July 3, 2006

Saratoga Springs, NY - Kirsten Gillibrand, congressional candidate in NY's 20th Congressional District, met with area veterans today at the Veterans Memorial in Congress Park.

"This is a question of priorities; this Congress and Administration have decided to do the absolute minimum for our nation's veterans.  More can be done.   Supporting our brave men and women of uniform and their families is a duty we should be honored to uphold, rather than an option to finance when convenient.  For too long, our policies aimed at helping veterans have lacked consistency and follow through, that is why I support reforming the G.I. Bill of Rights."

Gillibrand continued, "We must be able to improve the lives of our veterans and their families.  Our brave service men and women should not be faced with inadequate gear and supplies when deployed, nor should they have to wonder if their education and health needs will be met when they come home. This week, there are patriotic celebrations across our country celebrating the birth of our nation.  In order to honor those who have served to protect us, I would hope that we might spend some time thinking about the problems facing our veterans and their families."

Local veteran Lewis Benton of Saratoga Springs announced the formation of Veterans for Gillibrand.  Benton is a decorated Vietnam veteran; he served as an Army medic and treated nearly 1000 war casualties during his deployment.  When asked why he felt it was important for area veterans to support Gillibrand's candidacy, Benton replied, "Regardless of political affiliation, we are a group of veterans who stand together to support Kirsten because of her commitment to fight for change.  John Sweeney has failed to improve the quality of life for veterans. Given the opportunity to stand up for us, he has remained seated."

Kirsten Gillibrand and Benton were joined by a number of area veterans, including John Nelson who served in WWII, Paul Bouchard who also served in Vietnam and Nicole Bacon who served in Operation Desert Storm, who spoke about some of the issues facing veteran's and their families.

The G.I. Bill of rights was enacted 62 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Many congressional leaders have called for an update to the bill to address the changing needs of our nation's veterans.  Plans to modernize the bill and increase veteran's access to health care have never been embraced by President Bush or the Republican led Congress.  There are over 70,000 veterans residing in the 20th Congressional District and an estimate 1.1 million living in the state of New York.

An updated G.I. Bill of Rights should include the following reforms:

Provide Affordable and Accessible Healthcare

• Adequately fund and improve veterans' health care, including mental healthcare, so that prescription drugs and timely health care is accessible and affordable for our veterans
• Improve the timeliness and accuracy of benefit claims; veterans with a service-connected disability claim have a right to expect timely resolution of their appeals, as their quality of life depends on it
• Expand military health care to provide full access to TRICARE - the military health program - to all members of the Guard and Reserve and their families for a low fee
• Provide low-cost healthcare opportunities for veterans and family members who return from combat and cannot find work (up to 9 months)
• Provide greater access to medical treatment options to veterans who do not live within one hour of a VA hospital or clinic.

End Burdensome Taxes

• Fully repeal the Disabled Veterans Tax, which forces disabled military retirees to give up one dollar of their pension for every dollar of disability pay they receive
• End the Military Families Tax, which penalizes survivors, mostly widows of those killed as a result of combat, if they receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation benefits because their spouse died of a service-connected injury

Extend Financial Protection

• Protect bonuses and special pay for those who are permanently and severely injured or wounded or killed in service
• Continue combat pay or other additional compensation for those recovering from combat injuries
• Provide unemployment benefits for up to 6 months after discharge if unable to find a job
• Protect the income of activated National Guard and Reservists
• Improve communication and computer systems that link payroll, personnel and medical functions (to minimize problems in bill payment, foreclosures, bankruptcy and credit harm that is caused when veterans are in the hospital or unable to work due to service related illnesses and injuries)

Improve Education and Vocational Training

• Modernize and enhance the GI Bill Education and Job Training Program, by increasing online access to information linked to schools, increasing access to low interest loans and linking tuition grants to inflation
• Assist homeless veterans seeking employment by proving greater access to job training services

• Require an adequate number of deployed troops to meet the demands of a mission
• Ensure deployed troops have proper gear and equipment, including access to full body armor to deployed troops on combat missions