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Washington, D.C.--U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) released the following statement today in honor of Veterans Day.
This weekend, our nation takes time to recognize and remember all of the veterans who have done so much to keep our country strong and free and the troops who are serving today in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Veterans Day is a time to thank our veterans for their service in all wars, past and present. Generation after generation of men and women have taken on the challenge of protecting our country, often at great risk to themselves and their families. While facing the threat of a hostile enemy, our veterans have too often returned home to find more trouble: gaps in health care services, limited educational assistance, problems finding employment and a lack of support for their families. Too often, our brave military men and women return home to find that while they have been willing to serve their country, their country is not ready to serve them.
This Veterans Day must be a time when we don’t just honor our veterans but when we commit ourselves to providing all the benefits our veterans have earned and deserve. It is a day when we must agree to stop underfunding veterans programs and instead make all needed investments to meet the needs of our troops and our veterans. I am proud that Speaker Pelosi and my colleagues in the House have made strengthening veterans’ services a top priority. We have enacted into law an additional $5.2 billion in funding to meet the immediate health care needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. This week, the House passed the largest funding increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration – a $6.6 billion increase over last year’s budget, $3.7 billion more that the President had recommended. With this funding, we can keep our commitment to those who have served in past wars – reducing claim backlogs and long waits for needed benefits. And we can meet the needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are serving so bravely and who deserve the best medical care when they return home.
I am also proud that I have reintroduced a bill to help members of the National Guard and Reserves who fall on tough times financially and find themselves facing bankruptcy when they return home. These veterans often face financial difficulties because of their lengthy tours, unanticipated redeployments, or because they have served multiple tours. We should be offering the men and woman who risk their lives to protect us greater financial relief, not greater hardships.
We are engaged in a national debate on the wisdom of the war in Iraq – I am one of those who opposed it from the beginning. But while I do not support the war in Iraq, I strongly support our troops. We have always had the greatest military in the world made up of our best and bravest – but this war is eroding our military’s capability, stretching our troops almost beyond human capacity.
It is wrong that we sent our troops to Iraq without the most-up-to-date equipment and armor needed to keep them safe. It is wrong that we are not giving our troops adequate time between tours to be with their families. It is wrong that we are not fully prepared to support their families and to meet their needs when they return. Already, more than 3,800 American men and women have died in Iraq and more than 28,000 have been wounded. It is my top priority to make sure veterans and their families receive the respect and services they have earned by serving our nation so valiantly.
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