KIMT

By Alek LaShomb

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined veterans advocate Amanda Barbosa on Monday to announce new legislation aimed at preventing colon cancer in veterans.

Klobuchar said the bill is named the "Barbosa Act", which is named after Amanda's husband, Rafael, who is an Army helicopter pilot with stage four colon cancer.

"These issues are so important to Minnesotans and to the country and it is what our veterans deserve and moving forward the 'Barbosa Act' specifically will help active duty members who have toxic exposure so they can have a future without cancer," Barbosa said.

Amanda was one of the main advocates for the PACT Act, which is a law that ensures military members' medical conditions caused by toxic burn pits are covered by their health insurance, according to Klobuchar.

"i had long supported it. I had been working on it for years and Amanda led a group of soldiers and spouses of those that had gotten sick from being stationed next to burn pits and said we are not leaving the capitol steps until this gets done and guess what. It worked," Klobuchar said.

"These issues are so important to Minnesotans and to the country and it is what our veterans deserve and moving forward the 'Barbosa Act' specifically will help active duty members who have toxic exposure so they can have a future without cancer," Barbosa said.

Klobuchar said Amanda will join her at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

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