Issue Position: Veterans and Military Personnel

Issue Position

One of the most important duties of our government is to care for the men and women who have bravely served, and sacrificed, on behalf of our nation. However, for too long veterans and active duty personnel in Connecticut, and across the nation, have had to fight within an overburdened and under-funded system to access the benefits they earned for their service. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am deeply committed to ensuring that these men and women and their families receive the support and respect that they deserve.

Congressman Courtney's Work on Key Veterans and Military Personnel Issues:

Health Care Budget. Improving health care and access to care to those who have served has been a top priority of mine in Congress. Reversing years of stagnant budgets that failed to meet the need of our veterans, I have helped pass the largest budget increases for the Veterans Administration in its history. I also believe that support the needs of our veterans should not be an annual funding fight, and have also sponsored legislation that would provide advanced funding for VA health services.

Transportation. One of the largest barriers veterans face in accessing the health care they have earned is the lack of adequate transportation options to and from VA facilities. To address this issue, I have worked with the Veterans Administration and veterans organizations to acquire additional vans to provide rides to veterans in eastern Connecticut who need to get to their medical appointments. In addition, I fought to enact an increase in the mileage reimbursement veterans receive for costs related to travel to and from their VA appointments -- the first increase in 30 years.

New GI Bill. Our troops face many challenges when they return home, but the one obstacle they should not be asked to endure is securing access to a good education. For all they have given us, I worked to pass a historic expansion of educational benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Post 9/11 GI Bill provides educational benefits on par with those that veterans of World War II received, and restores full, four-year college scholarships to our newest veterans.

Body Armor. For too long, concerns about the adequacy of the testing the military does for body armor worn by our troops in combat have left many with doubts about whether our troops have the equipment they need to stay safe and get home. In 2007, I led the charge in Congress to begin an independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study of the testing process and visited the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, where body armor is tested, to see the process first hand and investigate the concerns. I also introduced and passed legislation, the PROTECT Act, to improve the testing of body armor used by our troops in combat by strengthening oversight of the testing process.

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