Senator Amy Klobuchar

Working for the People of Minnesota

Veterans

In the past four years, American military service personnel and their families have endured challenges that are unprecedented in recent history, including unrelenting operational demands and recurring deployments in combat zones. One-and-a-half million American service men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are creating a new generation of veterans who need their country to stand with them.

Doing Right by Our Returning Veterans

Our state office is available to help veterans with benefits and other veterans’ issues. You can directly contact my state office by calling 612-727-5230 or email me by clicking here.

I have always believed that when we ask our young men and women to fight and die for this nation, we make a promise that we will give them all the resources they need to do their job. And when they return home, we will take care of them. As a nation, we have an obligation to wrap our arms around the people who have sacrificed for us. Today, our veterans need us more than ever.

In years past, veterans like my father could count on their government to stand by them. After World War II our government did just that, adopting the GI Bill to provide health, housing and educational benefits that gave returning veterans the help they needed to heal, to raise families and to prosper. We must ensure fair compensation policies for all veterans, good education benefits, and the health care that they and their families deserve.

In recent years, our government has failed in its commitments to provide the 25 million veterans in America the benefits they have earned. And the Department of Defense and Veterans' Administration has failed to adapt support services to meet the demands created by new type of wars our soldiers are fighting, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with few options for treatment of traumatic injuries or mental health illnesses.

In recent years, our government has failed in its commitments to provide the 25 million veterans in America the benefits they have earned. And the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to adapt support services to meet the demands created by the new type of war our soldiers are fighting, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with few options for treatment of traumatic injuries or mental health illnesses.

As Minnesota's U.S. Senator, I have worked to make sure that veterans who have risked their lives for our freedom and security have the resources they need and deserve. I have worked to:

  • Modernize GI Bill benefits. The 21st Century GI Bill, which I cosponsored, would provide enhanced tuition benefits so that any veteran who serves at least three months on active duty will receive benefits to cover the costs of up to 36 months of higher education, depending on their length of service. It would help GI Bill benefits keep pace with the soaring cost of college and also ensure that Guard and Reserve members receive education benefits comparable to those granted to active duty soldiers.
  • Ensure that members of the Minnesota National Guard receive the full educational benefits due to them. I introduced S.2139, the National Guard and Reserve Educational Benefits Fairness Act, which provides educational benefits to members of the National Guard and Reserve based on the length of their actual active-duty service, rather than based on the service dates printed on their orders. This legislation was in direct response to a situation faced by members of the Minnesota National Guard who were denied full educational benefits due to Army guidelines, despite serving in the unit with the longest continuous deployment of any unit in the Iraq war.
  • Help veterans make the transition back to productive lives in our Minnesota economy. I introduced Veterans-to-Paramedics Transition Act, which would help veterans earn professional certification and relieve the shortage of emergency medical personnel, especially in rural areas, by streamlining civilian paramedic training for returning veterans who already have emergency medical experience from the military.
  • Support the successful Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program. This program, pioneered by the Minnesota National Guard, helps soldiers make the transition from military to civilian life through counseling and other services. We were able to extend its life with $3.52 million in this year's Defense Appropriations bill. In addition, we passed legislation to create a national Yellow Ribbon program based on Minnesota's groundbreaking initiative.
  • Improve veterans' health care. I joined my colleagues in supporting an increase of $3.5 billion in the Continuing Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2007, an additional $3.5 billion in the FY2008 Budget Resolution, and $3 billion for military health care in this year's supplemental funding bill to strengthen and improve veterans' health care through the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

But this is only the beginning of a sustained commitment to repay the sacrifices our veterans have made for all of us, in wars past and present. These are my priorities to continue serving our country's veterans:

  • Improve treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. According to a Veterans' Health Administration report, roughly one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who sought care through the VA have been diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders. We must provide increased counseling and create greater awareness for the tens of thousands of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses.
  • Expand health care for veterans who have suffered multiple severe injuries. Some 30,000 veterans have returned from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts with serious wounds. We must increase the number of polytrauma treatment centers that were created in recognition of the large number of service members sustaining multiple severe injuries as a result of explosions and blasts. These centers provide a full array of inpatient and outpatient services, with specialized programs for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, vision rehabilitation and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  • Make veterans' benefits commensurate with the threats and challenges faced by National Guard and Reserve veterans. Increasing numbers of our citizen-soldiers have been serving in front line combat positions side-by-side with active duty soldiers. We must end the segregation of benefits between active duty veterans and National Guard and Reserve veterans and upgrade Guard members from their perceived status as "second-class veterans" - including health care, pension plans and reintegration programs.

Reports

Senator Klobuchar’s Offices

302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main Line: 202-224-3244
Main Fax: 202-228-2186
Toll Free: 1-888-224-9043

1200 Washington Avenue South, Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Main Line: 612-727-5220
Main Fax: 612-727-5223
Toll Free: 1-888-224-9043

1134 7th Street NW
Rochester, MN 55901
Main Line: 507-288-5321
Fax: 507-288-2922

121 4th Street South
Moorhead, MN 56560
Main Line: 218-287-2219
Fax: 218-287-2930

Olcott Plaza, Suite 105
820 9th Street North
Virginia, MN 55792
Main Line: 218-741-9690
Fax: 218-741-3692