Fight over funding of new Bill for Veterans

SGT Ben Keen — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:15:14 -0500

New legislation authored by Sen Bernie Sanders is scheduled to reach the Senate floor today. The bill is being classified as some of the most sweeping legislation in decades according to the article linked below. The bill covers 143 provisions and carries a price tag above $30 billion.

While the bill, officially known as Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014 has the opportunity to effect veterans by restoring cost-of-living raises for pensions and expanding the VA and provide pretty service to Veterans, the bill may not pass because some of the funding is coming from the funding set aside to continue to war against terrorism for the next 10 years.

Why question is the RallyPoint community is what do you think? Is it okay to take roughly $21 million from the almost $1 trillion set aside and use it for the bill or should it sit there for use in our continuing efforts to combat terrorism around the world.

Massive Veterans Bill Heading Toward Senate Vote

Response by SPC James Bailey made Feb 26 at 2014 4:21 PM

SPC James Bailey — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:21:29 -0500

I say use 21 mill out of the funds. with that much funding in that subject, what could it hurt?

Response by SGT Thomas Sullivan made Feb 27 at 2014 4:52 PM

SGT Thomas Sullivan — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 16:52:16 -0500

I say this is worth discussing once more information on this Bill becomes publicized. Typically most Bills harbor other "laws" that sneak in and allocate funding to many different programs.

Response by CW2 Jonathan Kantor made Apr 12 at 2014 7:43 PM

CW2 Jonathan Kantor — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 19:43:20 -0400

What's the point? The Speaker will either not bring it to the floor for a vote or it will be destroyed by the GOP. Does anyone really think that this Congress will pass a spending bill? Not to mention, a bill of any kind?

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Aug 6 at 2014 10:09 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 22:09:01 -0400

I think this is another example of how our government throws a random dollar amount at a situation w/o clearly defining the problem or the end state. For the most part our "war on terrorism" does not allow us to fight the enemy face to face because they are not a massed, centralized force. Who knows what country will be the next target of opportunity, who knows the size force it will take, so ultimately who knows how much it will cost over what period of time. With the VA we need to act quickly but before we chase good money with bad, what do we go after first? Get the senior leaders together, define the problem and then fix it - again you can't throw out some random dollar amount if the scope of the solution hasn't been defined. The VA issue is immediate and needs fixing now. This $1T 10 year war on terrorism is an unknown. Deal with our veterans that need help now before we create more veterans and still have a broken system that can't handle them

Response by SGT Mark Stevens made Oct 15 at 2015 12:38 PM

SGT Mark Stevens — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:38:50 -0400

Where is the link? I'd like more info.