 All right, I just want to say something. Being with June and Pat yesterday in the White House when the President put pen to paper and signed the legislation was, I mean, I'll let June talk about it, but it was a day we live for because so many of you in this room suffered with the loss of people you loved. June and Pat, of course, Hugh and your brother. And the efforts that you made to bring this to the attention of Vermont and to the nation and then for us to be in this room with mostly widows, a few widowers from across the country who lost their loved one. And it was unknown to the community what the cause was and that they actually died directly as a result to serve in our country. And the pain that those families had to go through to fight for the health care that all veterans are entitled to and to see that achievement of people like Pat and June and Laura and you. It was just a wonderful day. And Vermonters really led, I think, the way on this with starting with our men and women in the service with our state legislature, Chip and Tom who were here and really appreciate all the leadership you provided. And it was just a case where everyone's pulling together doing the right thing, acknowledging that the cost of the war has to include the cost of caring for the warrior. And it's always, I think, really terrible where there isn't a presumption for people who are in cancer causing situations that they got that when they were in the cancer causing situation in Afghanistan, in Iraq. So it was a very humbling experience for me. And I just want to acknowledge what a special moment it was to be present. And we're here today to talk about that. But I cannot express to all Vermonters enough how proud every Vermonter should be about the women in this state who led this effort on behalf of really not the loss of their husbands, but to turn that grief into action to protect future people who get a burn pit related illness. So it was a tremendous day. And it was wonderful to hear the President and Mr. McDonough, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. So I want to finish by expressing my gratitude for being able to work with you and be a small part in making this effort ultimately succeed. We've got the agenda in general here. And we'll go to you next. We have June Heston, whose husband I knew quite well. We used to see each other on the plane quite a bit. And Mike did three tours. He was always talking about the young enlisted members of the service, always upbeat, always positive. And Alex, it's so good of you to be here too. And I know your brother, Wes, and your sister in law Laura played a major role. And I was able to be at your brother's service and loved listening to the tributes about what a wonderful mischievous man he was, always there to do the work. In Scott, we met at the first round table. Absolutely, sir. And Pat is the one who invited me to that, where it was members of your unit. And you're usually not all that talkative when it comes to anything that affects you. But you had a sense that this was not just you, but it was about other service members. And Pat often remarks about her observing my reaction because I was shocked. I just didn't know about this. And I should know about it. All people, all Vermonters, should know about it. But I just want to acknowledge my memory of that experience with you and members of your unit. And thank you for your help there. So, and I do want to just acknowledge Tom and Chip for the great work you did in the legislature in bringing us to a further heightened attention of Vermonters using your committee position to elevate this issue to the importance that I think all Vermonters know it has. So with that, I'll turn it over to Agent General Knight. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the opportunity. And I was incredibly pleased to see this come to fruition. Special thanks to you, June, Pat, Alex, certainly all the folks that were a part of this. It was a concerted and sustained effort, a lot of advocacy for what the end result was. But I'd also be remiss if I didn't note that now the work starts. Right. As local June about this, I think the important thing is making sure that there's a resources one put against it because we anticipate that once we get the word out about the PACT Act, there's going to be a surge in activities and requests for support, which is as it should be. My bigger concern, and we talked about this earlier today, there are a number of veterans that, once they separate from the service, we lose track of them. And it's disheartening for me to not have a easy mechanism to reach them. So I think some of this will come down to, in essence, a marketing campaign and making sure the word gets out to all veterans. I can certainly focus on the guard, but I talked with Mr. Gregg, our deputy agent in general, when I look across the guard at literally tens of thousands of Vermonters that we've had serve over the past 20 years, how many have separated and are probably not tracking this event? We've done great work, more than tripling the number of our veterans enrolled in the burn pit registry. I would argue there's probably 10 times that number that really need to get the word about not just getting enrolled but the timelines associated with it and what comes with the FACT Act and make sure that they know there are resources out there for them to take advantage of. But thank you, sir, for your efforts on getting this done. Thank you. June, thank you. I mean, I made comments about you, but my goodness, but nobody ever better get in your way to get something done. Well, I need to thank Senator White and Senator Ash at the time who introduced this, because it was really only three months after Mike passed away when they reached out because one of Senator White's constituents said, we've got to do something about this because of what happened with General Heston. So