"I have been to both Iraq and Afghanistan, visited with our troops on the ground and have seen firsthand the difficult situations they face on a daily basis. I am particularly proud of our men and women in the Arkansas National Guard, many of whom I know personally, who have left their families and jobs and answered the call of duty halfway around the world."
-U.S. Representative Mike Ross, December 7, 2009
Since entering Congress, I have made veterans a focus of my work in our nation’s capital. I firmly believe our veterans have given the ultimate contribution to their country and it is essential that we support them and their families during and well after their tours of duty.
I am pleased to have earned an ‘A+’ rating in the 110th Congress from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Action Fund, a nonpartisan group, that grades every Senator and Congressman on his or her leadership and voting record on key Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ issues including the GI Bill, VA funding and mental health care.
I have also helped organize the Rural Veterans Caucus to bring together people who believe that legislators must focus on issues affecting veterans in rural areas, explore opportunities to enhance access to health care for veterans who are forced to travel far distances, and provide a forum on how best to improve services for these veterans.
The reality is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating an entirely new generation of veterans. Regardless of how we feel about our continued presence in the Middle East, it is important that we all remain committed to supporting our troops and ensuring they have the resources and equipment they need to carry out their mission as safely as possible. We also have an obligation as a Congress to uphold our promise of caring for our veterans when they come home to ensure they have the best health care available and the ability to return to their normal lives.
In this section:
New GI Bill
It is important that our brave men and women know that they have our full support while they are serving overseas and when they return home. That is why I was proud to help pass in the House of Representatives the GI Bill for the 21st century, to restore full, four-year college scholarships for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (or their family members) like we did with the previous GI Bill after World War II. This bill will make Iraq and Afghanistan veterans part of an American economic recovery, just as the veterans of World War II helped grow and strengthen the American middle class.
The original GI bill of 1944 launched millions of families on a course to achieving the American dream and set the American economy on the right course after an exhaustive war. It returned $7 to the economy for every $1 spent on it.
This measure will help strengthen our military. Not only will the GI Bill for the 21st Century give our returning troops the tools to succeed after military service, it will make military service more attractive and improve the quality of military recruits as we work to strengthen and rebuild our military, alleviating the stress on our National Guard and Reserve forces. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the measure will result in a 16 percent increase in military recruits.
Many veterans who have served on or after September 11, 2001, can now apply for these new college benefits, which will become available on August 1, 2009. In this new GI Bill, I also worked hard to include our National Guardsmen and Reservists who served abroad because I firmly believe they should receive the same benefits as our full-time service members. For those veterans who choose not to further their education, I worked with members of both parties to ensure that they have the opportunity to pass down these college benefits to their spouse or children and many are eligible to do just that.
I want to help ensure Arkansas’s bravest and their families get the benefits they deserve, so please click here to learn if you or your family is eligible and how you can apply, or you can call my office at 1-800-223-2220 for more information.
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Investing in Our Servicemembers
Regardless of our economic conditions, we should always ensure our troops have the resources and support they need to effectively carry out their mission. In the 2010 budget passed by Congress, I helped secure over $53 billion, 12 percent more than last year, for veterans’ programs, including the research and treatment of mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
The budget also protects the Department of Veterans Affairs current policy of paying for the treatment of all veterans’ service-connected conditions and billing private insurance companies only for treatment of non-service connected conditions. Our veterans should not be punished for having private insurance to supplement their VA health care.
In the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed earlier this year to help stimulate the economy, I worked to include $2.4 billion in federal investments to rebuild and renovate military and veterans’ facilities that were neglected for too long, including Walter Reed Medical Center, and to improve troop and family housing and child care for military families.
The Recovery Act also included a wide range of key provisions to help our veterans including giving businesses tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans and providing all veterans receiving veterans benefits an additional lump-sum payment of $250. Finally, Congress invested over $150 million to hire more VA claims processors in order to help expedite processing veterans’ claims.
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