White House unveils effort to address military toxic exposures

The big picture: The new effort, announced on President Biden's first Veterans Day in office, focuses on increasing the VA's ability to identify connections between health hazards and resulting disabilities in veterans.

• The Biden administration hopes to achieve this by in part developing and testing models to prove a causal relationship between hazards and conditions, adding new presumptive conditions based on those models and expanding training for VA and non-VA health providers.

What they're saying: "Taken together, these actions will improve our understanding of the health effects of military-related exposures, educate providers and veterans about these exposures, and provide timelier access to health services and benefits for individuals who were exposed," the White House said.

• "At the same time, the Administration will work with Congress on its encouraging ongoing efforts to ensure we are able to quickly and fairly recognize additional presumptions of service-connected disabilities, in order to live up to our sacred obligation to provide veterans the care they have earned," it added.

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