Crist Votes for Honoring Our PACT Act

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (D-St. Petersburg) released the following statement after voting to pass H.R.3967, the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021 (Honoring our PACT Act). This legislation will finally treat toxic burn pit exposures as a cost of war, addressing the full range of issues impacting toxic-exposed veterans, including providing access to earned benefits and healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). H.R.3967 passed the House by a vote of 256-174 and now goes back to the Senate.

"For too long, our Veterans exposed to Agent Orange, Burn Pits, and toxic waste have been denied the proper medical care and benefits they need and have earned," said Rep. Crist. "These veterans, who have sacrificed so much for all of us, should not have their benefits caught up in bureaucratic red tape. This much needed legislation will finally improve how toxic-exposed veterans are treated by the country they served. That is the promise we make to our servicemembers when we ask them to defend our shores, and I'm proud the House of Representatives took a big step today toward keeping that promise!"

The Honoring our PACT Act is bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that:

* Provides lifetime health monitoring at the VA for up to 3.5 million veterans who served in places where they had Agent Orange and Burn Pits, including South Asia, the Pacific, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans.

* Creates presumptions for 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers, providing veterans who been exposed to Burn Pits and other toxic airborne substances who suffer from one of these illnesses with access to VA benefits.

* Adds hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy to the Agent Orange Presumptive List.

* Streamlines the VA's process for adding new illnesses to the Agent Orange and Burn Pits presumptive lists, so that Congress does not have to keep intervening, and our veterans don't have to wait decades for help.

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