Deal on toxic exposure bill includes more VA staff, dozens of new VA medical clinics
By Leo Shane III
May 24, 06:01 PM
Veterans Affairs officials would set up 31 major medical clinics across America and hire thousands more claims processors and health care staff under compromise toxic exposure legislation unveiled in the Senate Tuesday.
The provisions would be attached to the already massive Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (or PACT Act) which passed out of the House in March. That measure carried a price tag of more than $200 billion over the next decade and would potentially affect as many as one in five veterans living in America today.
Concerns about the scope of the bill and the potential of the new veterans benefits to overwhelm existing VA systems led to resistance from Republican lawmakers.
But last week, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee announced a breakthrough to advance the legislation, somewhat surprisingly by broadening the bill’s scope even further.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/burn-pits/2022/05/24/deal-on-toxic-exposure-bill-includes-more-va-staff-dozens-of-new-va-medical-clinics/
