President Biden on Friday took a victory for legislation approved by Congress that expands benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins during service.
“I made it real clear to the United States Congress, if they didn’t pass this damn burn pit bill, I was going to go on holy war. Not a joke,” Biden said. “It’s one of the most significant laws in our history to help millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their military service.”
Biden made the remarks during a town hall at a National Guard/Reserve Center in New Castle, Del., that is named after his late son Beau Biden.
The younger Biden served in the Delaware National Guard and the president has suggested that his exposure to burn pits in Iraq could have been the cause of the brain cancer he died from in 2015.
“I’m no doctor but it’s pretty clear a lot of guys and women getting sick,” Biden said. “Many when they came home had gone the best trained, fittest warriors in the world and came home with headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer.”
He recalled when Beau Biden came home from Iraq and called him saying he collapsed from a run.
“It’s not unique to me and my family. So many are here today and around the country,” the president said.
The Delaware event is one of over 90 events on Friday occurring across the U.S. to encourage veterans to sign up for health care, get screened for toxic exposure, and submit a claim if they are experiencing a toxic exposure related condition, according to the White House.
“There’s no place I’d rather be today to get the message out about the PACT Act than home here and here in this particular facility,” he said, referring to the legislation which stands for Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics.
Biden signed the legislation into law in August.
Biden thanked comedian Jon Stewart for his work on the toxic burn pits bill, after the former ‘Daily Show’ host had advocated for helping veterans with illnesses related to their service.
Biden called passing the PACT Act “the first step of being, make sure that we leave no one behind.”
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Once-classified files on JFK's assassination released by Biden.
President Joe Biden on Thursday released a cache of once-classified documents expected to shed light on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy nearly 60 years ago.
"This has been a commitment of the president," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "President Biden believes all information related to President Kennedy's assassination should be released to the greatest extent possible, consistent with national security."
Jean-Pierre said 97% of the Kennedy collection is available to the public following the release of 12,879 documents Thursday by the National Archives and 1,491 documents a year ago today.
An additional 515 documents have been withheld by the archives in full and 2,545 documents partially withheld.
Biden has ordered the acting archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to conduct a six-month review "of a subset of the remaining redacted records" to ensure they are also disclosed "to the greatest extent possible," Jean-Pierre said.
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The Senate on Thursday passed the annual defense authorization bill, sending the $858 billion measure to President Biden’s desk for signature just before the year-end deadline.
The measure, formally known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 83-11.
It provides $45 billion more for defense than called for in Biden’s budget, including allocating $817 billion to the Department of Defense and $30 billion to the Department of Energy.
Thursday’s vote caps weeks of wrangling over floor timing and controversial policy changes, such as language demanded by conservative Republicans to end the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which has been in place since August of 2021.
It marks the 61st year in a row that Congress has passed the defense bill on time, a notable achievement given the legislative gridlock that has reigned on Capitol Hill in recent years.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) cheered the passage of the bill after months of negotiation, calling it “the most significant vote of the year.”