Political pressure plays a role
Thune and Rounds raised eyebrows among veterans’ groups by standing against the PACT Act in the initial vote June 16, when it passed the Senate 84-14. The burn pits legislation had bipartisan support after being pushed by Biden in his State of the Union speech in March, and both South Dakota senators have forged a political reputation as supporters of veterans’ causes, though neither served in the armed forces.
Controversy flared more than a month later, when the bill had to be voted on again due to a technical issue that originated in the House of Representatives. This time, the bill failed 55-42 in a procedural vote in the Senate, with 25 Republican senators withdrawing their support and Thune and Rounds remaining against it.
Democrats accused their GOP counterparts of lashing out in retaliation for legislative maneuvers that same day that made it possible to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, a victory for the Biden administration. Republicans responded by accusing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of preventing their amendments on the PACT Act from reaching the floor.
With the burn pits legislation in limbo during this standoff, comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime advocate for veterans and 9/11 first responders, railed against Republican holdouts as their withdrawal of support for the bill in the Senate became national news.
“It is despicable to continue to use Americans, men and women who are fighting for this country, as a political cause for anger you have about separate issues,” Stewart told reporters outside the Capitol. “I’m used to the hypocrisy. I’m used to all of it, but I am not used to the cruelty.”
Rounds, who serves on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, declined to directly respond to Stewart but pointed to a lack of general understanding about the complexities of the VA process and implementation of the Mission Act.
“We’ll take all the help we can get in fighting for veterans,” Rounds told News Watch. “But people really should have accurate information, or it comes back to bite them later on. It’s one thing to make a promise that you’re going to provide all these benefits, but if you don’t have a system that can actually provide them, you haven’t helped the veterans anyway.”
The fact that Rounds and Thune ultimately voted for the PACT Act sheds light on the liability of being on the wrong side of an emotional issue that gains political momentum and which relates to veterans care. No lawmaker, especially from a conservative state with a rich history of military service, wants to be seen as not supporting veterans, regardless of the complexities involved.
Rounds earlier co-sponsored a Senate bill with a much more modest price tag that would have extended the eligibility deadline for combat veterans from five years after their discharge to 10 years while also providing a one-year application window for those who already missed the deadline.
The $1 billion measure, which Rounds called the first phase of a three-phase process, would also have mandated education and training for VA personnel on toxic exposures and expanded federal research in the field.
But the more sweeping PACT Act is the one that came back to the House, though Rep. Johnson voted against it and cast doubt on whether the White House-favored measure could pass the Senate due to the substantial budget numbers involved.
Part of the GOP opposition stemmed from Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey’s claim that the bill “allowed $400 billion of current spending to be moved from the discretionary to the mandatory spending category,” which he said would free up space under spending caps elsewhere that could be used on items not related to veteran care.
“Most of us think [the Democrats] did that on purpose so they can spend that in other areas,” said Rounds. “Now that we’ve drawn attention to it, it will be more difficult for them to get away with it.”
Toomey’s amendment to address that issue failed in the Senate on Aug. 2, as did an amendment from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to allow veterans to see a doctor in their community for a primary care appointment that would be reimbursed but not processed by the VA.
When the amendments failed and voting on the PACT Act started, Thune and Rounds joined 84 other senators in voting yes, though Thune expressed reservations in a statement to News Watch.
“Though I continue to have some concerns that this new expansion could overwhelm the VA’s limited staffing capacity and claims-processing apparatus, I ultimately supported the legislation following the consideration of multiple amendments offered by my Republican colleagues after weeks of unnecessary delays by [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer],” Thune said. “But at the end of the day veterans deserve our support and we will do what we need to do to make sure veterans get the care they deserve.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, drew some backlash for claiming that the bill expands presumptive conditions too broadly, noting that the CDC estimates that 116 million Americans have hypertension, which is one of the conditions presumed to be linked to military service under the PACT Act.
Rep. Johnson made a similar comment during an interview with News Watch earlier this year, saying that determining whether illnesses are linked to burn pits or other elements of military service “needs to be an evidence-based process.” Rounds, however, said the expansion of presumptive conditions wasn’t a factor in his opposition to the legislation.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” he said. “I think that’s the cost of having a war in the first place. If somebody does come up with a cancer or condition that’s unusual and they’ve been in these areas, I don’t have a problem with starting out with the assumption that it’s combat- or job-related. These individuals are going to need to get that care one way or another anyway.”
Finding hope for the future
For Jerry Somsen, the passing of burn pits legislation in Congress is not a time of celebration but cause for further reflection. The 54-year-old Webster native, who helped command an Army National Guard battalion during Operation Desert Storm from 2003-05, started experiencing tremors in his hands after returning home from Iraq, where he and other soldiers regularly encountered smoke on the compound from burning waste and munitions.
When the shaking spread to both sides of his body and down his legs, Somsen was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive nervous system disorder, though he has no family history with the disease.
“I didn’t have this when I went over there, and I came out knowing something was wrong,” the insurance executive said in an interview with News Watch earlier this year. “I guess you could say we signed up for it, but we didn’t sign up to not be protected once we got back.”
Somsen receives medication for his condition through the VA but has been denied disability benefits because the VA does not recognize Parkinson’s as being connected to burn pit exposure, citing research from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The illness is not listed among the presumptive conditions added by the passage of the PACT Act, so Somsen’s disability status has not changed.
“Parkinson’s is basically falling through the cracks,” he said the day after the bill passed the Senate.
But Somsen, who retired in 2009 after 23 years of National Guard service, sees a lot of positives from recent attention paid to the burn pits issue. He said he heard from veterans across the county after his story was featured by News Watch, and many of those service members will be getting help now that the legislation has passed.
“Anything we can do to help veterans out is what I’m after,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people have reached out to me to talk about what they’re going through, whether it’s neck cancer or respiratory illness or melanoma. I’m glad that people are going to get help, but it’s unnerving to hear about all the stuff that’s out there and wonder if something couldn’t have been done earlier.”
Somsen said there are good days and bad days with his condition. The tremors come and go without warning, but medication sometimes helps. He worries about his ability to continue to support his family and be active in the community, not to mention spending quality time with his wife, Kari, and their four daughters.
But he holds out hope, especially since the term “burn pits” has become part of the American vernacular – much like Agent Orange became associated with Vietnam – and public pressure has been brought to bear on leaders entrusted with overseeing the welfare of those who serve their country, even long after that service is done.
“It’s good to see more awareness, but it’s sad that these service members were exposed in the first place and there weren’t protections put in place at the time,” said Kari Somsen. “But hindsight is 20/20, and at least now there appears to be a recognition from the government that, ‘Yes, this is something harmful that service members were exposed to, and they should be compensated for it. I would say that’s a good thing.”
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