The Reserve Organization of America applauds the U.S. Senate for decisively passing the SFC Heath Robinson Honoring Our Pact Act, and looks forward to its passage in the House and signing by President Biden.

Forty percent of America’s military is in the Reserve and National Guard; the PACT Act will provide essential care to the men and women who are America’s “twice-the citizen,” serving shoulder-to-shoulder alongside their active-duty comrades, sharing every risk and performing every duty in the defense of liberty.

Passing the PACT Act is a national security issue. Young Americans considering the military must know that their government will take care of them -- and not abandon them when they come home sick or disabled.

Mothers and fathers must be confident that their sons and daughters . . . who they see go into harm’s way . . . will be cared for and not kicked to the curb once the parades are over.

Some GOP senators who opposed the bill justified opposition with concerns that VA would be overwhelmed (despite VA Secretary McDonough's repeated assertion that he supports the bill and VA could support the workload). One might ask, do these senators support a VA resourced sufficiently to do the job Americans expect it to do? A job made necessary when these leaders send young Americans to war?