We must renew our commitment to our veterans.

Even as our overseas commitments stretch our military to its limits, many who claim that Democrats don’t “support our troops” are consistently failing to support our veterans. President Bush has sent budgets to Congress that actually contain cuts to veterans’ health care. Republicans in Congress tried last year to cut in half research into traumatic brain injury – the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to do better for the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States into battle.

Here’s where I stand:

I've visited our troops overseas on seven USO tours – four to Iraq and Afghanistan. I love visiting with the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who so bravely defend our country. I’ve also visited the wounded at Walter Reed and Bethesda. I take veterans’ issues very seriously, and of all the things Norm Coleman has enabled this administration to do to our country, letting down our veterans is among the worst.

Not only do we need to stop shortchanging our veterans, we need to revitalize and renew our commitment to our men and women in uniform.

I want to start with these steps:

• Fully funding the Veterans Administration budget – this year, next year, and every year – so that every veteran can have quality mental, physical, and long-term health care for life. This should be non-negotiable. It’s unacceptable that 1.8 million veterans are currently without health insurance, and it’s just as tragic that many vets have to wait months for health care. If you serve this country, you should have quick access to quality care at a VA hospital when you come home. And the facilities and staff at that hospital should be second-to-none – no matter where you live. We shouldn’t be satisfied with anything less.
• Cutting red tape and doing for the VA bureaucracy what we did for VA hospitals – make it more streamlined, efficient, and effective. In addition to fully funding the VA, we must make its benefits readily accessible for all veterans. In the Senate, I’ll work to cut red tape. The first step is to make the transition from Department of Defense health care to VA health care easier by moving the military to electronic medical records, automatically transferring information between systems, and providing advocates, especially for combat-wounded vets, to help them make use of the VA.
• Better screenings for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Estimates suggest that a third of all troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from some form of Traumatic Brain Injury – and not all suffer from easily visible symptoms. And perhaps as many as one in five veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We are only beginning to understand how to prevent, diagnose, and treat these ailments, so we should continue to fund research into how to do that better. (One good way of preventing TBI would be to guarantee that when we send our men and women to send to combat, they receive appropriate equipment – especially helmet liners.) But we also need to commit ourselves to screening more veterans as they return home and seeking out potential combat stress sufferers who otherwise might end up in prison or on the streets. We have to do a better job of tracking at-risk vets to make sure problems don’t arise later without detection – and because these issues don’t come with statutes of limitations, we should retroactively expand coverage of these conditions.
• Doing a better job of helping veterans re-integrate into their communities. Returning veterans should receive clear information regarding what benefits they’re entitled to, how they can access them, and where they can find resources to help them navigate the system. But that’s not enough. To address the epidemics of homelessness and unemployment among veterans, we should create new housing vouchers and increase funding for programs (and incentives for employers) that assist veterans in transitioning to civilian employment.
• Creating a new G.I. Bill. With the cost of college skyrocketing, the G.I. Bill now only pays for around 60% of a public college education. Even worse, service members must pay $1,200 or more out of their paychecks in their first year of service in order to qualify. We should expand the current G.I. Bill to cover 100% of a public college education – including tuition, fees, and expenses – and eliminate the $1,200 pay reduction, as well as cap student loan rates for vets and make it easier for veterans who halt their education for service to pick up where they left off.
• Respecting the sacrifice made by military families. I’ve met so many family members of veterans (and of troops currently serving) who feel like they’ve been left behind. In the Senate, I’ll fight to raise military pay and benefits so that families who lend us their loved ones don’t forfeit their economic security. We should also allow families of mobilized Guards members and reservists access to military health care benefits so that their spouses and children don’t lose coverage. And we should offer grants to community organizations that bring military families together to provide support and counseling during the difficult time when a loved one is away.