Burn Pits and Civilian Feds: Why Every Single Claim Has Been Denied

Last Updated: June 3, 2026 Reading Time: 8 min

A soldier and an FBI agent deploy to the same base in Iraq in 2007. They breathe smoke from the same open burn pit. Fifteen years later they both develop lung cancer. The soldier gets lifetime VA healthcare and tax-exempt disability pay. The civilian federal employee gets a denial letter. According to Rep. Nellie Pou, citing Department of Labor investigators, every single civilian federal burn pit claim filed so far has been denied. That is not a paperwork glitch. It was a decision.

This is a plain-language explainer, not legal advice. If you are affected, talk to a federal employment attorney about your specific case.

Key Takeaways

• Civilian feds were excluded from the 2022 PACT Act. FBI, DEA, State, DOD civilians, USAID, and intelligence staff who deployed alongside troops got no burn pit coverage.
• Every civilian burn pit claim has been denied. That 0% figure comes from Rep. Pou citing DOL investigators, against a 74.9% approval rate for veterans' PACT Act claims.
• The reason was jurisdiction, not medicine. A staffer told Newsweek that civilian language "would have killed the bill."
• A fix is in Congress now. H.R. 8524, named for FBI agent Kenya Merritt, would extend a presumption to civilians. It sits in House committee with a Senate companion.
• FECA is not FERS disability retirement. This is workers' comp through the Department of Labor, a different system from OPM disability retirement.

Same Base, Same Smoke, Different Law

From 2001 to 2021, tens of thousands of civilian federal employees deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. FBI and DEA agents, State Department staff, Defense Department civilians, USAID workers, and intelligence analysts lived and worked on the same bases as the military. They breathed the same smoke from open burn pits where the bases torched everything from plastics to medical waste to jet fuel.

In August 2022, Congress passed the PACT Act. It gave military veterans a presumption of service connection for more than 330 conditions tied to burn pit exposure. A veteran with a covered cancer no longer has to prove the smoke caused it. The diagnosis and the deployment are enough.

Civilian federal employees got none of that. They were left under the system that already existed: the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, or FECA.

Why FECA Denies These Claims

FECA is the workers' compensation program for federal employees, run by the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. It covers job-related injuries and illnesses, but it uses a strict standard.

To win a FECA claim, you have to prove a direct causal link between your specific illness and your specific work exposure, with reliable medical evidence. For a cancer that shows up 15 years after you breathed burn pit smoke, that link is brutally hard to prove. There is no presumption. There is no list of covered conditions. Each employee has to build the medical case from scratch.

That is why the approval rate is what it is. Rep. Pou, announcing the bill at the Capitol during Police Week, said DOL investigators found that every single civilian federal burn pit claim has been denied. The underlying DOL investigation has not been published, so the cleanest way to state it is exactly that: a member of Congress, citing DOL investigators, put the number at zero.

The Gap, Side by Side

Here is the structural difference between the two systems for the exact same exposure. No other federal employee outlet has laid this out.

Dimension	Military Veteran (VA / PACT Act)	Civilian Fed (FECA)
Burn pit coverage law	PACT Act of 2022	None (excluded)
Standard to qualify	Presumptive: diagnosis plus qualifying service. No proof of cause.	Direct causation: must prove the illness was caused by the exposure.
Cancers covered as presumptive	330+ conditions	Zero
Approval rate	74.9% (1M+ approved since 2022)	0% (every civilian burn pit claim denied)
Medical coverage	Lifetime VA care for covered conditions	Only if the claim is approved, which it has not been
Disability pay if approved	VA rating, 0 to 100%	66% of salary, or 75% with dependents
Who it covers	3.5 million veterans	Tens of thousands of civilian feds, none currently covered for burn pits

What Civilians Are Being Denied, in Dollars

The denial is not abstract. If H.R. 8524 passes and a civilian employee with burn pit cancer files successfully, FECA pays 66% of pre-disability salary with no dependents, or 75% with dependents, and the payments are tax-exempt. Here is what that looks like across the grades, using 2026 DC locality salaries.

Grade/Step	2026 Salary (DC)	FECA at 66%	FECA at 75%
GS-9 Step 5	$74,441	$49,131	$55,831
GS-12 Step 5	$110,493	$72,925	$82,870
GS-13 Step 5	$131,452	$86,758	$98,589
GS-14 Step 5	$155,376	$102,548	$116,532
GS-15 Step 5	$182,682	$120,570	$137,012

FECA payments are capped at 75% of the GS-15 maximum, indexed to inflation, and come on top of covered medical costs. The numbers above are what affected employees are currently being denied every year while the gap stays open.

