How many Kansas veterans are receiving benefits for toxic exposure under law after first year?

For more than a decade, veterans groups fought for recognition and VA benefits for illnesses caused by exposure to the fumes from jet fuel fires that torched military waste during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, a year after Congress finally acted, more than 8,000 Kansas veterans have filed claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs seeking benefits under the PACT Act, which stands for Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics.

“We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of veterans who were exposed to toxins while deployed starting to get the healthcare that they’ve earned and deserve,” said Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids at an event in Lenexa marking the anniversary of the bill. “We’re seeing families of toxic exposed veterans getting to spend their precious time with each other instead of fighting the VA to get the service they have earned and deserve.”

But Davids and Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who helped write the law, have expressed concern that not enough veterans are getting benefits.

“While I recognize implementing the PACT Act is a monumental task, I have concerns that VA has not adequately tracked how many veterans are enrolling in the VA health care system and that the VA can do a better job at informing veterans about the opportunity to enroll,” Moran said in a written statement. “I also remain concerned about the backlog of benefits claims and the time needed to hire and train employees to process claims so that veterans and survivors are not waiting for benefits for months on end.”

President Joe Biden made a speech Thursday marking the passage of the law, more than $18 million in retroactive payments have gone out to Kansas veterans on over 3,000 approved claims. A single veteran with no dependents is eligible for up to $43,000 a year for illnesses related to their exposure.

“We’re determined to address this problem come hell or high water and compensate these veterans and their families who have suffered from the consequences of this,” Biden said in his speech.

The issue is personal for Biden, whose son Beau died of a brain tumor in 2015 at the age of 46 after serving overseas. Brain cancer is now one of the more than 23 conditions that the VA now presumes were caused by exposure to toxins, making it easier for veterans to get benefits.

The top three claims that have been approved in Kansas are for hypertensive vascular disease, which results in chronic high blood pressure; allergic rhinitis, which is inflammation of the inside of the nose; and maxillary sinusitis, which is sinus inflammation.

The military often used burn pits to get rid of materials from their camps in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using jet fuel, service members would burn trash — including plastics, rubber, medical waste, seized weapons — just hundreds of yards from the base. The military didn’t stop the practice until 2010.

After returning home, veterans began reporting some illnesses that were likely a result of their exposure to the toxic smoke coming from the sites. But convincing the VA that those illnesses were a result of their service was a challenge.

Congress passed a bipartisan bill last August to expand the number of “presumed” conditions veterans face from exposure to toxic burn pits and other toxic chemicals from earlier wars like Agent Orange. Changing the law made it easier for veterans to access the benefits, sparing families the difficult bureaucratic process of getting conditions recognized by the VA.

“It gives us latitude, it gives us the ability to rate these claims faster, require less evidence because these are presumptive conditions, we can do that,” said David Jackson, a program specialist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Wichita. “It has really, really helped veterans.”

But even as benefits have started going out, lawmakers have noted that a small fraction of the veterans who are presumed eligible to receive money have qualified. There are an estimated 5 million veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits, but as of August only 406,500 veterans have filed claims — a little over 8% of veterans who are thought to be eligible.

Veterans are able to apply for benefits indefinitely, but the deadline for receiving a year of back pay was slated to end Wednesday. On Wednesday night, the VA extended the deadline until Monday, Aug. 14 at midnight.

Moran also said he was concerned the VA wasn’t using its tools to help other veterans exposed to toxic chemicals that weren’t listed in the PACT Act — like veterans exposed to burn pits in Kosovo or herbicides in Panama — even though the law gives them the authority to recognize additional conditions.

“Caring for veterans who are sick and suffering or may become so as a result of toxic exposures they experienced in the military is a moral imperative for the VA and for this committee,” Moran said at a July meeting of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. “The men and women who were exposed to Agent Orange, burn pit smoke, radiation and other dangerous toxins deserve nothing less.”