President Joe Biden announced in New Hampshire on Tuesday that 1 million claims have been granted for benefits under the toxic exposure law that Congress approved less than two years ago, following the military’s use of open air burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Veterans’ care in the United States set all-time records in fiscal year 2023, “shattering” the agency’s performance in previous years, in large part because of an expansion of benefits under the Biden administration, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said Monday.

One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year since the law took effect.

A deadline for a year’s worth of backdated benefits is fast approaching for U.S. veterans suffering illnesses after exposure to open burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins.

The Chillicothe VA Medical Center is hosting a Veterans Fish Fry dinner, sponsored by the PACT Act, on July 25. The dinner will be held in the Chillicothe VA Auditorium (Building 9), from 4-7 p.m.