Military burn pit bill just signed by Biden includes Harder’s Agent Orange provision

The military burn pit bill signed Wednesday by President Joe Biden includes a provision from Rep. Josh Harder about an earlier hazard to service members.

The bill mainly provides benefits for more than 3.5 million veterans harmed by pits that disposed of chemical and other materials in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Harder, D-Turlock, inserted language expanding benefits for veterans affected by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. U.S. forces sprayed the defoliant to expose enemy positions.

‘Today is a great day’

The Agent Orange disability benefits now extend to high blood pressure and a blood disease called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). In 2020, Harder successfully added three other ailments through a defense spending bill.

He estimated that the latest bill would help about 50,000 Vietnam veterans on top of the 34,000 added in 2020.

“Today is a great day,” he said in a news release Wednesday. “... My grandfather passed away when I was a little kid due to toxic exposures during his service, but he would be proud to see what we’ve accomplished for the men and women who fought alongside him all those years ago.”

The president has his own family tie to the issue, the Associated Press reported Wednesday: He believes that his late son, Beau Biden, got brain cancer from burn pits in Iraq.

70% of claims were denied

The pits were used to dispose of chemicals, cans, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste. But 70% of disability claims involving exposure to the pits were denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“For too long, too many veterans who got sick while fighting for our country had to fight for their care here at home,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said at the ceremony.

Harder’s work in 2020 added bladder cancer, hypothyroidism and Parkinson’s-like symptoms to the Agent Orange program. It had already included several heart, skin, blood, nerve and other disorders.