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VA secretary: GOP-backed burn pit amendments would lead to ‘rationing of care for vets’

VA secretary: GOP-backed burn pit amendments would lead to 'rationing of care for vets'

Proposed amendments by Republican senators to a bill aimed at aiding veterans exposed to toxic burn pits would result in “rationing of care for vets,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said on Sunday.

“I can’t in good conscience do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for,” McDonough told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) appeared on the show earlier Sunday morning to explain Republican opposition to the bill, which was blocked last week when it fell five votes short of the tally needed to bypass the filibuster.

All Democrats and eight Republicans backed the proposal, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said Democrats will bring the bill forward a second time on Monday.

Republicans have accused their Democratic colleagues of a “budgetary trick” in the bill’s funding.

Toomey said Sunday that “to hide behind a veterans bill the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong.”

But McDonough said the dollar amount Republicans are worried about isn’t a Trojan horse for the Democrats’ agenda.

“If you look at the bill for $400 billion that he’s talking about, you won’t see it. You would have to go deep in some — into some charts of the back of the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] report about — to find that. Why is that fund in the bill? The fund is in the bill so that we can ensure [that] all the spending for this program is for the veterans exposed to these toxins.”

GOP-backed amendments would put a year-on-year cap on spending and do away with the funding for veterans after 10 years.

“So the impact of that would be, if we — if his estimates are wrong about what we will spend in any given year, that means that we may have to ration care for veterans,” McDonough said.

“The CBO suggested, for one program we’re currently running, the MISSION Act, that we would be spending $14 billion a year less this year. So they’re $14 billion off. And that’s just four years out from their initial investment.”

Toomey is “asking us to take their word for it in eight or 10 years,” the secretary said. “I can’t in good conscience do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for.”

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VA secretary: GOP-backed burn pit amendments would lead to ‘rationing of care for vets’

VA secretary: GOP-backed burn pit amendments would lead to 'rationing of care for vets'

Proposed amendments by Republican senators to a bill aimed at aiding veterans exposed to toxic burn pits would result in “rationing of care for vets,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said on Sunday.

“I can’t in good conscience do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for,” McDonough told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) appeared on the show earlier Sunday morning to explain Republican opposition to the bill, which was blocked last week when it fell five votes short of the tally needed to bypass the filibuster.

All Democrats and eight Republicans backed the proposal, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said Democrats will bring the bill forward a second time on Monday.

Republicans have accused their Democratic colleagues of a “budgetary trick” in the bill’s funding.

Toomey said Sunday that “to hide behind a veterans bill the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong.”

But McDonough said the dollar amount Republicans are worried about isn’t a Trojan horse for the Democrats’ agenda.

“If you look at the bill for $400 billion that he’s talking about, you won’t see it. You would have to go deep in some — into some charts of the back of the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] report about — to find that. Why is that fund in the bill? The fund is in the bill so that we can ensure [that] all the spending for this program is for the veterans exposed to these toxins.”

GOP-backed amendments would put a year-on-year cap on spending and do away with the funding for veterans after 10 years.

“So the impact of that would be, if we — if his estimates are wrong about what we will spend in any given year, that means that we may have to ration care for veterans,” McDonough said.

“The CBO suggested, for one program we’re currently running, the MISSION Act, that we would be spending $14 billion a year less this year. So they’re $14 billion off. And that’s just four years out from their initial investment.”

Toomey is “asking us to take their word for it in eight or 10 years,” the secretary said. “I can’t in good conscience do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for.”

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Toomey defends burn pit vote, citing ‘false accusations’ by Jon Stewart

Toomey defends burn pit vote, citing 'false accusations' by Jon Stewart

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Sunday defended his “no” vote on a bill to aid military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits against what he called “false accusations” from comedian Jon Stewart.

Toomey, during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper, called the former “Daily Show” host a “pseudo-celebrity” and accused the bill’s Democratic backers of “the oldest trick in Washington.”

