UPDATE: Call your Congresspeople today. The vote to override BushCo's cruel and unnecessary veto of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill will happen tomorrow. Republican members especially need to hear that you want this veto overridden now - no excuses.
Original post:
Lately at work I've been working on creating press events related to the passage of the bi-partisan Labor-HHS-Education bill. We expected the President to veto it for months but that doesn't do anything to sooth the outrage we're feeling at this cruel and unnecessary (yes, I will keep saying that because it's true) attack on America's working families and indeed the fabric of our country.
Because all this is happening against the backdrop of BushCo's policy of Endless War, we are especially keen to educate people about what exactly is funded by Labor H. We want to make it clear to people that there are programs in there that expressly benefit veterans, which will make it harder to paint the face of need as a "Cadillac-driving Welfare Queen" or as a "thieving illegal." By the way, do you know how many military families benefit from SCHIP or, as the Conservatives call it, Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents? I don't because those statistics aren't readily available to the general public. Sen. Kennedy's office doesn't even have access to them. Sen. Casey's office didn't either. Why do you suppose that is?
Do you know how many military families benefit from WIC, foodstamps, Head Start or LIHEAP? I don't and I've spent weeks trying to find out. But I do know that the House version of the Farm bill includes a provision that exempts combat pay from food stamp eligibility requirements. Why do you suppose that is?
The day after the country observed Veterans Day, President Bush made good on his longstanding threat against people in need and vetoed the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.
Labor H is the bill that funds human needs programs associated with labor, health care and general human services like Meals on Wheels, Head Start and LIHEAP. It provides funds for research that will end diseases including cancer and MS. It provides for job training that will build a competitive American work force. And it makes critical investments in veterans’ health care, job training, suicide prevention, traumatic brain injury treatment and homelessness.
When President Bush vetoed Labor H, he vetoed all of that and he sent a message.
He said that it doesn’t matter that 1 out of 4 of America’s homeless are veterans. Both the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HRVP) and the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness work to end homelessness in our military community and are funded through Labor H.
When he vetoed Labor H, President Bush was saying it doesn’t matter that returning soldiers are having trouble re-employing, retaining their pensions and their health insurance. The Veterans Education and Training Service (VETS), which was created to solve those problems and more, is part of the Dept of Labor and is funded through Labor H.
When President Bush vetoed Labor H, he was saying that he doesn’t care about providing $3.4 billion for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which provides mental health and suicide prevention services. Anyone who has been paying even the slightest bit of attention knows that we are seeing PTSD in newly returning soldiers now as well as in veterans from Vietnam. We know that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. PTSD can take over a decade to present. It is crucial to get the right kind of help to the people suffering with the disorder as well as to their families, who suffer along with the soldier. President Bush vetoed that help yesterday when he vetoed Labor H.
Our message this Veterans’ Week is simple:
President Bush likes to defend his every action by saying that we are at war but he has chosen to make it a war without shared sacrifice, a war that is being fought by our soldiers and their families and paid for by the poor and middle class. It’s a shameful arrangement that asks our military community to sacrifice twice. It is impossible to "support the troops" if we are not supporting them when they leave the battlefield and if we refuse to support the families who send them off to defend our country at great personal cost.
We are calling on the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation to override the President's cruel and unnecessary veto of the Labor H bill at the earliest opportunity so the programs which depend on the funding and the people they serve – veterans and civilians - can get on with the business of making this country stronger, healthier, better fed and better educated.
Today we held a media conference call to release a report that looks at some of the programs included in Labor H and how cuts to them will impact veterans and military families. The unusually long press release that went out after the call is below the fold. I hope you take time to read it because the quotes from the guest speakers are very powerful. Especially moving are the quotes from Sandy Miller, who works directly with homeless veterans in Coatesville, PA. She knows that the money we spend to help veterans in crisis is leading to sound results. She knows that we are going to be seeing more and more homeless women vets with children. She knows because she sees it every single day that those women are not only homeless but are also more often than not survivors of military sexual trauma. Sandy told me that recently more attention had been paid to the special needs of women vets. When Bush vetoed Labor H, he vetoed that help.
