'Dog and pony show': Veterans struggle to obtain cancer benefits one year after massive burn pit legislation

One veteran was denied benefits twice for his cancer, even though it was supposed to be covered by a massive bipartisan burn pit bill. Here's the reason the VA gave.

"I'm not overly pessimistic. I'm just kind of realistic about things," the 41-year-old Army veteran told Fox News. "The VA does not have the best of reputations at times." Until every veteran in this country knows what is available to him or her, and has come in and filed a claim, and then we’ve awarded that claim for him or to her, I won’t be satisfied Hannah Ray Lambert is an associate producer/writer with Fox News Digital Originals.

Johnstone is among the veterans still being denied benefits more than a year after lawmakers passed the PACT Act, a massive bill meant to help former service members exposed to toxins like the burn pits used to dispose of trash at overseas military bases. Critics say the bill left out numerous types of cancer and that the VA is still excluding veterans whose conditions are explicitly covered by the bill.