when they called me, I was still lost and not sure. I mean, I had a lot of emotion and anger and not sure where to put it. And I felt like that gave me an avenue. And I had already been very vocal about this issue because people weren't aware. And we weren't aware. When Mike was sick for 10 months and undiagnosed, I thought he got a parasite. I didn't know that this was something to worry about. I knew about the burn pit registry. I knew that Mike had gotten on it, never crossed my mind until about a month after Mike was diagnosed. Someone sent me an article about a young woman in the Minnesota Guard who died of pancreatic cancer. And it was deemed related to the burn pits. And so I feel like it was my honor and my duty to help all of those who were being denied disability. It took a while. And it took being a bit of a nudge. That's a nice word. But he got it. And 80% of the people applying were not getting it. And I felt that was wrong. And I needed to do something about that. And you thought regardless of rank, because your husband, of course, was high ranking, right? Right. Regardless of rank. And he said the same thing. We felt like because of his rank, maybe that was looked at differently. And it should not be. Doesn't matter what your rank is. If you served, you deserve to be taken care of. And it was, for me, that this Vermont legislation was sort of the catalyst. And then I joined the team coalition, which is the toxic exposure of our American military coalition made up of over 30 different VSOs and nonprofits. And we met monthly. And I can't even tell you how many different iterations of legislation we looked at and read and endorsed or didn't endorse. And it came down to the PAC Act. It came down. All of those pieces came together into this comprehensive piece of legislation that we knew needed to be passed. And every day it was delayed, we had service members and veterans who were detrimentally affected by that. And so I'm overwhelmed but so pleased that we actually got it done. That's fantastic. Thank you. By the way, I don't do this often, but in my office, Shannon Funarius here, Shannon, I just put your hand up. She's worked tirelessly on this since we began. And day in and day out, the follow-through is everything to keep it going. As all of us here know, and the person in our office who was just committed to this, she's a Vermonter. And it was a labor of love. But it happens to be that Shannon is also not just doing labor of love. She's doing a fierce efficacy. And she is really, really good at her job. Shannon, you played a major role in this. And I want to thank you. We all do. Thanks a lot. Alex. No, wait. Yeah. We want to go to sir. OK. No, we'll go with Alex first. Black, go ahead. So I'm the brother of Wesley Black. His story is pretty well covered through the media. We found out that he had stage four colon cancer in 2017. Yep, 2017. And then throughout that time period of just watching him fight, he had multiple families helping him. He had the Hartford Fire Department, which really pitched in and helped and was working with him to help go to shifts. And my brother's probably one of the strongest people I've ever met. He was still going to shifts, still working as much as he could. And then his story got picked up by John Stewart. And he and Mr. Stewart really worked tirelessly to bring this information to the forefront, to the media. And that's when I think he just continued to realize that was his purpose in life, was to just bring as much attention to this subject as possible. Because it was one of those things where he was more than willing to give his life for his country, but he wasn't willing to give it that way. So that was one of the things that he wanted to make sure the people in his previous units, he had two combat tours, both with the Alfa Company, third of the 172nd Mountain. One was to Ramadi in Iraq, 05-06. And then we deployed together to Afghanistan in 2010. And he really made an effort to contact as many people as he could, remind them, get on the burn pit registry, what he was going through. He didn't want to see other people go through. And so towards the end of it, I mean, the way I put it is that death didn't take him, but they came to a mutual agreement that neither one was going to give up. So yeah. And like I said, I've been in contact with Mr. Stewart's offers. He's been keeping me up to date with the PAC Act, the signing, everything like that. And it's definitely something where I don't want to see the momentum lost. And to piggyback off of the good general here, the momentum is there and reaching people that may have slipped through the cracks or just separated and just haven't been in contact, it's finding a way to reach those people. And so one of the hardest things to do is to regain momentum after it stops. So if we can figure out a good plan to market and reach these people, then the momentum never stops. Thank you, Alex. Kate, Scott. Yes, sir. So anyway, my connection to this is when we came back from Afghanistan, one of our unit members had prostate cancer. He suffered a lot. His wife family suffered a lot. He passed. And right then, my cram also had it. So we started thinking that it was maybe something that was more to it than just people getting prostate cancer. Pat Cram was a huge, huge leader for us. We all got together, as you know, that first time. Just a bunch of us up in Camp Johnson. And it's hard to believe that from there, we got here. But very appreciative. This definitely takes a lot of weight off the family member shoulders, because the last thing we want to do is become a burden to our own families, even if they don't think that that's happening. So this is one weight that they don't have to think about and worry about as they progress through. And hopefully, people are getting the resources ahead of time now so that they can survive these cancers. Right. And