Does a late-night comedy show affect Washington policymakers?

As much as Jon Stewart might lampoon us for saying so, it looks like the answer could be “yes.”

Earlier this month, Stewart’s “The Daily Show” ran a satirical exposé on a serious issue: the backlog of veterans affairs benefits claims that currently are not being processed by the government. On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators introduced legislation to help fund legal clinics at law schools doing pro-bono work on behalf of veterans.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., announced the Veterans Legal Support Act of 2013 to authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide financial support to either public or private law schools that have established programs to assist veterans attempting to file claims with the government.

You can read the bill text, obtained by WGDB, here.

Don’t believe us that “The Daily Show” made the situation look pretty bad? You can watch its two-part series, “Zero Dark 900,000” here and here.