(RALEIGH) -- Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan are co-sponsoring a bill that will open VA health care to veterans and their families who have health problems connected to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

Hagan says the bill has cleared the Senate Veterans' Committee with bi-partisan support and says this is a great step forward. "For the veterans and their families who may be suffering from illnesses related to the exposures of the contamination at Camp Lejeune," she said.

Hagan has also included a provision that will help get answers for military families impacted by the contamination.

It is estimated as many as 750,000 people may have been exposed in what is being called the largest recorded environmental incident on a Department of Defense installation.