The video is available here.
Senator Grassley on Veterans and Their Service
My message today is recognizing and thanking the nation’s 21 million veterans.
Iowa is home to more than 226,000 of these patriots who answered the call to serve in the Armed Forces.
As a nation, we owe them a debt of gratitude.
We also owe them a responsive, competent Department of Veterans Affairs.
That means continuing to root out employee misconduct and a culture of corruption within the VA so that veterans receive the benefits and services they deserve.
I’m looking at paid administrative leave at the VA, where employees are paid to stay home.
I’m also supporting legislation by Senator Marco Rubio to give the VA Secretary the tools he says he needs to eliminate poor performing employees.
And I’m working on legislation with Senator Mark Kirk to empower good employees by protecting whistleblowers like the ones that exposed the waiting list scandal.
Good treatment of veterans includes better mental health care.
Congress this year passed a bill I cosponsored, The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, that will help.
Congress also approved reforms to the Veterans Choice Program that allow more veterans to qualify to receive health care from non-VA health care providers in their local communities.
The VA is resisting efforts to implement the program as Congress intended, and I support legislation to bring the agency in line.
My six state offices stand ready to help Iowans with veterans matters. I’ve also set up a fellowship as my liaison to veterans all over the state. Don Bailey is the first to serve in this capacity.
His email address is VeteransFellow_Grassley@grassley.senate.gov.
As I say to Iowa veterans I meet during my county meetings and those from the Honor Flights in Washington, D.C.: You shall not be forsaken, nor forgotten.
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