Leahy And Others Urge
Congress And President
To Fully Fund Veterans Programs
And Support “Future Veterans”
WASHINGTON (Tues.,
Nov. 11) -- In a Veterans Day news conference on Capitol Hill, Sen.
Patrick Leahy Tuesday urged deeds, and not just words, by the White
House and Congress to meet the needs of the nation’s veterans – and
of the future veterans now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Someone needs to
blow the whistle on the failure of the Administration and of some in
Congress to rise to the challenges to our nation’s veterans, and
also of the veterans of tomorrow – our active duty forces and the
men and women of the National Guard and the Reserves,” said Leahy,
co-chair of the 83-member U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus. “Today
we are minting more and more veterans at an accelerating rate. Many
of them have returned from Iraq with serious injuries and will need
extended medical care. Others have lifetime disabilities. For now,
this is mostly an invisible legacy of the war on terrorism and of
the invasion of Iraq.”
Leahy highlighted
several recent instances of actions that are harming morale and
readiness, including plans developed by the Department of Defense to
close many military commissaries and schools. Leahy led a group of
senators in asking Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to shelve those
plans. [Leahy letter and news announcement sent earlier today.]
Leahy also
spotlighted the “unacceptable” conditions many soldiers on medical
hold were living in, for as many as nine months, at Ft. Stewart,
Ga. Leahy and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) – Leahy’s fellow co-chair of
the U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus – sent investigators to Ft.
Stewart, issued a report of their findings, and last week asked the
General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress,
to complete a comprehensive study of the medical care, housing and
standards of care for both active and Reserve military personnel at
all Army mobilization sites.
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