The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has approved more than 20,000 claims for Coloradans under a new law designed to boost health care coverage for veterans exposed to toxins and burn pits while serving overseas.
The figures come as President Joe Biden on Tuesday celebrated 1 million claims granted since he signed the PACT Act into law nearly two years ago.
“We can never fully thank you for all the sacrifices you’ve made,” Biden told veterans in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “In America, we leave no veteran behind. That’s our motto.”
The VA touts the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — known as the PACT Act — as perhaps the largest health care and benefit expansion in the agency’s history.
It seeks to address the impacts of burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste were disposed of on military bases.
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