Patty Wetterling

Candidate for Congress

Minnesota (MN-6)

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On the Issues: Veterans

Everywhere we look these days, we see bumper stickers, buttons, and signs declaring support for our troops. While, I applaud and fully support that sentiment, I believe that we, as a Nation, must do more to honor both our service personnel and our veterans. It is time for our leaders in Washington to live to up America ’s promise to those brave men and women who have sacrificed so much for us.

Today, we are a nation at war. Thousands of men and women are in harm’s way around the world and more than half of the US Army troops serving in Iraq are National Guardsmen and Reservists. Too many of their families are being torn apart by the economic challenges of seeing the family breadwinner repeatedly sent overseas. We must do better for those who serve. If we can spend billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, we can find the money to protect the lives and livelihoods of the Americans we send to do it: they should never have to worry about losing their pay, their health insurance, or their homes.

As long as American lives are at risk, Congress must do everything it can to support our armed forces and see that our soldiers have the equipment and supplies that they need to do their jobs.

A New GI Bill of Rights

We must remember that the war in Iraq is creating a new generation of veterans, with their own unique set of needs. I have called for legislation to establish a new generation of programs to honor their service and ease their transition home, including:

• Full Funding for VA Hospitals
• An Updated GI Bill for the 21st Century
• Compensation for Soldiers that have suffered a pay cut while serving
• Increased Penalties on companies that refuse to protect Military Families from foreclosure and eviction
• Legislation that blocks increases to health insurance premiums for reservists and members of the National Guard who return from war and reinstate their old policies

If these proposals for our veterans and soldiers are not passed in this session of Congress, they will be among my first orders of business upon being sworn in.

Disabled Veterans

Disabled veterans have sacrificed greatly for this country and we owe them a debt that we can never hope to repay, yet current law is shortchanging them. Disabled military veterans must be allowed to receive their full retirement benefits and I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see that that inequity is corrected.