#WORLD SENATE VOTE HOW TO#
Veterans and their families, not sure how to get health care or benefits, often called her non-profit “asking for help, begging for help.” We got the bill passed for a registry, but obviously that wasn’t enough.” “So we thought, let’s pass a bill for a registry. Year after year we walked with these families,” she said. “We had one thing in common, the government was putting up this tactic of delay and deny. Torres said she, veterans and military families began walking the halls of Congress more than a decade ago, trying to get lawmakers to change the system. Torres founded the non-profit organization alongside her husband, Army Captain Le Roy Torres, after they experienced “delay, denial of benefits and ineffective treatment from his physician” for constrictive bronchiolitis and toxic brain injury. “Rosie, from her garage, out of the necessity of bankruptcy and despair, brought all this together,” Stewart said.
Capitol last week, Stewart lauded several veterans service organizations and their leaders, including Rosie Lopez Torres, co-founder and executive director of Burn Pits 360, for working together over years to get the legislation on Congress’ to-do list. Along the way, veterans service organizations and advocates got the attention of Jon Stewart, a long-time advocate for 9/11 first responders and a celebrity comedian. Veterans and surviving family members began traveling to Washington, D.C., often at their own expense to ask Congress to do something, anything to help. The Department of Veterans Affairs has provided care to some veterans, but many have been asked to prove their illnesses were connected to their military service in order to qualify for health care and other benefits. But even so, nearly 80% of all disability claims related to burn pits have been denied by the Veterans’ Administration.” “After returning home, many veterans developed terrible diseases because of their exposure to these toxic waste dumps. “Over the last two decades, an estimated 3.5 million service members were exposed to dangerous chemicals,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said this week. Senate, in an overwhelming 84-14 bipartisan vote, agreed to expand health care and benefits those veterans will receive, in long-sought, sweeping legislation brokered by Montana Sen. The legacy of those burn pits followed thousands of military members back to the United States, where they have suffered from cancer, neurological disorders and numerous other illnesses. soldiers deployed to bases in Afghanistan and Iraq often lived and worked alongside large pits where batteries, plastics, rubber, chemicals and other garbage would be lit on fire with jet fuel.