The brave veterans returning from deployments overseas deserve not only our sincere gratitude, but also the care and support they need to live healthy, fulfilling lives as civilians. One particular group of the newest generation of veterans is returning home with significant and complex health issues that deserve special attention: those who were exposed to toxic substances including harmful smoke from open-air burn pits used for waste disposal in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I have been focused on the burn pits issue since 2007, when the daughter of a member of my Veterans' Advisory Board who had served as a nurse in the Army alerted me to an increase in respiratory and gastro-intestinal illnesses that she believed might be linked to toxic exposures.
I helped lead a bipartisan effort that was successful in sharply reducing the use of burn pits and ordering the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) create a registry of service members who may have been exposed so their health can be monitored and illnesses treated.
Now, I am leading a bipartisan coalition in the House of Representatives to establish three joint DoD-VA Centers of Excellence in the prevention, diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, and rehabilitation of health conditions related to open burn pit and other environmental exposures.
These centers will operate in partnership with health care institutions with a proven track record of post-deployment health exposures among veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm proud to say that Stony Brook University and Hospital is a national leader in this field, and would be an ideal location for a Center of Excellence.
You can read more about my new bill, the "Helping Veterans Exposed to Toxic Chemicals Act" (H.R. 2510) on my website and watch a video of me introducing the legislation at a press conference in Washington.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of veterans are suffering from illnesses caused by burn pit and other toxic exposures. Passing my legislation would be a major advancement both in treating these complex conditions and in preventing them from affecting our service members in the future. America’s troops and veterans deserve no less than our full support, and I hope my bill moves forward quickly in Congress.
