Speaker Pelosi Gives Remarks in Support of the PACT Act

Yesterday, I spoke on the House Floor in support of the PACT Act. This comprehensive bill meets the challenge of toxic exposures for our veterans in three main ways: expanding access to VA health care to post-9/11 combat veterans exposed to toxins, granting presumptions of exposure for veterans with rare cancers, COPD and other debilitating diseases and creates a permanent streamlined process to ensure that future secretaries will review and approve new exposures quickly. It is with great pride and patriotism that the PACT Act has strong bipartisan, bicameral backing, worthy of our heroic veterans. We have spent more than $6 trillion recruiting, training and deploying our Servicemembers overseas during the last 20 years. But let’s be clear: this is only part of the price tag. Toxic exposures are a cost of war – and we must treat it as such. This is not a question of dollars – it is a matter of values. When our troops go to war, our military pledges to leave no one behind on the battlefield. So it must be our nation’s sacred duty to leave no veteran behind when they return home. Our PACT Act is an historic victory for our veterans that honors that pledge – now and for the future. Watch my full Floor speech on this important piece of legislation above.