The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT Act, was signed into law Monday by President Joe Biden in a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House. The PACT Act provides health care and disability benefits for certain deployment-related diseases and conditions.

\\Affected veterans, their family members or survivors are encouraged to apply for benefits by filing a claim with their local Veterans Service Officer.

\\ThePACTActwasapproved by the Senate in an 86-11 vote, the culmination of a months long congressional effort to bring the legislation across the proverbial finish line.

The bill includes provisions and resources for the VA to process claims more quickly, including an automated system that will expedite claims filed for certain conditions.

Currently, the VA has 595,862 claims filed by veterans that are pending; that includes 164,743 considered backlogged, or pending for more than 125 days.

The PACT Act is expected to add thousands of more claims, from former service members who were diagnosed with one or more of 23 illnesses listed in the new legislation as presumed to be related to airborne toxins. Those will range from Vietnam-era veterans with hypertension to monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, to veterans exposed to Agent Orange who previously couldn't file a claim because they were assigned to locations that weren't identified as having stored or used toxic herbicides.

The bill could help roughly 3.5 million veterans access health care in the coming years.

The PACT Act extends the period for post-9/11 combat veterans to enroll in VA health care from five years to 10 and also includes a one-year open enrollment for combat veterans who fall outside that time frame.

It expedites claims for more than 20 specific conditions and removes a requirement that afflicted veterans and their survivors prove service connection for 11 specific respiratory conditions and several types of cancer, including reproductive cancers, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer and brain cancers. Survivors of veterans who died due to one of these conditions may now also be eligible for benefits, In addition to expanding benefits for post-9/11 veterans, the agreement broadens coverage for Vietnam-era veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Specifically, it would add Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll to the list of places where veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and so can get coverage.

These cancers are now presumptive: Brain cancer, Gastrointestinal cancer of any type, Glioblastoma, Head cancer of any type, Kidney cancer. Lymphatic cancer of any type, Lymphoma of any type, Melanoma, Neck cancer, Pancreatic cancer, Reproductive cancer of any type, Respiratory (breathing-related) cancer of any type.

These illnesses are now presumptive: Asthma that was diagnosed after service, Chronic bronchitis, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Chronic rhinitis, Chronic sinusitis, Constrictive bronchiolitis or obliterative bronchiolitis, Emphysema, Granulomatous disease, Interstitial lung disease (ILD), Pleuritis, Pulmonary fibrosis, Sarcoidosis.

If you are a post 9/11 veteran who is experiencing any of the above listed conditions, you may be eligible to file a claim for compensation with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Contact your local Veterans Service Officer or Charles Mix County Veterans Service Officer Jerry Seiner. The office in the Charles Mix County courthouse is open on Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 – 4:30 and Wednesday from 8:00 - 12-00. The office phone number is 605-487-7691 or 605-481-1338 (c).