there were cases where soldiers died and had no benefits and had no acknowledgment that their death was directly as a result of serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it did leave their families really broken financially very insecure. And that's outrageous. That's really just outrageous. Just for the background for the press that we didn't go into, here's what's so significant about this. We had a practice sanctioned by the Department of Defense to dispose of war waste in football-sized pits where everything that was going to be disposed of was just bulldozed into this pit and burned. And these pits were in the vicinity of where soldiers slept and where soldiers ate. And the soldiers who were in that vicinity were 24 hours a day breathing these fumes. And it turned out that all around the country, but isolated here, isolated there, soldiers who were otherwise perfectly healthy, who had served in these areas were coming down with terrible cancers. And we've heard about the ones in Vermont. And this is what was so hard. They started making the connection, but they kept getting a no. They kept getting a no. And it's very similar to what this country did in Vietnam to our Vietnam veterans, who served in areas that were being defoliated with Agent Orange. And our soldiers were under the canopy, the jungle canopy, and everything was defoliating. That jungle was going into the lungs of our soldiers. And for decades, our soldiers had to fight to get access to health care and an acknowledgement by the Pentagon that was a result of Agent Orange that these soldiers got sick and in many cases died. So what this legislation does is that it gives a presumption that the cancer that that soldier has who was serving in the vicinity of a burn pit got that cancer as a result of his or her service. So it takes the burden off a soldier who's given everything like you were saying about your brother. And they don't have to hassle, improve something. Where were you on June 7th of 2006 when you were in Ramadi? And it's the only dignified way for our country to acknowledge the service. And there's in health care benefits, and then there's death benefits as well. So we don't have just this horrible, I think, conscience staining event for America to leave not only a soldier without health care, but his family without or her family without any kind of relief. So this was really, really important, overdue. But now we've got to let folks know about it. And one of the good things is when we let them know about it, it's not like they have to take on the fight that you all had to take on to show that there's a connection. They've got the presumption, oh yes, of course. 23 different cancers are all presumed to be a result of exposure to these toxic burn pits. Anybody have any things that they want to comment or depress if you have any questions? We're glad to answer those. But we've got to get the word out to our soldiers, because all they have to do is put in a claim. If they were there where there was a burn pit and they have an illness that's on one of those 23 that are listed, and that's pretty comprehensive, then they're entitled to the health care right away as much as they need. And if they die, as too many of them have, their family is going to get benefits. Yes? So I think you said that Ramonters led the way on this. How could you explain that a little bit farther? How you feel like Ramonters in our state really helped pave the way for you? Well, I think June can answer that better than me. I mean, what happened is this unit, what our office involvement was when we got contacted by Pat, who lost her husband. And Pat Cram is related to another staff for Ryan McLaren. And they told us about it, and then set up a meeting. And then was with all these, I think 18 of us there, right? Sitting around? I believe so, sir. It was about that. And there were several right there who were telling us about their illnesses. And of course, Mike had passed away by then. And then this is where I think June and Wesley, the work Laura did, started advocating for it constantly, constantly. And then when I went back to Washington, I started talking to my colleagues. And whether they were Republican or Democrat, they had lots of folks in their districts who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I started hearing from my colleagues, yeah, I heard that too, because we didn't know about it. We should, but we didn't. And I found out about it because of the advocacy of the guard. And then I was in a position to talk to members, and they were hearing the same thing. And then it became something that was a real issue for our Veteran Affairs Committee. And the pressure was just unrelenting. And one of the primary movers was the advocates, to you, Pat, Laura, right here in Vermont. And our legislature took it up. It all added up. Around what time did you did people like Pat and June start coming up to you, saying, we're getting notes. We are not getting our family members. They're getting the nice, this care for the VA. Around when did that conversation start? Was this a federal? Yeah. Yeah, when Mike was diagnosed in 2017, he, the burn pit registry was established in 2014. And when it came out, Mike said, you don't establish a registry unless you know there's a problem. And but it still didn't cross our minds when he was sick that that could have been an issue. Because there was no visibility on the fact that there were burn pits being used to dispose of all types of garbage in both Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places. And so he knew there was an issue. But we didn't think about it until we found out about someone else passing away. And that's when I started looking into all of this. And I discovered that in 2010, a 27-page memo went to every VA clinic and health provider in the country. 