{"id":128613,"date":"2022-08-02T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T10:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=128613"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:59:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:59:03","slug":"outrage-over-toxic-waste-burn-pit-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=128613","title":{"rendered":"Outrage over toxic waste burn pit bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Democrats and some familiar veteran protesters are upset that the PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022) failed to muster a filibuster-proof 60 votes after they allege 25 Republicans changed their minds from when the initial bill passed 84-14. There are protests at the Capital, in which well-known faces like alleged comedian Jon Stewart and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America are prominent, scourging Republicans who switched their original votes.<\/p>\n

It just makes the gut punch that more devastating,\u201d Stewart said, given the number of veterans who came to Washington hoping the bill would pass. \u201cTheir constituents are dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would significantly change how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances by compelling VA to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would remove the burden of proof from the injured veterans.<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Butler, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, called out Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) for switching to a no vote Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cAfter voting to support the #PACTAct and her fellow veterans, Sen. Joni Ernst turned her back on them yesterday and voted NO,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cWhat happened Senator? Iowa vets are still getting sick and dying from toxic exposures.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of the legislation was approved by the Senate by a vote of 84-14 in June. It was back in the Senate on Wednesday because the House made modest changes before passing the bill on a 342-88 vote about two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

WaPo<\/a><\/p>\n

Those bastard Republicans, eh? The Dems originally claimed the back-door environmental deal between Manchin and Schumer was to blame, but Repubs say that isn’t the reason.<\/p>\n

Well, let’s take a look at the modest changes.<\/p>\n

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Wednesday\u2019s failed vote was rooted in the budgetary policy dispute that was first raised last month by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who objected to the way the bill would change the accounting of about $400 billion in preexisting veterans spending.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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That previously authorized spending had been designated as discretionary \u2014 that is, subject to yearly congressional appropriations. But the bill, known as the PACT Act, authorizes $280 billion of new mandatory spending \u2014 that is, not subject to yearly appropriations \u2014 and also converts the prior $400 billion in authorizations from discretionary to mandatory.<\/p>\n

WaPo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So the modest changes involve roughly half a trillion dollars. Not sure in my books that qualifies as a “modest change”, but my wife says I am cheap.<\/p>\n

I’m not taking sides in this – I know there are a LOT of vets for whom treatment would be a blessing, and I was out long before the large war-zone burn pits came into being. But it sure sounds like BOTH parties are playing politics with veterans’ treatment. What else is new?<\/p>\n

UPDATE –\u00a0 The PACT act passed the Senate 86-11 on August 2d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats and some familiar veteran protesters are upset that the PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive … Outrage over toxic waste burn pit bill<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[478],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-none"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128662,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128613\/revisions\/128662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}