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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Veterans exposed to toxic2 chemicals say they've won a historic expansion of VA care
A bill known as the PACT4 Act, which will lend health care services and disability benefits to veterans exposed to toxic substances, looks likely to become law next month.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
As we approach Memorial Day weekend, the military cemetery5 that I drive by from time to time has a flag by every grave. And there's huge news for veterans. Vets6 made sick by toxic exposures will get VA coverage7 through a bill that is slated8 to pass next month. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports It's going to be a bittersweet moment.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE9: Vietnam vets were exposed to a carcinogenic herbicide, Agent Orange, as early as 1962. The Department of Veterans Affairs has acknowledged some of their illnesses as service-connected in the six decades since. In this last decade, Rosie Torres got involved.
ROSIE TORRES: For my husband - 13 years ago, I made him a promise as they were wheeling him into the operating table to have his lung biopsy.
LAWRENCE: Her husband, Le Roy, had deployed10 to Iraq and lived next to a massive field of burning trash. Back home, he had unexplained breathing problems and headaches. But the VA told him it wasn't related. The Torres family started the burn pit registry in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of vets signed up. And a few years later, the VA made an official government registry of vets who believe burn pits made them sick. Over the past decade, veterans organizations pressured Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JON STEWART: Go back to your district and dig a 10-acre pit.
LAWRENCE: Advocates included comedian11 Jon Stewart. Here he is at a house hearing in January.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEWART: And then burn that pit 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But tell your constituents12, don't worry. Fifteen years from now, we're going to convene13 a panel to discuss whether or not the health issues that you're having are in your head or not.
LAWRENCE: Despite some concerns about the cost, veterans health appears to be one of the few bipartisan spaces left in Washington. A Senate compromise has produced a comprehensive $200 billion bill that will cover toxic exposures from Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf14 War and Vietnam. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough described it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DENIS MCDONOUGH: The bill that has now been agreed to will be arguably the biggest expansion of authority here at VA in our history.
LAWRENCE: For Rosie Torres, it's bittersweet. Le Roy is still struggling. He's on oxygen 24 hours a day now.
TORRES: So I can't give a prognosis. But, you know, I don't want to go by the medical books. You know what I mean? I'd rather live just day by day.
LAWRENCE: But she says this comes too late for others she can name, veteran activists15 who died just months ago - Marine16 vet1 Kate Hendricks Thomas, National Guardsman Wesley Black and Sergeant17 First Class Heath Robinson, for whom the bill is named.
TORRES: How do you celebrate something, you know, that you've been fighting for for so long, but you really know that that victory validates18 that none of those deaths were in vain once this bill passes?
LAWRENCE: President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law as early as next month. Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF NOMAK'S "FORCE FOR TRUTH")
1 vet | |
n.兽医,退役军人;vt.检查 | |
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2 toxic | |
adj.有毒的,因中毒引起的 | |
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3 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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4 pact | |
n.合同,条约,公约,协定 | |
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5 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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6 vets | |
abbr.veterans (复数)老手,退伍军人;veterinaries (复数)兽医n.兽医( vet的名词复数 );老兵;退伍军人;兽医诊所v.审查(某人过去的记录、资格等)( vet的第三人称单数 );调查;检查;诊疗 | |
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7 coverage | |
n.报导,保险范围,保险额,范围,覆盖 | |
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8 slated | |
用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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10 deployed | |
(尤指军事行动)使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 ); 施展; 部署; 有效地利用 | |
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11 comedian | |
n.喜剧演员;滑稽演员 | |
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12 constituents | |
n.选民( constituent的名词复数 );成分;构成部分;要素 | |
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13 convene | |
v.集合,召集,召唤,聚集,集合 | |
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14 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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15 activists | |
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 ) | |
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16 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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17 sergeant | |
n.警官,中士 | |
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18 validates | |
v.证实( validate的第三人称单数 );确证;使生效;使有法律效力 | |
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