NATION COMMITS TO SUPPORTING VETERANS
IN APPRECIATION FOR THEIR SERVICE

By Congressman John Tanner

There are more than 532,000 military veterans living in Tennessee, and we are proud of them and thankful for their service. I know they will be interested to learn of the actions taken by the House of Representatives this year to support them and honor their service.

• Following eye-opening, deeply saddening lapses at Walter Reed and other facilities, the House has passed a veterans funding bill that honors our military veterans and those serving now with the largest increase in VA care in 77 years to make sure those who served our country get the health care that they were promised and which they deserve.

• The House has sent to President Bush a bill increasing the cost-of-living for disabled veterans and their families.

• We halted the Administration’s proposed health care fee increases for veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

•  Through the “G.I. Bill of Rights for the 21^st Century,” we are looking to end the so-called Military Families Tax, which unfairly penalizes more than 60,000 survivors – most of them widows – of those who have died as a result of their service-connected injuries.

• We passed the “Veterans’ Health Care Improvement Act of 2007,” which will help ease transportation difficulties for veterans in rural areas who have to travel to get VA care.

Additionally, many of us were concerned when we learned recently that the Department of Veterans Affairs had banned Memorial Honor Detail volunteers from performing the traditional 13-point flag-folding recitation because of a complaint over its references to Christianity and Judaism.

I joined U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler and other of our colleagues in writing a letter to the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs expressing our concerns. We stressed that the “recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear.”

After our letter and the input from many veterans’ families across the country, the Veterans Affairs Department reversed its decision and will once again allow the recitations at military funerals. We applaud this position reversal and are glad our heroes can once again receive the military service that best honors their sacrifices.

Congressman John Tanner represents Tennessee’s 8^th District in West and Middle Tennessee. A veteran of the U.S. Navy and the Tennessee National Guard, he currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

# # #

Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714