The legislation would also benefit many Vietnam War-era veterans by including high blood pressure in the list of conditions presumed to have been caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
sets a course that could help millions who served after Sept. 11, 2001, and caps years of advocacy work by veterans groups and others who liken burn pits to the Agent Orange herbicide that Vietnam era veterans were exposed to in Southeast Asia.
Utah’s Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney were two of 14 Senate Republicans who voted against the legislation. Romney said Congress should support veterans harmed by toxic exposure, but the scope and price tag of the bill, which would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, were “astronomical and unjustified.”
And, it would extend Agent Orange presumptions to veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam and American Samoa. A 2020 study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that health studies provided insufficient evidence to determine whether exposure to burn pit emissions is linked to 27 adverse respiratory conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. The authors of the study said the uncertainty doesn’t mean that there is no association — only that there was insufficient data to draw definitive conclusions.
Most Republicans voted for the bill, but some opposed it because of fiscal concerns. All 14 of the “no” votes came from Republicans.
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