Dear neighbor,

I have exciting news to share. Earlier this week, after years of advocacy by Texas veterans, President Biden signed the Honoring Our PACT Act into law.

This landmark new law will improve health care and benefits for millions of veterans injured by burn pits and other toxins during their service. The Honoring Our PACT Act covers generations of veterans, including those who were exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

My office has developed online resources to help veterans understand the benefits of this new law. To learn more about the Honoring Our PACT Act, click here.

My work to help burn pit survivors began more than five years ago, when retired Army Captain Le Roy Torres and his wife Rosie visited my office in San Antonio. Le Roy and Rosie are the co-founders of Burn Pits 360, a nonprofit that advocates for veterans and service members injured by burn pits.  At the time, there was little public understanding about the dangers of fumes from these open-air incinerators, which the military used for trash disposal during recent conflicts in the Middle East.

Meeting with Le Roy and Rosie Torres (to my immediate right and left) and other advocates for burn pit survivors.

Le Roy, a member of the Army Reserves, deployed to Iraq in 2007. He came home with crushing headaches, dizziness, and a cough he couldn’t shake. After a years-long effort to get diagnosed, he learned that burn pits were responsible for his illness.

As Le Roy shared his story, I was taken aback by how little the VA was doing to help veterans like him. San Antonio is Military City U.S.A., and I’ve always believed that we have a sacred obligation to help our veterans. Instead, the federal government was making burn pit survivors navigate a complicated bureaucratic process to get basic care.

After our meeting, I organized forums across Texas to hear from veterans about the toll that burn pits had taken on their health. In Congress, I became part of a coalition of legislators who were determined to make change for burn pit survivors.

In 2018, I introduced the Family Member Access to Burn Pit Registry Act, legislation to improve tracking of burn pit-associated illnesses and deaths. Over the next four years, I introduced and signed onto more than a dozen more bills related to burn pit illnesses.

Finally, those efforts cumulated in the Honoring Our PACT Act, a bipartisan bill with support in both the House and Senate. The bill was designed to help generations of veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service, including Agent Orange. After extensive debate and a series of stops and starts, the bill finally passed, and President Biden signed it into law on August 10, 2022.

The Honoring Our PACT Act will change the lives of millions, and I want all veterans to know about the new benefits they can receive. If you have questions about what this new law means for you, I encourage you to call my office at 210-348-8216.

Thank you,

Congressman Joaquin Castro