WASHINGTON — More than
500 members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. are arriving in
the Nation’s Capital this weekend to urge their members of Congress to end
sequestration, which is set to restart Oct. 1.
“America is still a nation at
war, and the looming restart of mandatory sequestration will have a devastating
impact on the ability of our military to respond when and where necessary, on
homeland security, and on military quality-of-life and veterans’ programs
everywhere,” said VFW National Commander John W. Stroud. “Our members— all
voting constituents—will use this face-to-face opportunity to demand that their
Congress put an end to the sequester, to defeat continued attempts to force
veterans, service members and their families to shoulder an unfair share of the
nation’s debt, to approve advance appropriations for all VA accounts, and to
fight to preserve the safety and security of the United States and the
continued viability of the All-Volunteer Military.”
Stroud is scheduled to present
the VFW’s
legislative positions at 10 a.m., Wednesday, in testimony before a
joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees in the
Dirksen Senate Office Building. That evening he will also present Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) with the VFW’s 2015 Congressional Award, which since 1964 has
been presented annually to one sitting member of the House or Senate for
significant legislative contributions on behalf of those who have worn the
uniform.
“With eight years on the
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee — two of them as chairman — it is no
understatement to say that Senator Sanders has taken care of wounded, ill and
injured veterans and their surviving family members,” said Stroud. “He has been
a commanding voice against changing the COLA calculations for disabled
veterans, for the proper care and treatment of women veterans, homeless
veterans, for better employment opportunities and improved access to mental
health programs, as well as increased congressional oversight of the VA claims
processing transformation,” he said.
“And when the VA imploded last
year, he was the lead negotiator for the Veterans Access, Choice and
Accountability Act, which the president signed into law last summer,” said the
VFW national commander. “The VA still has an uphill climb to fix what’s broken,
to hold employees appropriately accountable, and to restore the faith of
veterans in their VA, but veterans everywhere should be proud and comforted to
know that this United States senator has their back in
Congress.”
Other legislative conference
highlights include:
Hosting a Wounded Warrior
Dinner tonight for wounded troops and their families from the Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center at nearby Bethesda, Md.
An inaugural VFW-Student
Veterans of America Legislative Fellowship Program. The 10 selected Fellows are
currently enrolled in colleges or universities in Florida, Hawaii, Indiana,
Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. They
will be paired with a VFW mentor and accompany their respective VFW state
delegations around Capitol Hill for in-person meetings with their members of
Congress and their staffs. The student veterans will also receive briefings
from the VA Department of Labor on ongoing policy initiatives, as well as
briefings on ways to work constructively with the media when advocating for veterans’
policy initiatives.
Awarding a $30,000 scholarship
Monday evening at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Va., to the winner of the
annual VFW Voice of Democracy program, a patriotic-themed contest that this
year judged almost 37,200 high school student entries. The winner will be
joined onstage by Ethan E. Schroeder, a 13-year-old 7th Grader from Mary Queen
of Apostles Catholic School, Tarentum, Penn., who bested more than 125,000
other middle school students to win a $5,000 scholarship in the VFW’s annual
Patriot’s Pen contest.
The VFW will stream live video
of the 2015 Voice of Democracy Parade of Winners beginning at 6 p.m. (EST),
Monday, and video of the VFW national commander’s congressional testimony will begin
streamingWednesday at 2 p.m. (EST). Visit http://www.vfw.org/legislativeconference/ to
access the stream directly or use the “on-demand” feature to watch at any time.
Veterans and supporters can also follow the VFW on the web at www.vfw.org, as well as on social media. Look
for #VFWHill2015 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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