This legislation has been passed by the house and we want this legislation to be passed as is in the Senate without amendments or changes. 

Below are phone and email scripts and contacts to the Senators Office:

Senator Brown’s Office Phone Numbers: Washington DC 202-224-2315, Cleveland 216-522-7272, Cincinnati 513-684-1021, Columbus 614-469-2083, Lorain 440-242-4100

Senator Portman’s Office Phone Numbers: Washington DC 202-224-3363, Columbus 614-469-6774, Cincinnati 513-684-3265, Cleveland 216-522-7095, Toledo 419-259-3895

Phone Script for the Honoring our PACT Act:

My name is FIRST & LAST NAME and I reside in the TOWN and STATE. As one of your constituents, I ask that Senator LAST NAME support the Honoring our PACT Act.

This is a comprehensive solution to provide VA health care and benefits to veterans who suffered toxic exposures during military service. Not only would the PACT Act provide veterans health care and disability benefits, it would also establish a permanent presumptive framework to address any toxic exposure, foreign or domestic, past, present, and future. I ask Senator LAST NAME to do the right thing for veterans who are sick and dying.

 I ask Senator LAST NAME to vote YES when the PACT Act comes to the Senate floor this year. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Emails:

Senator_Brown@brown.senate.gov

Michael_Dustman@portman.senate.gov

Email Script: 

As a voter in your state, I would like to bring to your attention to an important bill that supports veterans exposed to toxic substances.

From Vietnam to the present day, members of the U.S. military have been exposed to toxic substances, both at home and abroad, which have killed many more than our enemy. For years, our government has hidden the ill effects of these toxicants from those who were exposed. Moreover, for years, the VA has denied their resulting claims.

On March 3, 2022, H.R. 3967, the Honoring our PACT Act, passed the House of Representatives by a 256 to 174 vote.  

March 29, 2022, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a hearing on H.R. 3967, the Honoring Our PACT Act.  

The bill, when passed into law, would:

• Concede exposure to burn pits and toxic environments;
• Provide healthcare based on toxic exposures;
• Add 24 burn pit and toxic exposure-related diseases;
• Add hypertension as a presumptive disease associated with Agent Orange Exposure;
• Provide a framework for establishing presumptive diseases in the future;
• Expand radiation-risk activities to include veterans who participated in radiation cleanup at Enewetak Atoll and Palomares, Spain;
• Including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll as conceded locations for Agent Orange Exposure;
• Require registries for veterans who served at Ft. McClellan and for those exposed to PFAS chemicals.

We need to make it right for the over 3.5 million veterans suffering from the long-term health effect of exposure to toxic agents considered to be, in many instances, just as lethal as wounds inflicted by shrapnel and bullets.

We urge Chairman Tester and Ranking Member Moran, of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, to move this bill out of committee immediately and onto the Senate floor for a vote and passage.

My family and I thank you.

Jared F. Smith
President of the Washington County Veterans Service Commission
Veterans Service Commissioner
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Past President of the Ohio State
Association of Veterans Service Commissioners
www.OSAVSC.org

Washington County Veterans Service Office
706 Pike Street · Suite 1
Marietta, Ohio 45750
740│568-9009 (Office)
740│398-4584 (Cell)
740│568-9019 (Fax)
WCVSO.Commissioner@gmail.com