Watch: Biden delivers remarks on anniversary of the PACT Act | NBC News

[Music] oh no [Music] [Applause] please have us to take a seat if you have one Sarge thank you for that introduction you know uh it's important for two reasons one I have been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 38 times and I don't think most people know this audience may know how many uh women we have in combat how many women are only doing their part but doing jobs that most people didn't think women would do or could do and the sarge is an example of just that you know a Blackhawk helicopter is anyway I'll go into it all but the point is that uh you know Serge you what happened to you this happened to thousands of people cub and I talked about that really the governor and I about what we're doing here you know you and your fellow veterans are the heart soul and the Very spine and sinew of this generation I mean that's a fact you know only one percent of you volunteer protect all of us that's what it is and it's all volunteer and I want to thank Dr Angela Williamson a great team here at Salt Lake City VA for hosting us for taking care of our hero [Applause] [Music] Mary Mendel Hall thank you for the passporting of the city I appreciate that opportunity and Governor Spencer Cox thank you for your hospitality but much more importantly thank you for taking care of our veterans and uh for bringing along your beautiful family and by the way [Applause] years ago I was just a little I lived here years ago when John Kerry was the nominee for the uh for president of the Democratic Party he talked with me about the possibility of being vice president his honest ticket and I wouldn't we just was a real friends I said no I I didn't want to be vice president but had I known that his vice president I get secret service and had I known that meant my daughters had Secret Service and my granddaughters I would have fought even harder for him at the time and uh and now my I have a bunch of grandchildren they all have Secret Service and my daughter has Secret Service and you know it's just wonderful I'm not sure what they think about it but it is wonderful anyway thank you very very much and look before I begin I want to say a word about the devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 36 lives in Maui and Hawaii I uh we have just approved a major disaster Declaration of for Hawaii which will get AIDS in the hands of the people desperate and desperately needing help now they've lost anyone who's lost a loved one whose home has been damaged or destroyed is going to get help immediately and I've directed that we assert support to these Brave firefighters and First Responders an emergency personnel working around the clock there risking their lives I just got off the phone before I got here for a long conversation with Governor Josh Green this morning let him know I'm going to make sure the state has everything it needs for the federal government to recover the FEMA administrator griswell will be in Miami tomorrow in Maui tomorrow and I've directed her to streamline any process which requests for help and survivors register for immediate federal assistance without delay FEMA is surging Disaster Assistance Personnel on the island and they're going to help survivors get access to federal assistance and and and and you know anybody wants to know out there where to go if this is televised that they can go to disasterassistance.gov disasterassistance.gov to learn if you're eligible for assistance and I've ordered all available Federal assets on the island including the U.S Coast Guard the Navy third Fleet in the U.S army to assist local emergency response Crews tonight along with the Hawaiian National Guard we're working as quickly as possible to fight these fires and evacuate residents and tourists in the meantime our prayers were the people of Hawaii but not just our prayers every asset we have will be available to them and we've seen they've seen their homes their business destroyed and some have lost loved ones and it's not over yet but now for the reason I'm here today I've said it many times before when I started saying it 30 years ago I got criticized occasionally for saying it I said we have many obligations as a nation we only have one truly sacred obligation that's to equip those we send into Harm's Way care for them and their families when they come home and when they don't one year ago today we met that sacred obligation when I signed after fighting so damn hard for The Pact Act signed into law I want to thank all the veterans organizations for helping to make that happen because it matters pack that is one of the most significant laws ever signed tell veterans exposed to toxic materials and the help of families recover as well as receive compensation you remember what we mean by burn piss you know when we first started using the phrase burn pits people kind of looked at us for the bird pit is what you saw basically the giant burp is the first one everybody was aware of was a 911 when the buildings came down remember all those firemen that died of cancer and how we they got covered when firefighters first responded that's what happened now the burn pits in Iraq where we're talking about and in other countries in Afghanistan even in parts of throughout the mid the the Middle East they're the size of football fields 100 up to 100 yards long 20 yards to 30 yards wide and eight to ten feet deep and everything you can imagine is thrown into these pits to incinerate them the waste of War tires poisonous chemicals jet fuel and so much more toxic smoke thick with poison spreads through the air and into the lungs of our troops and their hooches where they lived there by these facilities I know I've been I've been there in Iraq and Afghanistan I've seen them and you can smell it in the air you can sometimes see it and when these troops came home many of the fittest and best trained Warriors that we ever sent anywhere exposed to these burn pits they weren't the same and thousands of troops and they're had to live in their hooches not far from proximity from these burnt pits the one in in Iraq my son was about 400 yards from one of the burn pits living there for a year in his suits they breed that toxic material sometimes for months at a time and the case of my son and his buddies for an entire year causing headaches numbness dizziness cancer this is not about my son but just an example