one year ago this week President Biden signed The Pact act fundamentally changing how veterans could receive disability compensation for war-related illnesses before that they had to prove their sickness was related to military service and often impossible bar under the pactac veterans have to prove deployment to one of the included countries like Iraq or Afghanistan and others they also must suffer from one of 23 listed medical conditions such as brain cancer asthma or chronic bronchitis more than 801 thousand veterans and their survivors have filed claims since the Act was signed the VA posts online data for one condition covered by the new law asthma there were 36 000 claims for asthma half were approved and half were denied so overall how was the implementation of this act proceeding Dennis McDonough is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and he joins me now welcome back to the NewsHour thanks for having me so let's start with that question how is the implementation going overall well look I mean I think we're out of the gate strong but so far we're doing uh a lot of Outreach in fact we've just conducted or we are conducting the biggest Outreach campaign in the history of the VA so that veterans no matter where they are know what they qualify for and they come in and file a claim to try to make sure that we get them everything that they've earned so uh that 800 000 number uh feels uh decent but we have a long way to go and we're going to stay on top of this until every veteran knows what's available to him or her files a claim then we fulfill that claim for them and I think we're out of gate strong but we got a long way to go and we're not going to let up where do you think that number could end up well look I mean the numbers let's just take one half of the law uh the first half of the law addresses Vietnam Vets but let's set that aside for a second the other half of the law covers anybody who was in Central Command for the 30 years of war there starting in 1991 in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia going all the way through to the summer of 2021 and when the activities in Afghanistan ceased so that's 30 years of war we think there's probably four million veterans who qualify having been in that geography so we want to make sure that everybody knows that they have an opportunity gets that claim filed and we get to work for them so we mentioned the one condition you've listed claims filed and rejections online we've requested from the D.A the VA rather data on claim aims and denials for all of the 23 medical conditions we were told we have to file a Freedom of Information Act to receive that information do you have that data are you tracking I don't I don't have that information in my fingertips I was really gratified to see that you cited our data in your lead-in we made a decision early in this process that we put out the data we have every two weeks so that you uh and then obviously veterans and their families Congress everybody can see exactly what we're doing so for the other medical conditions as well again we have what we've we've published what we have if you have you all have a request for it we'll go to work on it but what we're working through right now is actually getting those claims filed processing those claims and getting the benefits paid to our veterans last year I know you and I spoke about one particular lung condition that was very hard still very hard to diagnose I just want to play a clip from that exchange we have last year in September sure there's a condition called constrictive bronchiolitis which basically destroys the small Airways there's no treatment there's no cure under the metrics that the VA currently uses you have to establish What's called the disability rating and that then can help Grant some benefits to the veterans people who have this do not qualify for anything they have to appeal to get something and I believe back in July you said you were looking into this so have you close the loophole so we've been working this issue of constrictive bronchiolitis one of the issues is the test to prove existence of chronic constrictive bronchiolitis is actually as intrusive in many cases as the disease itself right and so uh well I don't have news on that yet so Mr secretary many months later now almost a year later have you been able to close that loophole uh we don't have specific process yet established on how to test for constrictive bronchiolitis but a lot of times it manifests in other challenges too those are conditions that we have very straightforward tests for so asthma being one of them so I don't have news for you on that at the moment but we'll stay on top of it this is one of the things that our Troopers really wrestle with it's something that we need a straightforward definition for and an even more straightforward test so that we can establish the connection or establish the existence of the condition so that people were in that geography and have that condition get their benefit there have been some questions though but the tests the kind of tests pulmonary function tests and the like that are used for things like asthma and empty EMA don't necessarily work correct for this particular correct illness and I just I want to play for you another right we spoke with a doctor who's been treating a number of these patients his name is Robert Miller he's at Vanderbilt Medical Center he says he has seen 300 patients with constrictive bronchiolitis since the U.S invasion of Iraq he says none of them so far none of them have benefited from The Pact act this is just a little bit of what he had to say sure when it comes to the respiratory patients that I take care of it has not come through in a way that has helped as many as I would have liked the pact act says that constrictive bronchiolitis and other respiratory disorders should be considered presumptive diagnoses these presumptive diagnoses for respiratory disease are not getting rated for disability the VA actually hasn't created a code for disability for constrictive bronchiolitis so you've said there's not a test there's not a code that's been created for it we spoke about it last year and you said you were working on it I guess for the hundreds of those veterans who suffer from this totally when can they access those benefits look I mean uh it's really hard for me to know I'm literally glad we'll make sure that we track down the doctor that you're working with there and make sure that we understand what that timeline is for those 300 I don't know if those 300 since the president signed the to sign a bill into law a year ago but we'll get to the bottom and we'll figure it out I think what we've been trying to say to veterans is we want you in our care we want you to get the benefits that you have earned and so richly deserve that's what this Outreach campaign has been about believe me nobody's more frustrated about how we can diagnose make some of these diagnoses than I am but we'll keep working at it there are recommendations though right there was a working group that's been focusing just on this issue put forward recommendations for September I believe I don't think those have been adopted those are being worked through at what's called our war related injury illness injury and illness Center of Excellence which is up at East Orange New Jersey in our VA Center there this is some of the best science that we have on these conditions I I guess I want to just underscore to you I'm not yeah I'm not happy about where this stands I want to make sure every veteran gets the care and the benefits that they've earned so help us understand why it's taking so long uh like we're because we're working through the science to get to it and that's that and let's be clear that's on one condition constrictive bronchiolitis that we're we're working through um 800 000 claims about 450 000 of them have now been completed we're granting uh in those 450 000 at about 80 percent that's I think the last number I saw is 78.6 percent that's substantially higher and that's the importance and the strength of the new law which establishes a presumption of connection so we just need the existence of the condition and the fact of presence and Central Command those two things make sure that we get the rating get the benefits and get the care we look forward to keeping in touch with you about this issue before I let you go I need to ask you about another issue we've spoken about previously which was the decision the VA made to provide abortion services and counseling in cases of incest rape or when the life of the woman was at risk apply for health life or health thank you do you know how many people have accessed those Services I think at the most recent numbers I've saw I've seen are in the 50 range this is going back to the period when we started providing these services in September so I don't know that that's the most recent number that's the number that sticks out to me is the being the one we most recently provided to Congress I appreciate you providing that to us today Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dennis McDonough always good to have you here thank you thank you so much thank you