Topics in the News: Veterans
Tim Walz on Homeland Security
: Aug 8, 2024
2011-18: served on Veterans and Armed Services Committee
Walz represented Minnesota's 1st Congressional District from 2007 to 2019:- 2011-2018: Committee on Agriculture
- Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management; Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry
- Subcommittee on Military Personnel
- 2011-2014: Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management;
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit; Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
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Source: Ballotpedia Candidate Connection:2024 Veepstakes "Biography"
Tim Walz on Homeland Security
: Aug 6, 2024
Bipartisan leadership of House Veterans Affairs Committee
I say this as a former Republican representative who served with Tim in Congress: Tim and I bonded over our shared experiences as soldiers and cultivated a mutual respect that transcended party lines. As both of us served in the U.S. Army.
We understood that even if we might disagree on a specific policy issue of the day, we both shared a deep love of country and a willingness to defend America in military service. As fellow veterans,
Tim and I understood there is no such thing as Republican military service or Democrat military service, only American service.Before becoming governor of Minnesota, as a congressman, Tim championed issues that resonate with a broad spectrum of
Americans. While serving in Congress, I observed Tim's leadership of the House Veterans Affairs Committee where he advocated for veterans' rights, pushed for educational reforms, and addressed health care disparities.
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Source: 2024 VP endorsements by Rep. Charles Djou (R-HI) on Fox News
Tim Walz on Welfare & Poverty
: Mar 26, 2024
Multifamily housing for seniors, veterans, and homeless
Our plan also invests in making sure every Minnesotan has a safe and affordable place to call home. We're backing the development of multifamily housing so that seniors, families, and anyone facing homelessness can find a place to be.
And we want to update the Minneapolis Veterans Home to better serve those who have served us.
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Source: 2024 State of the State Address to the Minnesota legislature
Ron DeSantis on Homeland Security
: Jan 16, 2024
Veterans issues on front burner, but outside the VA
Q: Why did you feel an obligation to serve in the military?DeSANTIS: 9/11 happened. We were in conflict. And I felt that I should raise my hand and serve. I volunteered to go to Iraq. And I learned a lot about what veterans go through. And I'm going
to put veteran issues on the front burner as commander-in-chief.
Q: What do you plan to do about the lackluster performance of the Veterans Administration?
DeSANTIS: What we're going to do is recognize that the V.A. is a massive bureaucracy.
I'm going to fire people that aren't doing a good job. We're going to bring accountability. But we're also going to harness all the resources that are outside of government. And this is a model we've used in Florida. And we're going to use it for
veterans. So we have something called the CarePortal. We recruit military groups, charities, churches, businesses, individuals. So you go to the V.A., you need something, maybe the V.A. helps you, but that immediately goes out to all these organizations.
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Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Doug Burgum on Homeland Security
: Nov 11, 2023
Tuition assistance & tax exemption for military & veterans
Gov. Burgum released the following statement in observance of Veterans Day: "The current conflicts overseas and the crisis on our own southern border are daily reminders that a strong military is absolutely necessary to maintain peace through strength,
and that has only been possible through the service and sacrifice of our military veterans," Burgum said.Continuing efforts to make N.D. the most military-friendly state were bolstered by several pieces of legislation signed by Burgum, including
bills that:- Exempt military pay, and military retirement pay, from state income tax for active duty, National Guard and Reserve members.
- Allow North Dakota National Guard members who attend college out-of-state to qualify for State Tuition
Assistance.
- Allow child care providers licensed by the U.S. Department of Defense to operate in North Dakota with their DOD license.
- Burgum also pushed for funding for a North Dakota Military Museum.
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Source: 2024 North Dakota Governor press release:"Veterans Day/2023"
Donald Trump on Homeland Security
: Aug 28, 2020
FactCheck: Obama signed Veterans Choice, not Trump
Trump falsely claimed he passed the Veterans Choice program. The Veterans Choice bill, a bipartisan initiative led by Sens. Bernie Sanders and the late John McCain was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014.
