A invoice aimed toward defending veterans uncovered to poisonous supplies throughout their service was shut down yesterday within the Senate, in a 55 to 42 vote that failed to fulfill the 60-vote threshold essential to advance the laws.
Of the 42 senators who voted in opposition to the PACT Act, 41 have been Republicans. These are the Republican Senators who voted in opposition to the invoice:
- John A. Barrasso, WY
- Marsha Blackburn, TN
- Roy Blunt, MO
- Mike Braun, IN
- Richard Burr, NC
- Bill Cassidy, LA
- John Cornyn, TX
- Tom Cotton, AR
- Kevin Cramer, ND
- Mike Crapo, ID
- Ted Cruz, TX,
- Steve Daines, MT
- Joni Ernst, IA
- Deb Fischer, NE
- Bill Hagerty, TN
- Josh Hawley, MO
- Cindy Hyde-Smith, MS
- Jim Inhofe, OK
- Ron Johnson, WI
- John Neely Kennedy, LA
- James Lankford, OK
- Mike Lee, UT
- Cynthia Lummis, WY
- Roger Marshall, KS
- Mitch McConnell, KY
- Rand Paul, KY
- Rob Portman, OH
- Jim Risch, ID
- Mitt Romney, UT
- Mike Rounds, SD
- Ben Sasse, NE
- Rick Scott, FL
- Tim Scott, SC
- Richard Shelby, AL
- Dan Sullivan, AK
- John Thune, SD
- Thom Tillis, NC
- Patrick Toomey, PA
- Tommy Tuberville, AL
- Roger Wicker, MS
- Todd Young, IN
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Only one Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted in opposition to the invoice. Two Democrats and one Republican abstained, whereas 47 Democrats, 8 Republicans and a pair of independents voted to cross the invoice.
The vote was a shock, because the invoice was initially handed by the Senate 84-14 on June 16 and obtained overwhelming Republican assist. The laws was able to be handed to the House, however the invoice was delayed as one part of it was debated by Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders.
On July 13, the House overwhelmingly accredited the bipartisan increasing well being care and advantages for toxin-exposed veterans and despatched the bundle again to the Senate with solely a minor change.
But the vote was radically totally different from just a few weeks in the past.
While not all Republican senators who voted in opposition to the invoice talked publicly about why they did so, Republican Senator Toomey mentioned on the Senate ground that he voted in opposition to the invoice as a result of it might create $400 billion in unrelated spending.
“My concern about this bill has nothing to do with the purpose of the bill,” Toomey mentioned. “This budgetary gimmick is so unrelated to the actual veterans’ issue that has to do with burn pits, that it’s not even in the House version of this bill.”
Schumer, who had voted ‘sure’ the earlier time and strongly helps the invoice, modified his vote to ‘no’ as a easy procedural transfer permitting him to rethink the cloture vote at any time.
“This is a sad day in the U.S. Senate,” Chairman of the Senate’s Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Committee and Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester mentioned after the vote.
“The American people are sick and tired of the games that go on in this body.”
In an eleventh-hour act of cowardice, Republicans selected as we speak to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans throughout this nation of the well being care and advantages they’ve earned and so desperately want.
Make no mistake—the American individuals are sick and bored with these video games. pic.twitter.com/w2ZUcGzGpT
— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) July 27, 2022
The invoice, which was introduced ahead by Tester and Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, known as for the growth of healthcare and incapacity advantages for veterans who had been uncovered to poisonous supplies throughout their army service.
The new laws would develop care to three.5 million veterans who have been uncovered to burn pits, including 23 poisonous and burn pit exposure-related sicknesses to the VA database.
The invoice would additionally develop assist for Vietnam-era veterans who have been uncovered to Agent Orange in locations like American Samoa, Cambodia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Laos and Thailand.
The whole bundle was anticipated to price some $278.5 billion over the subsequent decade, based on estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“Advocates died fighting for this bill. Instead of spending their last days with their families, they fought to help their fellow veterans,” wrote veteran Ted Corcoran on Twitter.
“Now, more veterans will die waiting for help that was just within our reach but may never come. Don’t ever thank me for my service again.”
The invoice may very well be known as for an additional vote by its supporters.
Correction 7/29/22, 9 a.m. ET: This article was up to date to right that veterans have been uncovered to burn pits earlier than 9/11.