how close it was my son Beau was one of those services he went the fittest guy in his unit and came home and he came home but died of leoblastoma it's personal for my family but it's also personal for so many of you under secretary Secretary of the VA McDonough I just had a long talk he couldn't be here today but he can tell you we're determined to address this problem come hell or high water and compensate these veterans and their families who have suffered from the consequences of this tragedy it was part of my Unity agenda as I called them when I did my first state of the union last state of the union to try to bring the country together on things I thought we'd all could agree on first was beating the opioid endemic and we're working like Helena tackling Mental Health crisis and there is a mental health crisis in America supporting our veterans supporting our veterans look I delivered that speech in March of last year and a few months later in August when veterans groups making the case never giving up bipartisan pact Act was on my desk to sign a law don't tell me we can't get things done when we work together Democrats and Republicans work together to get that done in particular I want to thank Senator John Tester the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee and representative Mark Mark to decay excuse me takeno as well the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs committee for their leadership they never stopped fighting on behalf of the veterans and their families we learned a horrible lesson after Vietnam how harmful effects of exposure to agent orange took years to manifest themselves in veterans leaving too many veterans unable access care when they needed and deserved it and we had they had to prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that that was the cause of their problem which was difficult to prove in the long term that's why I supported the Asian orange Act of 1991 supporting veterans exposed the horrible substances in Vietnam well I don't want to see that again The Pact act means today's veterans and their families won't suffer the same painful frustrating delays in denials and here's what is the law does it empowers the Veterans Administration the VA to move quicker to determine if a veteran qualifies for the benefits of the law benefits like monthly disability compensation and regular toxic exposure screenings it also means new facilities new research and more health care workers at VA hospitals and includes nearly and one of the veterans raises me today nearly 30 million dollars for new outpatient clinics right here in Salt Lake City right here [Applause] [Music] and for families that suffered the ultimate loss it means potential access to life insurance tuition benefits for the surviving family members home loan assistance the monthly stipends which cannot replace one one of the Breadwinners in their home but it sure in hell can help for example surviving spouse of the veteran who died from toxic illness when two children could be eligible for roughly two thousand three hundred dollars a month for the rest of his or her life I'm proud to announce that over 340 000 veteran survivors will already benefiting the law just one year after it was signed including over 2 000 veterans here in Utah veterans are getting it [Music] veterans are getting the care they deserve in every corner of the country for example there's an army veteran who served in Iraq now receiving care for prostate cancer via the at the VA in Seattle you heard about the pack act and he applied for benefits the day I signed the law because he's already a VA patient he didn't need to submit medical records or get separate exams his application was approved he's now received retroactive payments from the date the law was signed another Army veteran now A New Hampshire National Guard with multiple deployments to Iraq and Kuwait learned that he had a that a friend and a soldier she deployed with were diagnosed with breast cancer just in case she decided to get toxic exposure screening free at all veterans and enrolled in the VA health care she too was diagnosed with breast cancer it caught the cancer early and she's currently being treated for it and she's being granted 100 service connected eligibility Under The Pact act tripling her monthly payment benefits for folks it matters this matters folks we have a moral obligation this goes beyond the financial we have a moral obligation to respond to this and I'm here today to spread the word so every veteran or surviving family member knows how to access benefits of this law because these conditions have already taken such a toll on so many veterans and their families I directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat all 23 presumptive conditions in this law as applicable immediately like chronic bronchitis [Music] chronic bronchitis asthma many types of cancer including any type of reproductive cancer it's something we've been fighting for for a long time veterans are veterans Vietnam air veterans are entitled to compensation for hypertension this is now the law let me give you an example of why it matters the Widow of a 28-year army veteran in Connecticut applied for survivor benefits after her husband died from gastrointestinal cancer that was before the backpack was passed and our claim was denied in April of this year she learned about the PAC deck and reapplied one month later because of her husband's cancer she's now presumed to be a service connected Under The Pact act she claimed was approved now she's eligible survivors compensation for her son and further his education and the GI Bill I'm urging veterans from those Decades of war in Vietnam and Iraq Afghanistan to enroll the va's health care to get screened for toxic exposure and to promptly file your claim and for those watching this home at home visit va.gov pack p-a-c-t va.club I want to say it again va.gov pack file a claim or apply for VA Health Care Now or go to your local VA hospital and reach out to the veterans service organization like Disabled American Veterans American Legion Wounded Warriors Project the Veterans of Foreign Wars if you need additional assistance there's no deadline to submit a claim but if you want to be eligible to receive retroactive benefits for last year you have to sign up by Monday so apply today the VA will move as quickly as possible to resolve your claim and get the benefits you