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Senator Amy Klobuchar

Working for the People of Minnesota

Veterans

With the war in Iraq American men and women in uniform and their families have endured challenges that are unprecedented in recent history, including unrelenting operational demands and repeated deployments in combat zones. Some 1.5 million American service men and women have now served in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are creating a new generation of veterans who need their country to stand with them.

Doing Right by Our Returning Veterans

Our state office is available to help veterans with benefits and other veterans’ issues. You can directly contact my state office by calling 612-727-5230 or email me by clicking here.

At his Second Inaugural, President Lincoln reminded the American people that, in war, we must strive “to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” Today, Americans are again called to bind up our nation’s wounds and to care for those who have borne the battle, as well as their families who have shouldered their own sacrifice. We must embrace this solemn obligation by honoring our returning soldiers and their families by giving them the support and care they deserve.

I have always believed that when we ask our young men and women to fight and to die for this nation, we make a promise that we will give them all the resources they need to do their job. And when they return home, we promise to take care of them. As a nation, we have an obligation to wrap our arms around the people who have sacrificed for us. Today, our veterans need us more than ever.

In years past, veterans like my father could count on their government standing by them. After World War II, our government did just that, adopting the GI Bill to provide health, housing and educational benefits that gave returning veterans the help they needed to heal, raise families and prosper. We must ensure fair compensation policies for all veterans, good education benefits, and the health care that they and their families deserve.

In recent years, our government has failed in its commitments to provide the 25 million veterans in America the benefits they have earned. And the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to adapt support services to meet the demands created by the new type of war our soldiers are fighting, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with few options for treatment of traumatic injuries or mental health illnesses.

The new Democratic majority has begun to address the shortages in funding and bureaucratic holes in the VA and other veterans’ support system. I joined my colleagues in supporting an increase of $3.5 billion in the Continuing Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2007, an additional $3.5 billion in the FY2008 Budget Resolution, and $3 billion for military health care in the supplemental funding bill.

This is only the beginning of a sustained commitment to repay the sacrifices our veterans have made for all of us, in wars past and present.

As Minnesota’s U.S. Senator, these are my priorities on behalf of our veterans:

  • Provide increased counseling and create greater awareness for the tens of thousands of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses. According to a Veterans’ Health Administration report, roughly one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who sought care through the VA have been diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders.
  • Enhance and expand the recovery and rehabilitation centers for the 30,000 wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. We must increase the number of polytrauma treatment centers that were created in recognition of the large number of service members sustaining multiple severe injuries as a result of explosions and blasts. These centers provide a full array of inpatient and outpatient services, with specialized programs for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, blind rehabilitation and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  • End the segregation of benefits between, on the one hand, active duty veterans and, on the other, National Guard and Reserve veterans. We must upgrade Guard members from their perceived status as “second-class veterans” – including health care, pension plans and reintegration programs.
  • Improve veterans’ education benefits. We need to ensure that every soldier who fights for his or her nation has the opportunity to pursue higher education and job training.
  • Respond to the disproportionately high level of homelessness in our veteran population. We should provide clean, safe, drug-free supportive housing; transitional homes for use during extended medical care, chemical dependency treatment and job skills training; and assistance finding permanent housing and fully reintegrating into the community.
  • Strengthen the innovative, successful Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program. This program provides education and assistance to members of the Minnesota National Guard and their families during periods of mobilization, and helps ease the transition between soldier and civilian life. This program is a model of what our support for the Guard and Reserves can and should be, and it demonstrates how Minnesota is leading the way in recognizing the sacrifices Guard and Reserve members are making today.

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