27 pages about the toxins that were being detected from these burn pits and how it could increase the demand on the VA. And still in 2018, 1920, 80% of the people applying were being denied because there wasn't enough evidence that the burning of all these toxic substances ignited with jet fuel. And when Congressman Welch says burn pit, you probably think of the little burning thing in the backyard. This is 20 acres, picture 15 football fields of stuff burning. And nobody was talking about it. Nobody knew. And the difference between Agent Orange, which this PACT Act also addresses, increases the benefits for people exposed to Agent Orange and gives benefits to people who were based at Camp Lejeune and were exposed to the contaminated water there. So it's a broad, very comprehensive act. The difference between Agent Orange and the burn pits is Agent Orange was used in this country to defoliate. They didn't know the impact of Agent Orange. And so they used it everywhere. We have OSHA regulations against burning Styrofoam and tires and munitions and vehicles. We have OSHA regulations. We're not allowed to do that in this country. We, individuals. But our DOD is, there is still burning going on in this country and there's still burn pits going on overseas for getting rid of garbage. But we can't do that because we know how dangerous that is. And so when I ask the question, OK, I understand there's an exemption for our federal government and that they can do this. Why? You know it's dangerous. You know it's going to cause illness and death. So when you, I know you said, oh, we heard about a young woman who has similar cancer and it clicked for you. And that's when you really started to make, around what time was that where you really started to present this issue to your local law? February of 2017. Although at that point, I didn't do anything for advocacy. I was fighting for my husband. Right. And Congressman, you said that outreach and letting people know that this is a possibility is one of the biggest things now. So I know that doing things like this helps with that. But is there any other direct outreach to veterans that you guys have planned to promote? Well, it's in the legislation, there's efforts to publicize this and make all the members aware. But the best advocates are the servicemen and women who talk to one another. And they have a relationship of trust that's unique. So there is money in the legislation to try to get the word out. But in general, you can probably speak to this of the best. I mean, so many members get back and you don't know where they are, but they need each other. And the good news is we've got a lot of veterans organizations and the VA, by the way, where the information can be provided. So if somebody shows up and is a veteran and they've got an illness, even if they didn't know it, but it's on the list of 23, then they're not going to get hassled. They'll automatically get the health care. And see, with listening to you and Pat yesterday and talking about your husbands and what was so important to them, they understood that there was a lot of kids they were working with there. They were like 18 or 19. And they're not thinking about this at all. But when they're 32, 35, this toxic exposure is when the cancer can show up. So they're not going to have any memory of what happened at 18. They'll know they are over there, but it's not that you're going to make that cause and effect. They don't have to now. They don't have to if they have any one of these illnesses, they immediately are entitled to VA benefits. And that's what you explained to me, Mike, and Mike Cram. They were so concerned about the well-being of those young people that they serve with. Will soldiers still have to put their names on that registry, on that burn pit registry? Well, they don't have to, but it's a good thing to do. I mean, the registry is about getting documentation. And in fact, it's less of a big issue. We started on this, and this is before I was involved. But the burn pit registry was being pushed by people who had a sense that there was a connection and then needed documentation to establish it. And it was an act of solidarity for members who were aware of the registry to put their name on it. So then you started getting the information that allowed us to come to some conclusions. So that was a precursor to then the act of advocacy for the PACT Act. And I feel like the registry was, that was important when we were looking at legislation in Vermont because it was the only way to put your hand up and say, this happened to me. And now that we have this legislation, I think what's important is that people, it's not great data because you can't go back in. Once you fill it out, then what's in there's in there. So my husband filled it out in 2014. He didn't get sick until 2016. You can't go back in and say he passed away from pancreatic cancer. So it's not the best data, but I believed that they were gonna be making decisions on legislation based on numbers. And I still think you wanna be counted. You wanna put your information in there. And it's not a great database. It asks questions that are irrelevant to whether or not you were exposed to toxins in your service career. But it is important to be counted. So someone can do that. Someone can put their name on that registry. However, they don't have to in order to receive care. No, absolutely not. That's correct. That's what's so really good about this legislation. The presumption is you got that illness when you were in service, if you were in the vicinity of a burn pit. So is there anything people have to do? All they have to say is you're diagnosing me with this. I was exposed to this and they were gonna receive care. That's correct. For those 23 illnesses. Okay. That's correct. There's still a broad spectrum of people who aren't going to be, who are still gonna have to show or prove that there's a connection. But if you have one of those 23, yes, that's