U.S. Military veterans sickened by burn pits and other toxins are still struggling to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to address their needs two years after Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act.
Open-air burn pits were a daily fact of life for many troops deploying throughout the Middle East and Africa during the 1990s, 2000s, and early 2010s. The U.S. military used these pits to dispose of everything from electronic waste to human remains, all the while exposing those around them to harmful dioxins.
The VA estimates 4 million U.S. service members worked around burn pits over the years. Many of those service members came home from deployments with cancers and respiratory illnesses from inhaling the harmful fumes.
Of the many U.S. service members sickened by burn pit exposure was retired U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Le Roy Torres. After the reservist returned from a 2007 deployment to Iraq, he found difficulty returning to his regular job as a Texas state trooper, due to his newfound breathing challenges.
Among the challenges Torres encountered upon his return home, was getting the VA to accept that his time spent around burn pits was to blame for his newfound breathing problems. Torres and his wife formed Burn Pits 360 in 2009 as a way to organize and advocate for other service members harmed by burn pits.
Burn Pits 360 and other veteran advocates worked for more than 13 years to get the VA to assume responsibility for their healthcare needs.
In the summer of 2022, Congress passed and the president signed the PACT Act. The law directs the VA to presume that a range of illnesses U.S. service members have reported after deployments in the Middle East are service-connected and to expand healthcare and survivorship benefits to the veterans and family members impacted by those illnesses.
In the two years since the PACT Act became law, the VA has processed more than a million PACT Act claims, and approved about $5.7 billion in benefits to veterans and their surviving family members.
Still, the VA lacks an up-to-date disability rating system to address one particularly common illness for those exposed to burn pits: constrictive bronchiolitis. Veterans impacted by this illness can register their case as service-connected, but won’t actually receive a disability rating for the diagnosis.
Several lawmakers sent a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough in April, urging him to revise his department’s rating system for constrictive bronchiolitis.
Another group noticing gaps in the post-PACT Act VA care are veterans who deployed to the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan from 2001 to 2005.
Known as K2, the base in Uzbekistan was built on an older Soviet-era military facility. The soil around the base carries a variety of contaminants, such as spilled jet fuel, asbestos, and processed uranium.
Where the PACT Act predominantly focused on respiratory illnesses from burn pits, the veterans of K2 have experienced a more unique set of neurological, autoimmune, endocrine, blood, and bone disorders. While some K2 veterans have seen success with their PACT Act claims, they’re still hoping for the VA to more specifically address their circumstances.
—Ryan Morgan
BOEING SET TO TAKE PLEA DEAL OVER SAFETY FAILURES
Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal charge of defrauding the U.S. government over initially hiding a flight control software that caused two deadly crashes of 737 MAX 8 airplanes in 2018 and 2019, killing all 346 people on board.
The aerospace giant originally avoided criminal prosecution for more than three years after the Justice Department cut Boeing a deal in 2021 that deferred prosecution as long as the company avoided additional safety incidents until Jan. 7, 2024.
Boeing missed that crucial window by two days when an unused door panel ripped off an Alaskan Airlines flight right after takeoff on a newly built 737 MAX 9 on Jan. 5.
The Justice Department on May 14 said Boeing breached the deal, which the company quickly denied.
The agency offered Boeing the new plea deal last week, which it said Boeing had accepted in a July 7 court filing.
With Boeing’s guilty plea, the company will have to pay an additional $243.6 million fine on top of the $2.5 billion it had to pay in 2021 to avoid criminal prosecution.
Boeing will also be required to invest at least $455 million in safety and compliance programs, undergo three additional years of independent monitoring, and will not receive criminal immunity for any other incidents.
Lawyers representing family members of the deadly 737 MAX crashes have said they will urge the judge to reject Boeing’s plea deal.
“This sweetheart deal fails to recognize that because of Boeing’s conspiracy, 346 people died,” said Paul Cassell, a lawyer who represents some of the families in Boeing’s criminal case.
The Justice Department originally charged Boeing for defrauding the U.S. government in 2021 for allegedly hiding critical flight control software from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airlines, and pilots on the then-newly released 737 MAX jet.
The software was intended to autocorrect the plane’s nose whenever the angle of attack was too high, allowing the computer to automatically engage the plane’s horizontal tail to bring the nose down.
The software was automatically engaged on both flights, with a single sensor telling the computer to lower the plane’s nose.
Pilots were not aware of the software and did not know how to disengage it before stalling and falling to the ground.
Boeing has since retooled the software and increased the number of angle of attack sensors on the 737 MAX.
Even with Boeing pleading guilty and avoiding a criminal trial, legal experts have suggested that the plea deal could threaten the company’s status as a federal contractor, as 37 percent of its 2023 revenue came from U.S. government contracts.
—Jacob Burg
BOOKMARKS
President Joe Biden stated in a letter to congressional Democrats yesterday that he is determined to stay in the 2024 presidential race, The Epoch Times’ Emel Akan reported. It comes as Biden faces continued pressure from many congressional Democrats to drop out of the race.
The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) platform committee on July 8 approved a new policy platform, The Epoch Times’ Lawrence Wilson reported. The document detailing the party’s aims and strategy for the next four years is backed by former President Donald Trump.
House Democrats are being urged by party leadership to vote against a Republican-backed measure that would require people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. The legislation would close existing holes in legislation which prevent states from verifying the citizenship of would-be voters.
Several Trump allies are distancing themselves from The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. It comes as the right-wing policy proposals have garnered increased scrutiny from left-wing critics.