President Joe Biden toured the Veterans Affairs Center in Fort Worth Tuesday and stopped at Tarrant County Resource Connection to see what services are available to service members and their families.
"It's a one stop shop connection for people in this county to the services and benefits they need. That's important," the president says.
The president flew into Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and was met by Mayor Mattie Parker and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, a Republican. Congressmen Jake Ellzey (R-Waxahachie) and Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) spoke at the event before Biden.
"You did your duty," Ellzey, a former Navy fighter pilot, says. "And now that I'm an elected official in Congress, it's my duty to take care of you. There's a price to be paid for every conflict we're in, and it comes for everybody some different time."
The president called on Congress to pass a measure that would ensure Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exposed to toxic chemicals would receive care. He also says eligibility should be expanded from five years to ten and announced a change that would add respiratory cancers to a list of "presumptive conditions".
"We're speeding up the process of identifying and addressing adverse impacts of military-related environmental exposure," Biden says. "We're following the science in every case, but we're also not going to force veterans to suffer in limbo."
The president says funding for VA research has been increased, but in cases where evidence does not give a clear answer, "the decision we should favor is caring for our veterans while we continue to learn more, not waiting. Not waiting."
The president urged veterans to sign up for the VA's burn pit registry and says he has directed the VA to build a more comprehensive database to understand which veterans may face long term effects and the impact.
He says 1.4 million veterans live in Texas representing 6.5% of the population.
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