Kenya Merritt Renewing our PACT Act of 2026

Burn pit benefits for federal employees

If enacted, the bill would create a presumption that certain listed diseases were caused by your federal job when you file a compensation claim on or after the date of enactment. You would qualify if you work for one of the listed federal departments, an element of the intelligence community, or are a federal law enforcement officer and you performed at least 30 total days of duty in a country or territory during a U.S. contingency operation on or after August 2, 1990. The Labor Department would keep a list of covered burn‑pit diseases that initially matches the VA list and would add new diseases only after VA adds them under its rules. Labor would have to add any disease within 90 days after VA finalizes its rule, which makes matching quicker but ties future additions to VA action.