As a veteran, and more importantly as the representative of a veteran-heavy district, I will never vote to cut veterans’ benefits, nor will I vote to prevent current service members from filing claims in the future.
Today, I found myself at the center of an unhinged meltdown and was told to “stop talking” simply for pointing out how wrong it is to cut veterans’ benefits.
Other Republicans, along with many major veterans organizations — including @DAVHQ and @VFWHQ — are also strongly opposed to this bill for the same reason.
The good news is that this veterans’ bill can and will be cleaned up and brought back for another vote. So yes — I broke with party leadership on this to protect veterans’ benefits. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, and that’s okay.
Will a stronger version of this bill come back to the floor? Absolutely. That’s part of the process.
Cutting the ability for service members to receive future disability ratings as a means of paying for other disability ratings is absolutely STUPID. Not voting for any legislation that does this.