“This has been the No. 1 priority for President Biden,” McDonough said, touting executive action already taken by the Biden administration to remove the burden of proof for veterans seeking care for toxic exposure. “I guess what I would say is these people have waited long enough. Let’s do it, and also let’s not be in favor of a proposal that puts artificial caps year after year, and then operationally, at the end of those 10 years, does that fund to go. Let’s not subscribe to it, because at the end of the day, the risk is going to be to limit care to veterans.” On Saturday, McDonough visited people who demonstrated at the Capitol in support of the legislation, delivering pizzas to the group, who promised to stay overnight. President Joe Biden, who remains in isolation at the White House after testing positive for Covid-19 again on Saturday, told the group via FaceTime call: “I’ll tell you what, as long as I have a breath left in me, I’m going to fight to make it happen this — as long as I have a breath in me.’ The Pennsylvania Republican accused Democrats of trying to “sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own” while reiterating that he and his fellow Republicans “are not opposed” to the core provisions of bill. “[Democrats] they know they’re going to unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to invent false accusations to try to get us to swallow what shouldn’t be there,” Toomey said in an apparent reference to comedian Jon Stewart , long-term. advocate for victims of toxic burn exposure who have been vocal since the procedural vote failed. Toomey’s opposition to the bill centers on the bill’s accounting categorization of some spending, which he said “will allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree.” He said he wants a vote on his amendment to change the categorization of spending before agreeing to allow the bill to pass. “We’re spending too much money to use — to hide behind a veterans bill, the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is a mistake,” Toomey said. “And we must not allow that.” When pressed on the text of the legislation indicating that the appropriated money should be spent on the health care of veterans injured by exposure to toxic burns, Toomey rejected that interpretation of the bill. “That’s why they do something like this,” said Toomey, who is not running for re-election this year. “Because it gets too deep in the weeds and it gets confusing for people too quickly. It’s not really about veterans spending. It’s about what category of government ledgers they put veterans spending in.”