In 2018, Trump signed the VA Mission Act, which expanded and changed the Choice program. Trump has told this lie more than 150 times.
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Source: CNN Fact-Check on 2020 Republican Convention speech
Mike Pence on Homeland Security
: Aug 26, 2020
Fact Check: Takes credit for Veterans Choice passed in 2014
Pence said: "After years of scandal that robbed our veterans of the care that you earned in the uniform of the United States, President Trump kept his word again. We reformed the VA, and Veterans Choice is now available for every veteran in America."
The Veterans Choice program was a bipartisan initiative enacted by Obama in 2014. The Trump administration "reformed the VA" by signing the VA MISSION Act of 2018, which boosted funding for the choice program and expanded the eligibility criteria.
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Source: NBC News Fact-Check on 2020 Republican Convention speech
Donald Trump on Crime
: Jul 4, 2020
Enforcement to protect our monuments: ten years in prison
They are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage. That is why I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.
Under the executive order I signed last week--pertaining to the Veterans' Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act and other laws--people who damage or deface federal statues or monuments will get a minimum of 10 years in prison.
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Source: Trump Administration: Trump Remarks at Mount Rushmore
Bernie Sanders on Homeland Security
: Sep 12, 2019
We spend $750B on military & don't know who our enemy is
As the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, we cannot express our gratitude to all of the men and women who have put their lives on the line to defend us, who have responded to the call of duty. But I think, also,
I am the only person up here to have voted against all three of Trump's military budgets. I don't think we have to spend $750 billion a year on the military when we don't even know who our enemy is.
I think that what we have got to do is bring this world together-bring it together on climate change, bring it together in fighting against terrorism. And make it clear that we as a planet, as a global community, will work together to
help countries around the world rebuild their struggling economies and do everything that we can to rid the world of terrorism. But dropping bomb on Afghanistan and Iraq was not the way to do it.
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Source: September Democratic Primary debate in Houston
Donald Trump on Drugs
: May 2, 2019
Opposed allowing vets access to legal cannabis
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee held a hearing on three bills. One bill would allow VA healthcare providers to write state-legal medical cannabis recommendations for veterans who qualify. A separate bill would direct the
VA to conduct a clinical study on the risks and benefits of medical marijuana. A third would prevent the VA from stripping veterans of their benefits because they consume state-legal cannabis.
The Trump administration opposed all three.
Not too long ago, veterans could lose their lifelong military benefits if a drug test turned up evidence of cannabis use, no matter how legal.
The VA reformed that policy in late 2017--but it's a policy subject to easy change, not a protection codified by law. President Trump opposes codifying it into law.
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Source: Bruce Barcott in Leafly.com on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Bernie Sanders on Homeland Security
: Apr 1, 2018
Don't privatize the Veterans Administration
Q: Will you support Dr. Ronny Jackson as the nominee for the Veterans Administration?SANDERS: Well, we know nothing about Dr. Jackson's vision for the VA. But what concerns me is that, right now in Washington, we have a family called the Koch
brothers--with a few of their other billionaire friends--their view has been we have got to privatize, privatize, and privatize. And Dr. Shulkin [the previous DVA chief], who Trump fired this week, said the reason for his firing is that he resisted
privatization of the Veterans Administration. I work very closely with the major veterans organizations, and what they say is they want to strengthen the VA, not dismember it, not privatize it.
Q: Well, the White House says, at this time, they have
no intent to privatize the VA.
SANDERS: They have been putting more money into the private sector with VA money. I do not believe them on that issue. I think they are listening to the Koch brothers. And I think that that is a very, very bad idea.
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Source: CBS Face the Nation 2018 interviews of 2020 hopefuls
Tim Walz on Homeland Security
: May 2, 2017
Suicide prevention programs & mental health for veterans
Tim's bill to help reduce the number of veteran suicides passed unanimously and was signed by President Obama. The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act helps make current VA suicide prevention programs more effective by creating
incentives to attract more psychiatrists to the VA, creating a central website to better connect veterans with VA mental health services, and improving connections & coordination between the VA & non-profit mental health organizations providing services.
