The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday on a bill to expand healthcare to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits while serving abroad, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The U.S. military used burn pits to dispose waste on foreign bases until the mid-2010s. Fumes from burning everything from rubber, chemical waste, ammunitions and human feces have caused rare cancers and respiratory illnesses in veterans.
The bill initially passed the 100-member Senate with the support of 34 Republicans and all 50 Democrats but got held up by a technical error the House swiftly corrected. After that, a group of Republicans senators changed their positions and voted against the corrected bill.
Their move came hours after Democrats announced a deal within their caucus on a climate and tax bill that would not require Republican support, and many saw the Republican senators' shift as retribution for continuing negotiations that most in Congress thought were dead.
On Tuesday, Schumer said he had reached a deal with Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who wanted a vote on an amendment that would change how money was allocated within the bill, clearing the way for a final vote on passage on Tuesday evening.
Veterans who have pushed for the bill have camped on the Capitol steps since Thursday evening, when the bill last came to the floor. U.S. President Joe Biden called the veterans on Saturday and said he stood in solidarity with them, according to Rosie Torres, a veterans' advocate.
Torres believes the Republican senators who changed their vote treated veterans like "political pawns."
"It shouldn't be about politics," Torres said. "People are dying."
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