Leading Democrats in Congress are turning their attention to service members exposed to toxins at domestic military bases and other environmental disasters who were left out of a sweeping law that extended veterans benefits to millions who were exposed to toxins in combat zones.
At a roundtable on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, representatives from more than a dozen military and veterans advocacy groups and researchers detailed health battles that service members have faced after drinking tainted water, working with radiation and hazardous chemicals, living in moldy housing, and breathing toxic fumes.
The roundtable was hosted by Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who framed the event as an effort to build on the PACT Act, the wide-ranging toxic exposure law passed in 2022. While the PACT Act addressed some toxic exposure at domestic bases, most notably water contamination at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the bill largely focused on veterans sickened by burn pits and chemicals in war zones.
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"You all know, as I do, that the PACT Act was not comprehensive," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. "It was not meant to be one-and-done. It was a down payment. And there are significant populations that still need help. Those populations are no less worthy than those who were included in the bill."
"As the medical appointments stack up, as the diagnoses stack up, as the deaths stack up, we must further our efforts to address toxic exposures in the domestic sphere and push back against the idea that our service members are only in harm's way in war zones," he added later.
From highly carcinogenic substances in underground missile silos to fuel-tainted water in Hawaii to nuclear testing in Nevada to "forever chemicals" in firefighting foam, the circumstances of the exposures recounted Tuesday changed, but the health struggles were familiar. Cancer at an unusually young age. A high rate of miscarriages. Difficulty breathing.
In addition to domestic toxic exposures, the roundtable also featured testimony about Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan, where a waste incinerator spewed toxic fumes into the air across the base from 1985 to 2001.
Also shared by the participants: feelings of being dismissed, discounted and ignored by military and Department of Veterans Affairs officials.
"There's not been a lot of lessons learned," said Mandy Feindt, an Army major who was representing military families sickened by the 2021 Red Hill jet fuel leak that tainted the drinking water at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.
"When we raise our right hand, we know that there's inherent risk," she added. "But on the flip side of that, we as an organization, as an institution, have an obligation to take care of our veterans, and that's not happening. How I see this happening is that we have to be proactive with medical care, and that starts with adequate medical testing at the first known event of toxic exposure."
"What I found going through all this and the court is that no testing equals no evidence equals no indication of long-term harm which then also equals no incident to service," she said.
Among the veteran service organizations and advocacy groups at the roundtable was the Torchlight Initiative -- a nonprofit representing current and former service members who worked with America's intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal who, as detailed in a Military.com investigative series last year, are seeing large numbers of cancer diagnoses among those who served at stateside bases where toxic exposure and contact with contaminants was widespread.
A cancer registry on the Torchlight website has reported, as of late last year, upward of 700 cases of illness and cancer among those in the missile community.
One of those former missileers who has been diagnosed with cancer, Danny Sebeck, spoke to the lawmakers about his personal health struggles Tuesday and also highlighted the need for more resources for and attention on the illnesses facing the missile community.
"We're taking a lot of casualties, and these casualties are not taken on the battlefield. Instead, they're taken in our workplace," Sebeck said. "The PACT Act does a great job of trying to cover some of that for people that are overseas, but obviously we need that documentation to cover our folks that are here."
Several of the participants in Tuesday's roundtable asked lawmakers to consider legislation that would notify veterans who may have been exposed to toxins at Atsugi and domestic bases. Others asked for studies to prove there are high rates of cancer in certain military communities.
And still others asked for the same benefits that have been extended through the PACT Act and other laws to other veterans and federal workers exposed to toxins.
"I ask that we become an equal member of the veteran community," said Dave Crete, an Air Force veteran and chairman of The Invisible Enemy, which advocates for veterans exposed to radiation at the Nevada Test and Training Range struggling to get health care and benefits because of the classified nature of their work. "And strangely enough, it's a huge ask."
In addition to using Tuesday's event to inform possible toxic exposure legislation in the future, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a co-host of the roundtable, said the testimony could be helpful as lawmakers push back on planned cuts at the VA.
The Trump administration is considering firing more than 80,000 VA employees later this year, a plan that Democrats have been pushing back against hard.
"What you're telling us, we're going to use that testimony as evidence for stopping the crisis that is unfolding at the VA," Blumenthal said. "It's a crisis that is a self-inflicted wound."