the case. You give me an example of like three out of the 23, but where's the cancer? Prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma, those are ones that are on there because those are some of the top cancers. But it's respiratory illnesses. Your has been had. Pancreatic. Is it just forms of panther? No, it's respiratory illnesses. Asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, upper respiratory diseases as well. I think what's important is to, comes back to something you had mentioned, Congressman, is actually getting the word out and I think that's where we all are involved here. Whether we use veterans organizations, VFWs, legions, patriotic organizations, Vietnam Veterans of America, Combat Motorcycle Association, is all of our legislators, certainly, both in state and on Capitol Hill. I will certainly leverage my relationships with the Adjutants General and the Commanding General in D.C. to do the same thing that we're doing here in Vermont. That I think is far more effective. The ground level impact of that, we have much more familiarity with the folks who've been there. We'll leverage those networks and relationships to help get the word out, that in conjunction with whatever we can do nationally with the national media campaign. That's great. Thank you. And we've got Bob Burke. You wanna add, Bob of course is the Director of the Office of Veteran Affairs. Bob. For the state of Vermont. So thank you for this great effort. We talk about outreach, we talk about connections and this is certainly one way to do it. Thank you to June for bringing up. There's a lot in the PAC Act. There's a good summary on the VA.gov page. But Agent Orange, new presumptives, new areas included in the exposure, radiation exposures, new areas listed there. Camp Lejeune, I really wanna bring up the point of, you're seeing these television commercials that are talking about Camp Lejeune exposure. Okay, some of these companies are looking to take upwards of 40% of the benefits that you would be due back from when you were exposed. 40%. My office has service officers, BFW, DAD, American Legion is about to hire one. Don't go it alone. Use a service officer, it's free of charge. Why lose 40% of the benefits that you want? It's a good advice, yeah. And additionally, there's expanded medical care available under the PAC Act also. It opens up that aperture a bit more. So just. That's good. It does provide a lot more resources to the VA. It's expanding the money that the VA has because there are often budget restrictions and sometimes you can't get into the VA if you don't have some disability rating. And so that's how this will help. But people will be able to use the VA because they will have a service-connected disability. The VA, I know you kind of tease to it a little bit, anticipating this surge once this one gets out. You might see a surge in the care that's needed. Is there any, is the VA ready for that? I guess it's like the way that I can sense that. Frankly, no. But they're getting the resources. They're gearing up like everybody else. You can't do anything in anticipation of a bill signing, but once the bill is signed, we know there's money attached to it. Okay, here's our needs. How do we meet them? Is there a price tag on this? If there's money attached to it, what percentage number are you getting? There is. $180 billion. Right. Hold on, like OVA. For the PACT Act. So yes, essentially. I think it's also important to note that we're very fortunate here in Vermont. Our Vermont Veterans Affairs, their advisors, their counselors do a wonderful job helping veterans navigate the VA system. And we're also very fortunate to have our federal VA here in White River Junction in the Lakeside Clinic. They just do remarkable work. And we're very fortunate to have them. But also within the Vermont Guard, within our family programs, we have Vermont Veteran Outreach Coordinators. So there's a lot of resources out there. So to your point, Bob, folks don't need to go it alone. It can be very complex and a very daunting process. There are folks here who are well-versed in helping our veterans work through that process. And that's what we're here for. Go ahead. No worries. Glad to answer all your questions. In March, it was 834 Vermonters that were registered on the burn pit. Last time I just spoke to them, there's an updated number that we're very fortunate to have right now. So I can tell you as the end of July, so July 31st, we're up to 1,040 enrolled. And again, there are more out there. Enrolling is a choice. I would encourage it. And I would also encourage any veteran if they're not using the VA system. And we've been talking here sometimes and Congressmen had a great point. Somebody who separates from the service, having deployed once or twice or however many, 10 years later, you develop some aberrant disease, you may not put two and two together. June didn't even initially. I think we need to be better attuned to that and make sure that our veterans understand. Certainly you'd go to a primary care provider, but if it's not something that you expect to see, make sure you sign a release of information and get your medical documentation sent to the VA so they can at least have knowledge of it and perhaps make the linkage to burn pit exposure. Thank you. I want to thank everyone. You know, every once in a while, I've got a job where once in a while I can do something useful. Not often, but this was one time. It was really wonderful for Shannon and I in our office to work with all of you on this. And there's a lot of veterans who are going to be helped by the work that you did and the efforts you made to get the President's signature on this legislation. So I just want to again express my gratitude and I know all Vermonters feel thrilled at the outcome of this and what it means for veterans. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you.