Veterans
Kentucky is home to nearly 400,000 U.S. veterans who have selflessly served America to protect our freedom. In return for this sacrifice, we are obligated to give these men and women our unending support during their transition home while ensuring the protection of their benefits into the future.
Kentucky is home to nearly 400,000 U.S. veterans who have selflessly served America to protect our freedom. In return for this sacrifice, we are obligated to give these men and women our unending support during their transition home while ensuring the protection of their benefits into the future. America's fighting men and women sacrifice so much to ensure that our great nation stays free. Unfortunately, our government has made a number of promises to our veterans that have existed more in rhetoric than in reality. As your Congressman, I am fighting to ensure that Congress keeps its promise to provide our veterans with access to quality healthcare, educational opportunities, and pension and disability benefits.
Do you have an issue with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)? Contact our district office and let us help!
Locally, the Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Leestown Road is near and dear to my heart. I fought and won against the Bush administration which was trying to close it down. And now I am taking on the Obama administration to make sure that promised state-of-the-art facilities at Leestown will be built. This facility services 92,000 veterans in Kentucky—it is too important to just put on the back-burner. Kentucky veterans deserve the very best care, modern facilities and benefits for their service. And I am going to make sure that they get what they deserve.
Since 2007, Congress has approved a 60% increase in the VA’s discretionary budget, meaning that they have $23 billion more for veteran’s healthcare and services than they did before. This increase is important because we have folks coming in from the battlefields who need care immediately to help with wounds, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and adjusting to life back in the United States after a tour, or multiple tours, abroad. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has simply lacked the resources to adequately address the large number of veterans who need services. I have heard numerous stories about how the VA has not been able to sufficiently help our veterans, and that is not acceptable. I will continue to work in Congress to give veterans the care they deserve and will monitor facilities to make sure the care is adequate.
We have taken the politics out of veterans care by giving the VA its funds a year in advance. The least that we can do is make sure that political changes do not interrupt their benefits.
I am proud to have supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a bill that made key investments for those who have served in our military. First, this act provided a tax credit for businesses who hire unemployed veterans, helping the 4.6% of American veterans who are currently jobless. Healthcare is also an area of concern for our veteran population. Recognizing this, the ARRA provided support to disabled veterans, along with funding to improve VA hospitals and construct new extended care facilities for veterans. I supported legislation providing for the largest increase in funding for veterans healthcare in the VA’s nearly 80-year history, totaling almost $12 billion, to help meet the needs of the 5.8 million patients each year who are treated by the VA.
Part of ensuring a bright future for returning military men and women is working to keep the promise of a good education for our veterans. That is why I was also very proud to support the GI Bill for the 21st Century, passed by Congress in 2008, making certain that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to a full, four year education upon their return.
I have co-sponsored legislation which addresses the mental health issues of our veterans and their families. Equally important for our veterans is access to job training, apprenticeships, and continued education once they have completed their military service. I have supported legislation that would improve benefits for our men and women in uniform and provide long overdue benefits for the veterans and military retirees who have already served.
I am strongly committed to protecting our veterans' pension and disability benefits. I have co-sponsored several pieces of key legislation that would end the disabled veterans' tax and the military families' tax and legislation which would bring equity and fairness to the Survivor Benefit Plan. We owe so much to our servicemen and women and must not leave behind our veterans and their families.