A GS-13 federal employee deployed to Iraq who develops lung cancer is entitled to zero compensation under current law, while a soldier in the tent next door receives lifetime VA healthcare and up to $98,589 a year in tax-exempt disability pay.

The Bill That Would Close the Gap

In April 2026, Rep. Pou introduced H.R. 8524, the Kenya Merritt Renewing Our PACT Act of 2026, with bipartisan co-sponsors. It is named for FBI Special Agent Kenya Merritt, who died of lung cancer tied to burn pit exposure during service in Iraq.

The bill does something narrow but powerful. It would amend Title 5 to create a presumption that certain illnesses are work-related for civilian federal employees exposed to burn pits overseas, matching the standard veterans already get. It does not build a new agency or a new program. It shifts the burden of proof at the DOL level so a qualifying diagnosis is enough.

As of June 3, 2026, H.R. 8524 sits in the House Committee on Education and Workforce, with a Senate companion (S. 4554) also active. There is bipartisan support but no floor vote scheduled yet.

What to Do If You Were Exposed

If you deployed overseas as a civilian federal employee and you have a cancer or respiratory illness, do not wait for the bill to pass.

• Preserve your records. Travel orders, deployment dates, base assignments, and medical records all help establish exposure and timing. They get harder to reconstruct every year.
• Consider filing a protective FECA claim now. Even a claim that gets denied today establishes a date and a record. If the law changes, a pending or denied claim may be the thing that gets revisited.
• Mind the clock. FECA occupational-disease claims generally must be filed within three years of when you knew, or should have known, the condition was tied to your work. Courts have read this more generously for cancers with long latency, but do not rely on that. A federal employment attorney can tell you where your case stands.
• Know which system you are in. This is FECA, not FERS disability retirement. If you can no longer work, FERS disability retirement through OPM is a separate path that may apply regardless of the burn pit question.

Contractors are a different story. If you deployed as a contractor rather than a Title 5 employee, your path is usually the Defense Base Act, not FECA, and this bill does not cover you.

Estimate What a Claim Would Be Worth

There is no FECA estimator on FedTools yet, but the math starts with your salary. Use our free GS Pay Calculator to find your exact 2026 figure, then apply the FECA rate (66% without dependents, 75% with) to see the annual benefit at stake.

Find your salary →

Frequently Asked Questions

I deployed overseas as a federal civilian employee and I have cancer. Can I get workers' compensation?

Under current law you must prove a direct causal link between your illness and the burn pit exposure, and according to Rep. Nellie Pou citing Department of Labor investigators, every civilian federal burn pit claim filed so far has been denied. A pending bill, H.R. 8524, would create a presumption that makes approval automatic for qualifying exposures. Even before it passes, preserve your deployment records and consider filing a protective FECA claim. Talk to a federal employment attorney about your specific situation.

Why were civilian federal employees left out of the 2022 PACT Act?

Congressional jurisdiction, not medical science. A congressional staffer told Newsweek that including civilian language would have killed the bill, because adding civilian workers' compensation required involving several committees beyond the veterans committees. Civilian employees who breathed the same air on the same bases were left out to get the veterans bill passed.

What is the difference between VA disability for veterans and FECA for civilians?

Under the PACT Act, a veteran needs only a diagnosis and a qualifying service period, with no proof of causation. Under FECA, a civilian federal employee must independently prove their specific illness was caused by the exposure. That higher burden is why a veteran and a civilian with identical exposures and diagnoses can end up with completely different outcomes.

Is FECA the same as FERS disability retirement?

No. They are two separate systems. FECA is workers' compensation for a work-related injury or illness, run by the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. FERS disability retirement is an OPM program for employees who can no longer perform their job. H.R. 8524 changes FECA, not FERS disability retirement.

Does this bill cover federal contractors?

No. H.R. 8524 covers civilian federal employees under Title 5. Contractors who deployed overseas generally file under the Defense Base Act, which is a separate system.

Related Resources

• GS Pay Calculator: Find your 2026 salary to estimate a FECA benefit
• FERS Disability Retirement Guide 2026: The separate OPM path if you can no longer work
• MSPB Disability Discrimination Awards 2026: Related federal disability protections

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This article is general information, not legal or medical advice. Benefit eligibility depends on your specific facts. Consult a federal employment attorney or your servicing HR office before acting. Sources: CBS News (May 14, 2026), H.R. 8524 bill status (GovInfo.gov), Newsweek (Oct. 2022), DOL OWCP FECA program, Congress.gov CRS R42107, VA PACT Act overview.