House of Representatives Passes Delgado-Backed Bill to Support Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits

Statement

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Burn Pit Registry Enhancement Act, a bipartisan bill that Rep. Antonio Delgado (NY-19) cosponsors.

The Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Registry, established in 2013, tracks data on veterans exposed to toxic chemicals and fumes from open-air burn pits, which were used at military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of waste. They were also used during the Gulf War. The bipartisan Burn Pit Registry Enhancement Act that passed the House this week improves the registry by ensuring it is updated with cause of death after a veteran on the list passes away, allowing the VA, doctors, and others to further understand and address the effects of burn pits.

"Whether it's conversations with members of my Veterans Advisory Committee or other veterans across the district, it's clear that Congress is lagging behind on addressing mental and physical health issues that veterans suffer from outside of direct combat -- and burn pit exposure is one example of that," Delgado said. "To successfully address burn pit exposure, we need all the information we can get. I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this bill to enhance the Burn Pit Registry, and I hope that the Senate will take action on this quickly."

The Burn Pit Registry Enhancement Act would:

Ensure that the burn pit registry may be updated with the cause of death of a registered individual; and
Allow a designated individual or immediate family member to report the cause of death of a registered individual.
Strengthening support for veterans is one of Delgado's key priorities in Congress. The first bill he introduced as a Member of Congress is a bipartisan bill that would provide the surviving spouse of a service-disabled veteran with federal contracting preference as a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business with the VA and the Small Business Administration. Last month, Delgado led two amendments that were included in the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act that passed the House of Representatives. The first amendment, a bipartisan one, added emergency mental health services as a covered service under the bill and the other added extended-day programs--before and after school programs--to the child care services that qualify for a stipend or reimbursement under the bill.

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