Issue Position: Veterans

Issue Position

The United States government has an absolute obligation to provide benefits and services, including health care, to the men and women who are injured in the service of their country. I am committed to fulfilling America's promise to our veterans.

With my strong support, we approved the largest single increase in veterans' funding in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration. I am actively engaged in resolving the backlog of claims that is slowing delivery of care for many veterans, and I am intimately concerned with addressing the needs of veterans in my district. Through those efforts, I succeeded in bringing a VA medical clinic to Evanston.

The Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in 2009 provides incentives for businesses to hire recently discharged unemployed veterans, expands housing assistance for disabled veterans, provides $1 billion to address deficiencies at aging VA hospitals, and improves claims and benefits processing. This law also contains provisions increasing investment in housing for troops and families and funding transition facilities that provide critical services to wounded warriors and their families.

I am dedicated to providing the most efficient and effective care to our increasing number of veterans with increasingly complex medical conditions. My chief objective is to make sure men and women returning from combat receive the care they need to fully heal and have the best quality of life possible.

When we allow our heroes to come home from war only to find themselves jobless, we are not only failing them, we are squandering the entire investment we have made in their training. I am proud to have supported new programs in Illinois to provide assistance for military veterans, reservists and national guardsmen. Helmets to Hardhats, for example, helps veterans find work in the construction trades and has trained more than 40,000 men and women since 2003.

Thanks to the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, substantially improved benefits are available including full tuition at most public colleges, monthly housing stipends, and expanded access for reservists and guardsmen who have served lengthy deployments since 9-11. This important law renewed the promise of a full, four-year education for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and we must continue to work to ensure that all veterans have full access to these benefits. All GI bill recipients should beware of for-profit colleges that aggressively target veterans and advertise costly job training programs that are often not in the best interests of veterans and service members.

In addition to those killed by enemy fire, we continue to lose far too many service members and veterans to suicide. An estimated 18 veterans kill themselves every day. These men and women are also casualties of war. I support President Obama's decision to recognize these tragic deaths by reversing the policy of denying Presidential condolence letters to the families of military suicide victims. The families and loved ones of service members lost to suicide deserve to know that our country is grateful for their service and sacrifice. We also need to do more to prevent suicide among veterans. I strongly support improvements to mental health services available for veterans, and I believe we need to improve resources available to veterans facing crises.

We can also make sure that veterans' stories are never forgotten. My office is participating in the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, conducting interviews with veterans and collecting documents to ensure that their memories are preserved. This important project will ensure that future generations of Americans will have the opportunity to hear directly from veterans, learning their unique histories and gaining a better understanding of the realities of war. Please contact my office if you or someone you know is interested in participating in this project.

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