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Source: 2018 Minnesota governor campaign website WalzForGovernor.org
Donald Trump on Health Care
: Sep 7, 2016
Let vets see private doctors or VA: that's not privatization
CLINTON: I will not let the V.A. be privatized. And I do think there is an agenda out there, supported by my opponent, to do just that.TRUMP: I never said take the Veterans Administration private. I wouldn't do that. But I do believe, when you're
waiting in line for six, seven days, you should never be in a position like that. You go out, you see the doctor, you get yourself taken care of. The V.A. is really almost a corrupt enterprise. So we are going to make it efficient and good.
And if it's not good, you're going out to private hospitals, public hospitals, and doctors.
FACT-CHECK: Trump's campaign published a "Veterans Plan" last October. It doesn't call for the VA to be completely privatized, but allows veterans to get care
at any non-VA medical center that accepts Medicare. Trump stuck to the idea when he released his "Ten Point Plan To Reform The VA" in July, giving "every veteran the choice to seek care at the VA or at a private service provider of their own choice."
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Source: USA Today Fact-check on 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum
Kamala Harris on Homeland Security
: Aug 31, 2016
Champion a robust VA for our Veterans
With more than two million Veterans, California has more Veterans than any other state, and we owe them the support and care they earned while wearing our nation's military uniform. Over the years, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been
plagued by scandal and budget crises, resulting in disgraceful levels of service and irresponsible delays in providing medical care and disability benefits.As Attorney General, Kamala formed a working group to fight scams and other predatory conduct
uniquely targeting service members, and secured enhanced protections for active-duty and Veteran homeowners during the foreclosure crisis.
In the Senate, Kamala will champion a robust VA for our Veterans.
She will fight to ensure that when Veterans leave military service, they have the support they need to readjust to civilian life, including proper physical and mental health care. It's unconscionable that 22 Veterans take their own lives each day.
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Source: 2016 California Senate campaign website, KamalaHarris.org
Mike Pence on Homeland Security
: May 26, 2016
Led a ceremony with a dedication of a POW/MIA Chair of Honor
Fifty Indiana service members who remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam war were honored and remembered at a ceremony held at the Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis.
Gov. Mike Pence offered remarks during the ceremony and led the first leg of the Rolling Thunder's 29th Annual Ride for Freedom, a motorcycle ride from Indianapolis to Washington.
The ceremony also included a dedication of a POW / MIA Chair of Honor in the Indiana War Memorial. Pence said, "First in our hearts are our veterans on Memorial Day weekend.
And to be able to join Rolling Thunder and head to our nation's capitol to remember our POWs and MIAs is very humbling for me and makes me proud to be a Hoosier."
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Source: 44 News WEVV, "Memorial for missing Vietnam War Veterans"
Bernie Sanders on Homeland Security
: Feb 4, 2016
Promise to never privatize V.A.
Q: You will likely face a Republican opponent who wants to privatize or even abolish big parts of the V.A. It's a newly popular idea in conservative politics.SANDERS: Republicans give a lot of speeches about how much they love veterans. But when it
came to put money on the line [in my comprehensive veterans bill], to protect our veterans, frankly, they were not there. There are people, Koch brothers among others, who have a group called Concerned Veterans of America, who want to privatize it.
CLINTON: I'm absolutely against privatizing the V.A. And I am going do everything I can to build on the reforms that Senator Sanders and others in Congress have passed to try to fix what's wrong with the V.A.
There are a lot of issues about wait times and services that have to be fixed because our veterans deserve nothing but the best. Yes, let's fix the V.A., but we will never let it be privatized, and that is a promise.
