Jon Stewart Calls Out Congress in Push to Help Sick Vets: We Seem to Have ‘Endless Funds to Wage War and No Funds for the Consequences of War’

Over the past few years, Jon Stewart became one of the most high-profile public faces in the fight for 9/11 first responders. Now he’s helping take up the cause of sick veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits while serving.

Stewart was in D.C. last week as part of efforts by Burn Pits 360 — founded by U.S. Army Captain Le Roy Torres and his wife Rosie — to take care of veterans whose health was significantly impacted by exposure to those burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rosie Torres, Stewart, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand appeared with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday to talk about this cause.

Stewart said Torres reached out to him over his public advocacy for 9/11 first responders because “there were so many analogous illnesses and exposures with the burn pits… and the idea was to draw up a burn pit bill, a toxic exposure bill, that would truly address finally the veterans’ concerns.”

“So we really made a big point of including this really broad coalition of veterans dating all the way back to the ’60s, who are still fighting for toxic exposure benefits. That’s the bill ultimately that was drawn up and was announced last week,” he said.

Torres talked about how personal this cause has been — her husband was diagnosed with lung disease after serving in Iraq and working close to burn pits — and said, “We’ve gone everywhere from the point of him being forced out of his job with the state police and us having to file a suit that’s now going before SCOTUS. You know, foreclosure letters, getting car repossession notices. I had to… take an early retirement from the VA. I worked for them for 23 years. There’s been a lot of loss and a lot of hardship. But out of that hardship, we formed Burn Pits 360 and that’s why we’re here today.”

Gillibrand said a number of her Republican colleagues are looking at the bill and expressed confidence it will received bipartisan support.

Stewart said Congress frankly should have taken up this issue decades ago:

“This is an issue we should have addressed in 1990, 1991. 1980, 19 — you know, the way this country has gone to war, we’ve always had endless funds to wage war and no funds for the consequences of war to the war fighter when they come home. And this has to change. We have to change the paradigm that we operate in. Look, ultimately, in theory, everyone is supportive of this. The idea that, you know, America’s war fighters have gone over there and been exposed to thing and now they’re sick, but the reality of it is, it’s money. There is no perfect science, but we know these toxic exposures cause the illnesses listed as presumptive in the bill, right? So, this is purely money. And that’s an untenable argument, in my eyes, for this country. We can’t sweep this under the rug. That’s what Rosie enlisted John [Feal] and I to be relentless and to not allow this to happen in the dark. And that’s what we plan to do. We’re going to bring everyone there and force the government to witness this situation.”

Tapper asked Torres what she would say to people who would say there’s not enough evidence proving a link between the toxic burn pits and long-term health problems. She said, “The message is the greatest disservice to those who serve to become invisible. It’s time they do their jobs and acknowledge these deaths and these illnesses as an instrumentality of war.”

You can watch above, via CNN.