Moreno, Husted to gut PACT Act?

SANDUSKY — A local activist fears U.S. senators want to defund hard-fought benefits for combat veterans suffering from illnesses after serving in conflicts from Vietnam to the Global War on Terror. "Our veterans willingly went off to war, and when they returned home sick, they had to fight for their healthcare; now their government is abandoning them," said Sandusky resident Susan Zeier. "It's a national disgrace that they may have to fight again to save what they shouldn't have had to fight for in the first place." Zeier is the mother-in-law of Heath Robinson, the namesake of the federal Honoring Our PACT Act, a 2022 bill that granted service members new health care benefits, including coverage of service-related illnesses related to toxic exposure. Robinson, an Ohio National Guardsman who fell ill after exposure to toxic burn pits while serving in the Middle East, died in 2020 at age 39. Answers wanted On Friday, the U.S. Senate, including Ohio's U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, voted against a non-binding resolution to guarantee funding for the PACT Act. Zeier is a part of a group of local citizens, known as "Firelands Indivisible," which plans to visit Moreno's Cleveland office today and question the senator's opposition to the legislation. The group, which draws its members from Erie and Huron counties, returns to Moreno's office after an attempted visit last month went poorly, Zeier said. They were initially denied entry, with US Marshals being summoned. The group was eventually admitted into the office, instructed to leave a list of questions for the senator and were promised a reply. "The senator's aide told us he would give the message to Moreno, and we would get replies," Zeier said, adding that the group had not heard back from Moreno to date. The group asked Moreno about veterans' healthcare, staffing cuts to the Veterans Administration, the Department of Government Efficiency, the firing of Department of Veterans Affairs staffers and civil rights issues. The group also implored Moreno not to vote to defund or fundamentally change the PACT Act. PACT Act in danger? The PACT Act is a law that expanded health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances. The law provides generations of veterans — and their survivors — "with the care and benefits they've earned and deserve," and ones that were routinely denied prior to the PACT Act's passage, according to the Veterans Administration. The Veterans Administration's website states the PACT Act is perhaps the largest health care and benefits expansion in the agency's history. At around 3 a.m. Friday, Moreno and Husted voted against Amendment 659, which would have ensured "full and uninterrupted funding" for health care and benefits paid to veterans of conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, who suffered the effects of toxic exposure, according to a reading of the amendment. On its return trip to Moreno's office today, the group hopes to finally receive answers to their questions and plans to ask the senator why he voted to potentially defund the act. A widow's appeal Danielle Robinson, Heath's widow and a Sandusky native, wants to know why the senators voted against protecting the legislation and reminded them of sacrifices made by U.S. veterans. She sent a letter to the senators' offices demanding answers on the lawmakers' lack of support. "(Veterans) provided you with national security, but now you need to provide them with secure healthcare," Danielle Robinson wrote. "(Sergeant First Class) Heath Robinson gave his life to this country and he was proud of it. I asked him when he was on his deathbed if he would do it all over again. He firmly said, 'yes!'" Calls to Husted's office were not returned. A call to Moreno's office was not returned until after the newspaper's publication of Danielle Robinson's letter. Reagan McCarthy, Moreno's communications director, contacted the newspaper on Monday and declined to answer questions over the phone. Questions were sent to McCarthy by email Monday afternoon.