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Source: MSNBC Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire
Donald Trump on Homeland Security
: Nov 3, 2015
VA is one of the most incompetently-run agencies
The Department of Veterans Affairs ( VA) is probably the most incompetently run agency in the United States government. And that's saying something. The problem is that there are too many political people involved within its operation.
The taxpayers pay more than $150 billion a year for the VA, and what do we get for that? Right now, the VA is being run by people who don't know what they're doing.
They're getting more money from the government than ever before and yet the care gets worse. The list of men and women waiting for care is growing and their wait times are longer. How can the VA possibly be so inefficient?
We need to put people in charge who know how to run big operations. We have to get the best managers and give them the power, the money, and the tools to get the job done. We owe our veterans nothing less.
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Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p.106-7
Donald Trump on Homeland Security
: Jun 16, 2015
Increased Veterans Day parade audience from 100 to 1 million
Trump has long been a devoted supporter of veteran causes. In 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of World War II, only 100 spectators watched New York City's Veteran Day Parade. It was an insult to all veterans.
Approached by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the chief of New York City's FBI office, Trump agreed to lead as Grand Marshall a second parade later that year. Mr. Trump made a $1 million matching donation to finance the Nation's Day Parade.
On Saturday, November 11th, over 1.4 million watched as Trump marched down Fifth Avenue with more than 25,000 veterans, some dressed in their vintage uniforms. A month later,
Trump was honored in the Pentagon during a lunch with the Secretary of Defense and the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, DonaldJTrump.com
Jill Stein on Homeland Security
: Jul 31, 2014
Burden of fighting is borne by families of lesser means
GI and Veterans' Rights: Support for men and women in the armed forces must go far beyond the rhetoric used to discredit the peace movement in the U.S. today. We believe that the ill-advised and illegal actions of the U.S. administration have
unnecessarily put our troops in harm's way. We further believe that the dangerous burden of fighting the unnecessary war in Iraq, and the wars that may follow, due to the administration's overly narrow and militaristic response to terrorism
is disproportionately borne by families of lesser means. Those who are required to carry out militaristic policies, often with great hardship to themselves, their families,
and even the risk of their lives, deserve our respect and our commitment to adequate compensation and benefits.
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Source: Green Party of the United States National Platform
Ron DeSantis on Homeland Security
: Nov 6, 2012
Gave legal support to Gitmo terrorist detention center
As a JAG officer in the United States Navy, he supported operations at the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and deployed to Iraq during the 2007 troop surge as an advisor to a U.S. Navy SEAL commander in support of the
SEAL mission in Iraq.He is currently an officer in the reserve component of the United States Navy. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. He has lectured on the law of war at Florida Coastal School of Law.
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Source: 2012 House campaign website, voteRon2012.com, "Issues"
Joe Biden on Homeland Security
: Oct 11, 2012
Caring for veterans is our only sacred obligation
BIDEN: We only have one truly sacred obligation as a government. That's to equip those we send into harm's way and care for those who come home. That's the only sacred obligation we have.
Everything else falls behind that. [Veterans] should be honored; not be thrown into a category of the 47% who don't pay their taxes.
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Source: 2012 Vice Presidential debate
Chris Christie on Homeland Security
: Sep 16, 2011
Strengthen support network for military families
Gov. Christie issued the following statement on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, to remember and honor Americans taken as Prisoners of War or Missing in Action: "Today we pay tribute to the sacrifice of our brave servicemembers who not only served
our country with honor, but were also taken as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action.
"Honoring our commitment to those brave men and women is one of our solemn duties and a special responsibility for me as Governor. I am proud that we have
strengthened our commitment to our veterans, their families, and those currently serving in active duty. Since taking office, I have signed legislation that strengthened our support network for military families after the death of a service member,
honored those World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans who were required to drop out of high school to serve, and created the Gold Star Families license plate to honor the families of members of the military killed in action for their sacrifice."
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Source: Press release, "National POW/MIA Recognition Day"
Page last updated: Nov 02, 2024
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