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Somewhere tonight, a combat-injured veteran who was medically retired before completing 20 years of service is doing the math on a check that is smaller than it should be. The law still forces veterans to trade away part of the retirement pay they earned in order to receive the disability compensation they are owed.
Down the hall, someone who loves that veteran is doing math of their own. This caregiver is one of 14.3 million military and veteran caregivers in this country, and the work they do without pay is worth upwards of $400 billion a year. Many caregivers left their jobs and sacrificed their income and retirement savings to care for a loved one, absorbing costs they were never meant to bear alone. They have been waiting for needed support too.
That was not their choice. Congress made it, and Congress has left it in place for years. Recently, that pattern repeated. The House was scheduled to vote on this bill that would address this head on, but unfortunately that did not come to fruition.
SEN. BLUMENTHAL, REP. TAKANO: CONGRESS CAN FUND VETERANS’ CARE WITHOUT TAKING BENEFITS FROM DISABLED HEROES
We lead two national organizations that see these families from different sides of the same room. As the largest veteran service organization, one of us speaks for those who served, living in nearly every community across America. The other speaks for the caregivers who hold them together at home. On the “Take Care of America’s Veterans Act,” we joined 21 other organizations to speak as one because the people we all serve have waited long enough. This legislation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to stand with the veterans, caregivers and survivors who have sacrificed so much for our country.
Congress has a chance to take action on over 60 bills impacting veterans and their families. (John Moore/Getty Images)
For years, Congress has agreed on what these veterans and families are owed and then let the fixes die one at a time, each good bill sent back to the end of a line that never seems to move. This bill takes a different path. It moves more than 60 long-stalled priorities forward together, among them concurrent retirement pay, survivor benefits, caregiver support and suicide prevention, so the people behind them stop being told to wait their turn.
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At its center are several major pieces of legislation, including the “Major Richard Star Act,” ending the offset that has cost more than 59,000 combat-injured veterans part of the retirement they earned, the “Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Benefits Expansion Act,” increasing benefits for survivors and the most catastrophically injured, and the “Love Lives On Act,” allowing survivors to retain their benefits upon remarriage. For the veteran doing the math tonight, that is not an abstraction. It is the distance between what they were promised and what they receive.
For the caregiver beside them, and for the surviving spouses this bill also reaches, it means support the country has long owed and rarely delivered. It is the kind of help that lets veterans heal at home, among the people who know them best, rather than alone.
VETERANS COULD DECIDE THE MIDTERMS, AND THE VA IS WHY
We know the package has drawn hard questions about how it is paid for. The Veterans Administration (VA) proposed a rule related to sleep apnea and tinnitus that would generate cost savings. Despite objections from The American Legion and other large veteran service organizations, the VA has not withdrawn this proposed rule and testified that it would be finalized by the end of this fiscal year.
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The VA has since confirmed it intends to move forward with those changes. That confirmation narrows the choice to two paths: the rule is withdrawn, or this bill passes and the savings stay with the men and women who earned them and their families. That means if we don’t act, billions of dollars will be returned to the Treasury and go from supporting veterans to funding other causes.
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Former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s vision for what is possible for America’s caregiving families, including the veterans for whom they care, is written into the heart of this bill. America just marked its 250th anniversary, and the tributes have already been spoken, especially for those who gave their lives in service to this nation. The veteran doing the math tonight, and the caregiver beside them, have heard every one.
What they have not heard is a yes. A missed vote does not lessen the urgency. It raises it. Right now, votes in the House and Senate stand between the veteran community and these benefits. Cast them in support of this vital legislation and the country honors the full and lasting price of service not with words, but with law. Our organizations are out front, ready to help both chambers get there. The tributes are paid. The bill is due.
Steve Schwab is chief executive officer of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.