“People take a sympathetic group of Americans — and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals — craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on their own, and dare Republicans to do anything about it,” Toomey said.

The legislation’s supporters, Toomey said, will then “unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there.”

Toomey insisted that he and his fellow Republicans don’t oppose the bill itself, but are worried instead about Democrats using it to acquire funds for unrelated matters and switch discretionary funding to mandatory.

Stewart has knocked the GOP for holding up the bill’s progress and for misinterpreting the proposal.

“Their constituents are dying,” Stewart said in DC last week.

On Sunday, Stewart blasted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for voting “no” and called claims about the spending language in the bill and the potential to misuse included funds “factually incorrect.”

All Democrats and eight Republicans voted for the bill when it was first introduced last week, but the tally fell five votes short of the amount needed to bypass the filibuster.

Toomey on Sunday emphasized the Republican push for an amendment vote on the bill.

“This is why they do this sort of thing, Jake, because it gets very deep in the weeds and very confusing for people very quickly … We are spending way too much money to use — to hide behind a veterans bill the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong. And we shouldn’t allow it,” the Pennsylvania senator said.

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PACT Act: VA secretary says Republican-backed amendments to burn pits legislation would lead to ‘rationing of care for vets’

PACT Act: VA secretary says Republican-backed amendments to burn pits legislation would lead to 'rationing of care for vets'



CNN
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Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough on Sunday pushed back against Senate Republicans blocking passage of the administration-backed PACT Act, warning that if the chamber passes GOP senators’ proposed amendment to the legislation aimed at providing care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, “we may have to ration care for veterans.”

McDonough told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that a proposed amendment from Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey would put “a year-on-year cap” on what the VA can spend to care for veterans suffering from exposure to burn pits and sunsets the fund after 10 years, telling Tapper, “I can’t, in good conscience, do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign on.”

“This has been the No. 1 priority for President Biden,” McDonough said, touting executive action steps the Biden administration has already taken to remove the burden of proof for veterans seeking care for toxic exposure. “I guess what I’d say is, these folks have waited long enough. Let’s just get it done, and also let’s not be for a proposal that places artificial caps on year by year, and then functionally, at the end of those 10 years, makes this fund go away. Let’s not sign up to that, because at the end of the day, the risk of that is going to be rationing of care to veterans.”

On Saturday, McDonough visited people demonstrating at the Capitol in support of the legislation, delivering pizzas to the group, who pledged they would stay overnight. President Joe Biden, who remains in isolation at the White House after testing positive again for Covid-19 on Saturday, told the group via a FaceTime call, “I’ll tell you what, as long as I have a breath in me, I ‘m going to fight to get this done – as long as I have a breath in me.”

Earlier on “State of the Union,” Toomey had defended his decision to lead a group of Republican senators in delaying passage of the bill.

The Pennsylvania Republican accused Democrats of attempting to “sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on their own” while reiterating that he and his fellow Republicans are “not opposed” to the core provisions of the bill.

“[Democrats] know they’ll unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there,” Toomey said in an apparent reference to comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime advocate for victims of toxic burn pit exposure who has been vocal since the procedural vote failed.

Toomey’s opposition to the bill centers on the accounting categorization of certain spending in the bill, which he said would “allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree.” He said he wants a vote on his amendment to change the spending categorization before he agrees to allow the bill to come to a vote.

“We are spending way too much money to use – to hide behind a veterans bill, the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong,” Toomey said. “And we shouldn’t allow it.”

When pressed on the text of the legislation that indicates the allocated money has to be spent on health care for veterans who were injured from toxic burn pit exposure, Toomey dismissed that interpretation of the bill.

“This is why they do this sort of thing,” said Toomey, who is not running for reelection this year. “Because it gets very deep in the weeds and very confusing for people very quickly. It’s not really about veteran spending. It’s about what category of government bookkeeping they put the veteran spending in.”

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