Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
CLEVELAND, OH – Today, on Veterans Day, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) hosted a virtual roundtable with Ohio veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service. Earlier this year, Brown reintroduced legislation to help veterans who have been harmed by exposure from toxic burn pits. The bicameral, bipartisan bill, the SFC Heath Robinson Burn Pit Transparency Act, is named in honor of Heath Robinson, a central Ohio veteran who passed away last year and was exposed to burn pits while deployed. Brown will take the veterans’ priorities back to Washington, where the senator sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
“This is a cost of going to war that we have to take responsibility for as a country. On the Vets Committee, we have a long history of putting party politics aside to work on behalf of the people who served this country, and I’m hopeful we can make progress on this bill, to take steps to help connect the dots between exposure to burn pits and the illnesses that so many of our veterans have developed,” said Brown.
In May, a modified version of Brown’s bipartisan legislation was reported out of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee as a part of a larger legislative package, the Comprehensive and Overdue Support for Troops (COST) of War Act of 2021. Specifically, Brown’s bill would:
- Require VA to document a veteran who may have been exposed to burn pits and notify Congress of the case and several data points related to the veteran’s case and exposure to burn pits; and
- Require VA to submit a biannual report to Congress identifying how many veterans report burn pit exposure, how many make disability claims and what the outcome of those claims are, a comprehensive list of conditions reported by burn pit exposed veterans, the location of burn pits, and whether veterans have died.
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