Veterans

Honoring our Veterans

Congresswoman Lowey intends to make sure that the United States lives up to its commitments to those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition to supporting the largest veterans funding increase in history, Lowey has cosponsored a number of bills to ensure that America keeps its promises to our veterans by:

  • Increasing the travel allowance for veterans seeking medical treatment;
  • Protecting veterans receiving various disability payments from deductions from their military retirement pay or Social Security;
  • Holding co-payments at their present levels;
  • Expanding home-ownership opportunities by increasing loan guarantees and the types of housing covered;
  • Improving access and quality of health care available to veterans;
  • Increasing the ease with which veterans interact with the VA by streamlining the availability of information and reducing the benefits claims backlog; and
  • Increasing burial benefits.

Funding

This country made a promise to provide accessible, quality health care to the men and women who have served our country.  As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Congresswoman Lowey has consistently fought to increase funding for veterans. She voted in favor of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act which provided $1.7 billion for military health care, including for Walter Reed and other hospitals, and $1.7 billion for veterans’ health care.  Rep. Lowey also voted in favor of the FY08 Omnibus Spending Package which included a total of $63.9 billion for Veterans and Military Construction and provided the largest veterans funding increase in the 77-year history of the VA.  With these funds, the VA estimates it will treat more than 5.8 million patients in 2008, including many of the more than 325,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.  


Health Care

Veterans’ health needs have been consistently under-funded, causing gaps in available care and long waiting periods to see doctors. Rep. Lowey supports the only permanent solution to this problem: making veterans’ health care spending mandatory rather than discretionary. Rep. Lowey is a cosponsor of the Mandatory Funding for Veterans Act of 2007, which would provide guaranteed funding for the Veterans Health Administration.

In response to the discovery of disturbingly poor conditions at our military and veterans hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Congresswoman Lowey voted for the Wounded Warriors Assistance Act, which would improve access to quality medical care for wounded service members who are outpatients at military health care facilities; begin restoring the integrity and efficiency of the disability evaluation system including cutting through bureaucratic red-tape; and improve the transition of wounded service members from the Armed Forces to the VA health system.

Provisions from Lowey’s VA Hospital Quality Report Card Act of 2007, which would mandate a formal Hospital Report Card Initiative for VA hospitals, were passed by the House in June 2007 as part of the FY08 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.  As thousands of troops return home in the coming months and years, the Veterans Administration will be hit with an influx of men and women who deserve the highest quality of care. Lowey’s legislation would force the VA to establish a regular self-assessment of its hospital system and provide our nation’s veterans with the information they need to make important health care decisions.  Rep. Lowey sent a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs urging compliance with this report, to ensure that our veterans receive the quality care they deserve from the VA health care system.  

Lowey cosponsored the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which was signed into law in November and directs the VA to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans.

Lowey is also a cosponsor of the “Keeping Faith with the Greatest Generation of Military Retirees Act” which honors and assists veterans of World War II and the Korean War. It allows the waiver of the monthly Medicare part B premium for military veterans who enlisted in the military before December 7, 1956, and their spouses.

Privacy Protection

When the Department of Veterans Affairs announced in May 2006 that the personal records of 26.5 million veterans had been stolen, Rep. Lowey immediately began working to better protect the privacy of those brave men and women who have served in the armed forces. She cosponsored legislation to create an Ombudsman for Data Security at the VA and require the VA to provide affected veterans with one free year of credit monitoring, and she urged President Bush to provide funding for the VA to take proactive steps to prevent any future theft of records from taking place.

Benefits

Congresswoman Lowey cosponsored and voted for the expansion of the G.I. Bill, which was passed by the House as part of the Fiscal Year 2008 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill.  This legislation would make higher education more accessible for our veterans by increasing annual education benefits and altering eligibility and service requirements.

Rep. Lowey cosponsored and voted for the Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act, which would guarantee that service members who die or are discharged for disability are not required to repay any portion of their bonus and would mandate the Department of Defense to provide full bonuses to any service members who die or are discharged for disability within 90 days of discharge.

Congresswoman Lowey voted for the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act, which would provide permanent tax relief for military families; ensure that reservists called up for active duty do not suffer a pay cut; and make it easier for veterans to become homeowners through access to low-interest loans.

Rep. Lowey cosponsored a House-passed bill to establish the Merchant Mariners of World War II Equity Compensation Fund, to provide monthly benefits to Merchant Marine veterans who served between 1941 and 1946. 


Memorials

Congresswoman Lowey has also been successful in her efforts to pass federal legislation to protect veterans' memorials. Rep. Lowey cosponsored legislation to recognize the 75th Anniversary of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and to direct the Mint to issue a $1 silver coin in recognition of the disabled American veterans. 

The 108th Congress enacted a measure that included provisions of the Veterans' Memorial Protection Act which Mrs. Lowey had championed since 1995. She introduced this bill after plaques were stolen from a Yonkers memorial that listed the names of Americans who died in the Vietnam War and is pleased her colleagues have joined her efforts to protect monuments honoring our veterans’ service.

Recognition

As part of the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project, Rep. Lowey paired students from schools throughout the 18th Congressional District with local veterans to collect and preserve written, audio and video histories from America’s war heroes. These accounts were sent to the Library of Congress in Fall 2007 to be preserved at the American Folklore Center and will be available online through the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/vets/about.html.

Understanding the integral role the United States Cadet Nurse Corps played during World War II, Congresswoman Lowey introduced the Cadet Nurse Corps Equity Act to recognize as veterans members of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps.  Rep. Lowey also introduced a Resolution to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Cadet Nurse Corps.  She believes that it is the obligation of the U.S. government to acknowledge all of the brave men and women who have aided in the protection of our great nation.