than 30 years, a White House official said.
Speaking at a White House ceremony, Biden said that “veterans of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan not only faced dangers in battle — they were breathing toxic smoke from burn pits.”
Biden said he traveled to Iraq over 20 times over the course of the war, both as a senator and later as vice president, and could “actually see some of it in the air.”
“Burn pits the size of football fields, an incinerated waste of war such as tires, poisonous chemicals, jet fuel, and so much I won’t even mention,” he said. “A lot of places where our soldiers were sleeping were literally a quarter mile half mile away from it.”
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