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I’ve always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip all those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come home.
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My administration is providing assistance with job training and housing, and now helping lower-income veterans get VA care debt-free.
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Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan faced many dangers.
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One was stationed at bases and breathing in toxic smoke from “burn pits” that incinerated wastes of war—medical and hazard material, jet fuel, and more.
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When they came home, many of the world’s fittest and best trained warriors were never the same.
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Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness.
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A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.
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I know.
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One of those soldiers was my son Major Beau Biden.
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We don’t know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops.
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But I’m committed to finding out everything we can.
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Committed to military families like Danielle Robinson from Ohio.
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The widow of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson.
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He was born a soldier. Army National Guard. Combat medic in Kosovo and Iraq.
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Stationed near Baghdad, just yards from burn pits the size of football fields.
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Heath’s widow Danielle is here with us tonight. They loved going to Ohio State football games. He loved building Legos with their daughter.
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But cancer from prolonged exposure to burn pits ravaged Heath’s lungs and body.
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Danielle says Heath was a fighter to the very end.
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He didn’t know how to stop fighting, and neither did she.
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Through her pain she found purpose to demand we do better.
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Tonight, Danielle—we are.
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The VA is pioneering new ways of linking toxic exposures to diseases, already helping more veterans get benefits.
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And tonight, I’m announcing we’re expanding eligibility to veterans suffering from nine respiratory cancers.
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I’m also calling on Congress: pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve.
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And fourth, let’s end cancer as we know it.
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This is personal to me and Jill, to Kamala, and to so many of you.
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Cancer is the #2 cause of death in America–second only to heart disease.
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Last month, I announced our plan to supercharge
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the Cancer Moonshot that President Obama asked me to lead six years ago.
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Our goal is to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years, turn more cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases.
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More support for patients and families.
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To get there, I call on Congress to fund ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
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It’s based on DARPA—the Defense Department project that led to the Internet, GPS, and so much more.
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ARPA-H will have a singular purpose—to drive breakthroughs in cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and more.
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A unity agenda for the nation.
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We can do this.
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My fellow Americans—tonight , we have gathered in a sacred space—the citadel of our democracy.
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In this Capitol, generation after generation, Americans have debated great questions amid great strife, and have done great things.
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We have fought for freedom, expanded liberty, defeated totalitarianism and terror.
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And built the strongest, freest, and most prosperous nation the world has ever known.
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Now is the hour.
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Our moment of responsibility.
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Our test of resolve and conscience, of history itself.
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It is in this moment that our character is formed. Our purpose is found. Our future is forged.
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Well I know this nation.
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We will meet the test.
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To protect freedom and liberty, to expand fairness and opportunity.
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We will save democracy.
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As hard as these times have been, I am more optimistic about America today than I have been my whole life.
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Because I see the future that is within our grasp.
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