Jon Stewart pushes VA to cover troops sickened by uranium after 9/11. Again, they are told to wait
Comedian Jon Stewart and troops sickened by uranium have ended a meeting at the Department of Veterans Affairs angry that once again they have been told they will have to wait to see whether the VA will connect their illnesses to the toxic base where they were deployed shortly after 9/11
WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Jon Stewart and troops sickened by uranium ended a meeting Friday at the Department of Veterans Affairs angry that once again they have been told they will have to wait to see whether the VA will connect their illnesses to the toxic base where they were deployed shortly after 9/11.
The denied claims were supposed to have been fixed by the PACT Act, a major veterans aid package bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2022 and said is one of his proudest accomplishments in office. For many veterans it has made access to care much easier.
But the bill left out the the uranium exposure that's still hurting some of the very first troops deployed in response to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Just weeks after the attacks, special operations forces were sent to Karshi-Khanabad, Uzbekistan, or K2, a badly contaminated former Soviet base that was a strategic location for launching operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
