Speaker Pelosi Gives Remarks on House Floor in Support of the Honoring Our PACT Act

Today, on the House Floor I spoke in support of the Honoring Our PACT Act. Over the past generation, over three million of courageous Americans have answered the call to serve and have donned the uniform to protect our freedoms. From the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan and on bases and military theaters around the world, these heroes have risked their lives to fight the enemy – and yet tragically, have had to face another deadly threat, due to exposure to burn pits and other toxic substances. As I often say, just as the military pledges to leave no one behind on the battlefield, we must leave no veteran behind when they return home. The Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act – the PACT Act finally, fully fulfils that pledge, now and for the future. The PACT Act is a bipartisan and comprehensive bill that fully meets the challenge of toxic exposures for our veterans: providing access to VA health care to potentially millions of veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins, granting presumptions of exposure for veterans with rare cancers, COPD and other debilitating diseases, and creating a permanent review process to ensure that future Secretaries will review new exposures swiftly and consider scientific evidence as it develops. We must recognize that toxic exposures are part of the cost of war – and we must ensure that when we send our servicemembers into harm's way, we care for them when they come home. Watch my full speech on the Honoring Our PACT Act above.