Evoking the memory of his late son, in Utah on Thursday, President Joe Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the PACT ACT — a law aiming to provide the largest expansion of veterans benefits in decades.
“We only have one truly sacred obligation, and that's to equip those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home,” Biden said during remarks on Thursday. “And when they don't.”
The president and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, visited the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to promote the PACT Act, which is intended to improve health care and disability compensation for exposure to toxic substances, including burn pits that were used to dispose of trash on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We're determined to address this problem come hell or high water,” Biden declared on Thursday.
More than 348,000 veterans have had their claims approved in the last year, and about 111,000 who are believed to have toxic exposure have enrolled in health care.
The issue is personal for Biden. He’s long believed that the brain cancer that took the life of his eldest son, Beau, was caused by exposure to burn pits while he served overseas in the Delaware National Guard.
The president’s voice caught as he noted during Thursday’s ceremony that Beau Biden had lived “about 400 yards” from a large burn pit during the year he was stationed in Iraq.
The president said the law he signed a year ago was part of his “unity agenda” — something he thought both sides could agree on — and emphasized it passed with bipartisan support.
“Don’t tell me we can’t get things done when we work together,” he said.
Representing that bipartisanship, Cox was on hand for the event and even greeted Biden when he arrived in the state on Wednesday. Biden invited Cox and his wife to ride in the motorcade with him after he touched down in Utah.
Cox noted that some people wondered if a Republican governor would welcome a Democratic president, to which Cox said: “I think it’s insane that we’re having those conversations.” The remark drew applause.
Although there’s no deadline to apply, anyone who files a claim or simply signals the intent to do so by Monday could collect payments retroactive to last year if the claim is approved. The original cutoff date was Wednesday, but officials extended it because of technical difficulties with the VA website.
Thursday’s remarks wrapped up a three-state Western swing for the president marking the anniversaries of what he considers three of his biggest legislative accomplishments: the PACT Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. Biden spoke in Arizona on Tuesday and New Mexico on Wednesday.
His visit to Utah was preceded by violence. Only hours before Biden arrived in the state on Wednesday, FBI agents fatally shot a man suspected of threatening to assassinate Biden as they tried to serve a search warrant at the man’s home in Provo, about an hour’s drive south of Salt Lake City. The man had posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and made fresh threats against the president, according to court documents.
Before Utah, Biden declared a new national monument near the Grand Canyon on Tuesday in Arizona and slammed Republicans for not doing more to combat climate change. His next stop was Albuquerque, New Mexico, which included a fundraiser and a visit to the future site of a factory for building wind towers. The facility had previously produced Solo cups and plastics, but has been shuttered in recent years.