Biden, who was isolating due to a positive Covid diagnosis, had over the weekend connected with the veterans over FaceTime and sent them pizza.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' global travel advice was repealed on 1 October 2021. Many of those advocates and veterans had camped outside the Capitol the past few days to demand Republicans immediately pass the measure. Schumer at one point looked up at Stewart, who was in the third row of the gallery, and quipped “we’re waiting on two people.” After the vote officially passed, Stewart smiled and shook hands with those surrounding him in the chamber, while a lone person cheered. Veterans and advocates, like Stewart, lined the upper rungs of the chamber quietly watching Tuesday evening as votes on the bill dragged on for more than two hours. GOP senators who voted against the final bill included Mike Crapo (Idaho), James Lankford (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Mitt Romney (Utah), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) and Richard Shelby (Ala.).īiden has championed the legislation and previously indicated he believes his late son, Beau, may have contracted his brain cancer from burn pits used during the Iraq War.

Paul’s would have helped pay for the bill by reducing aid to other countries, and Blackburn’s would have expanded certain coverage under community care programs. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.). In the end, Toomey’s amendment failed, along with two others proposed by GOP Sens. “You take this sympathetic group, craft legislation to address their problems, and then sneak in something that’s completely unrelated that could never pass on its own.” “We are witnessing a very old Washington trick playing out on what might be an unprecedented scale,” Toomey said. The Republican was still asserting that position just hours before Schumer announced the two parties had reached a deal and defended his push even as he ultimately relented on Tuesday.

Toomey had insisted that his amendment only require a simple majority to pass rather than a 60-vote threshold. Haggling over amendment votes dragged into Tuesday as senators barreled through an intense to-do list they’re trying to complete before leaving for an extended August recess. The Senate still descended into an intense blame game over the delay. “I think, in the end, the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the final result.” “Look, these kinds of back-and-forths happen all the time in the legislative process, you’ve observed that over the years,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. But Republicans sought to downplay the delay Tuesday, even as they approved the same legislation they had blocked last week. on Monday, after days of backlash, GOP leadership was promising the legislation would pass quickly.

That same language was in the bill when it passed the chamber in June.īy the time senators returned to D.C. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who argued a “budgetary gimmick” in the bill could allow certain funds to be used for programs unrelated to veterans’ health care. GOP senators denied that was the reason, instead pointing to criticisms from Sen.

So when Republicans blocked the unrelated veterans bill shortly after that deal was announced, Democrats quickly accused them of retaliation given they’d helped pass the toxic substances legislation in an 84-14 vote in June.

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