Senate passes historic vote ensuring health care relief for military veterans exposed to burn pits

WASHINGTON — Help is on the way for hundreds of thousands of veterans suffering from 9/11-like toxic exposure illnesses after the U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed the most significant expansion of the Veterans Administration in modern times. According to the VA, some 3.5 million American veterans were exposed to air from poisonous burn pits in deployments overseas since the nation went to war in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Growing numbers have gotten sick or died from that exposure, having breathed in smoke all-too-similar to the toxic clouds surrounding the devastated...