Military veterans now have more coverage in health benefits from their time spent in service.

President Joe Biden recently signed the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District Representative Randy Feenstra says adds 23 illnesses to the list of other illnesses that are covered medically through Veterans Affairs for toxic exposure and illnesses while veterans were serving our country. Feenstra tells Raccoon Valley Radio he was happy to vote in favor of the finalized version of the bill after it came back to the House from the Senate.

“I think that’s really important that we do take care of our veterans and that we give them every ability to get high quality care when they have issues concerning where they were and illnesses that might have occured because of it.”

When the original bill passed the House initially and was sent over to the Senate, additional time was spent on the legislation before coming back to the House for final approval. Feenstra believes the reason the bill took longer in the Senate to review is because of trying to understand the different illnesses and how they impacted the veterans.

“I think over time we got the data, we got the certificates that says, ‘Hey, there’s a direct correlation here that we’re seeing,’ and that’s probably why (is) it took time. However, it’s not acceptable for all the years that it took. It should’ve been done a lot earlier than this. But I know, just talking to the Veterans Administration and stuff, it was a lot of work trying to figure out what illnesses need to be covered.”    

The PACT Act was signed into law last month.