deserve we're also taking other important steps to help the nation's veterans and service members we're helping connect veterans to registered Apprentice programs so they can transfer the skills they learn in the military to good paying jobs here at home now that we're having the largest building boom in 40 years the VA is launching a transition assistance grant program for organizations that help veterans and their spouses find jobs when they leave the military the unemployment rate for veterans has hit an all-time low it is now a 2.8 percent 2.8 percent again I'm proud of that we've made that a priority since we got novels and this spring I signed an executive order directing the VA to cut red tape and give veterans who need assistance at home more flexibility in picking who will be their caregiver earlier this summer I went to North Carolina and I signed an executive order at Fort Liberty this call is the most comprehensive set of administrative actions in the history and to support the economic security of military veterans their spouses caregivers and survivors like making it easier for a military spouse to find a job in the federal government expanding access to child care for military families you know when I first took office I signed the American Rescue plan which invested 17 billion dollars for veterans health care including mental health care and suicide prevention to deal with the fact that more veterans more veterans have been and continue to die of suicide than in battle over the past two decades more veterans die of suicide and all the stories I heard my home state these people would call up and looking for help my husband he needs help and he couldn't get through get back to you 17 17 a day of suicide Nationwide 17 a day even one veteran kind of suicide particularly because you couldn't get the help immediately there's one too many the VA is doing everything they can do it including expanding mental health screening increasing access to Legal Financial support hiring more mental health professionals which was one where's my commander that was here one that you brought up we're hiring more all right [Music] including through a proven program that recruits veterans to help other veterans understand what they're going through to get the help they need I can notice it could stop for another second you know one of the things about the military you're taught to be tough stand alone do what you need to do that's awful hard when you're having problems you think you have a mental health problem to ask for help it's really hard there's no difference between having a mental health problem and breaking your arm or your leg no difference and you should not be worried about asking for help any more than you would if you broke your leg we have to make sure people know there's nothing to be ashamed of seeking that help you know think about this I don't know how many of my tens of thousands of miles I've traveled through War zones I don't know anybody who would not wonder whether or not what these veterans have seen cause and cause post-traumatic stress it's enormous it's enormous problem they just need help to get through this we're working to end veterans homelessness as well no one should be homeless in this country especially not those who served it period last year the VA found permanent housing for over 40 000 veterans and set a goal of permanently housing at least another 38 000 this year and I'm proposed into Congress join in and triple the number of rental assistance vouchers for extremely low-income veterans now now [Music] [Applause] sharing a bipartisan budget agreement earlier this summer and preventing an economic collapse we stopped Draconian cuts and Veterans Services that agreement including dedicated funding for our veterans health so that the health care of those who serve so brave in this country won't be used as a bargaining chip going forward to try to get other things cut the agreement also fully funds The Pact Act and expand nutrition benefits that will now be available to our veterans after serving this nation no veteran should go hungry no veterans should go home [Music] just two weeks ago I signed an executive order to knit significantly strengthened how the military handles sexual assault we're moving the Authority for addressing sexual assault claims to specialized independent military units outside the chain of command that was a long time in coming but it's a big deal [Music] and we all owe our thanks to senator gillibrand in New York for her leadership initially she did not give up so she got it done and there's more to do but we've made a lot of progress we've got to keep going let me close with this after I signed the pack act in the law last August I handed the pen as a tradition when you sign a piece of legislation to pick a significant piece you have the people who are responsible for getting it done for you on the stage with you when you sign it and you traditionally gave the pen to the most consequential person who helped that happen we got finished and I signed the pen to the Widow and daughter of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson a veteran For Whom the bill was named his widow was also my wife's guest to the State of the Union a family that suffered the greatest of losses but turned their pain into purpose my hand at the pen not to the mother but to Sergeant Robinson's little girl lovely little kid sitting next to me and she looked at me she said thank you for my daddy thank you for my daddy I think she was talking to all of us everyone who fought so hard came together to keep our promise to the veterans and to keep Faith with our heroes that's courage that's character that's who all of you are not hyperbole I want to thank you all Democrat Republicans Independence for your work to get this bill to my desk and to get it signed as I said I was going to sign that bill come hell or high water no matter how long I had to keep the Congress in it's just another reminder of what we know to be true we are the United States of America there's nothing nothing beyond our capacity when we decide to work together to get it done we never fail when we do that never on any major issue so God bless you all and let's continue to work together and God save our veterans thank you foreign

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Length: 25min 35sec (1535 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023