Dozens of veterans priorities rolled into 1 bill
By KEVIN FREKING | February 24, 2014 | 5:05 PM EST
The veterans bill vote could put Senate Republicans in the uncomfortable position of saying no to a politically powerful constituency during an election year. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the bill’s author and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, has gained the endorsement of myriad veterans groups to generate momentum for his bill, which the panel says would cost $21 billion over 10 years.
Majority Leader Harry Reid is counting on voters as well as lawmakers feeling that way in an election year as the Senate takes up legislation this week that addresses dozens of priorities that veterans groups have raised in recent years.
Two weeks after rolling back an effort to slow cost-of-living pension increases for working-age military retirees, the Senate is now being asked to give veterans new benefits that would cost $21 billion over the next decade.
The bill would make more veterans eligible for VA health care, require public colleges to offer in-state tuition rates to all veterans and help seriously wounded veterans get fertility treatments.
The vote could put Senate Republicans in the uncomfortable position of saying no to a politically powerful constituency in a midterm election year. Some Republicans gripe that the new programs would further swell federal deficits.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the bill's author and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, has gained the endorsement of myriad veterans groups to generate momentum for his bill. Sanders, Reid and other Democrats are counting on public support for the measure despite GOP criticism.
The American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Foreign Wars were just some of the groups that lined up beside Sanders recently to tout the proposed new benefits.
In summary, said Ray Kelley, the VFW's legislative director, "there is something in this bill for every generation of veterans."
The bill is expected to get overwhelming support from Democratic lawmakers, with 21 already signed on as co-sponsors. Sanders has met with Republicans behind the scenes, but so far has no takers. He proudly describes the bill as the most comprehensive veterans' legislation to be offered in decades.
"This legislation did not come from Bernie Sanders. It didn't come from anybody else on the committee. It came from the veterans' community itself," Sanders said.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., a member of the committee, praised Sanders' efforts and noted that many of the bill's provisions were passed by the panel.
"It's not for political purposes. He really would like to get something done," Boozman said of Sanders. "... What I'd like to see happen is throw the bill out there. Let's open it up to amendments and let's find some pay-fors."
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