Please call your Congressman and get five of your friends to do the same. If your critter is Republican, then try to get ten calls. This is that important. This cruel and unnecessary veto must be overridden. BushCo's back must be broken. This is a vote that can do it.
[Philadelphia] – A day after the country celebrated Veterans Day, President Bush made good on his longstanding threat to veto a bill that provides funding for critical health, job training and eductation services that America’s soldiers, veterans and military families - among other American families - depend on. Today during a media conference call, veterans, service providers and other concerned Pennsylvanians joined representatives of Penn Action, a US Action partner, to release a report called “Veterans’ Benefits and America’s Priorities or Endless War in Iraq?” The report calls on Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation to support the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill that will fund America’s national security, veterans’ services, health care, cancer research, education, job training, and other priorities.
“President Bush likes to defend his every action by saying that we are at war but he has chosen to make it a war without shared sacrifice, a war that is being fought by our soldiers and their families and paid for by the poor and middle class,” said Robin Stelly, field organizer with Penn Action. “It’s a shameful arrangement that asks our military community to sacrifice twice. It is impossible to ‘support the troops’ if we are not supporting them when they leave the battlefield and if we refuse to support the families who send them off to defend our country at great personal cost.”
President Bush has vetoed this legislation because he says he wants to return to fiscal responsibility. In fact, the $22 billion increase in Congress’ budget equals the cost of just two months of war in Iraq. The report finds that if the president vetoes Labor HHS, he will be vetoing critical services that America’s soldiers, veterans and military families depend on. While most veteran-related programs are funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services provide critical services to help veterans, especially the two-thirds of those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have not enrolled in the federal veterans’ health care program. The veto comes within days of a report released by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which found that 1 out of 4 of America’s homeless are veterans.
”Actually the number of homeless veterans has dropped over the years, so the programs that are out here are working and are key to that development,” said Sandy Miller, the coordinator of the 95-bed transitional facility for homeless veterans located in Coatesville and operated by the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service Education Center. “The Day Centers are on the front line. Through them we can see these vets as they come off the streets and from under the bridges. We can see them through counseling to transitional housing. We see our dollars working as taxpayers and as voting veterans.”
Also present on the call was Dr. Mark Gingrich Garis, retired Superintendent of the Souderton School District, lifelong Republican and resident of Pennsylvania, who is currently participating in a nationwide neuro-oncology study funded by the National Institutes of Health. “Eighteen months ago I was found to have a grade four malignant brain tumor. Fortunately, my neuro-oncologist was able to enroll me in an NIH clinical study as part of my chemo therapy program,” said Dr. Garis. “I have several friends who subsequently had the same condition as me. However, they and their families struggle with worry as they are not doing as well as I. Two of them have told me that their oncologist tried to enroll them in an NIH clinical study but found that it was already filled. I feel almost too guilty to tell them that I was able to get into the study. Why should doctors have to make these choices? Sufficient funding would make this treatment available to all who need it.”
President Bush’s budget cuts funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health by $480 million, a cut that would lead to about 800 fewer research grants than last year. Congress’ Labor H bill rejects those cuts, investing about $1.4 billion above the president's request, ROUGHLY THE COST OF 4 DAYS IN IRAQ, in order to produce over 1,400 more research grants into life threatening diseases.
Labor H also funds education programs. Dr. Werner Lange, a Sociology professor at Edinboro College spoke on behalf of preserving funds for key programs. ““At Edinboro University, a comparatively affordable college, many students are working 2-3 jobs, trying to raise a family and pursue fulltime studies so that they may have a better life. These cuts in the Pell Grants, College Work-Study programs, Perkins Loans and IDEA Special Education programs cut them down at the knees and prevent them from pursuing the American Dream,” he said. “These cuts are a nightmare for millions of American citizens. The federal budget is a moral document, one that expresses our operational values. The President's veto proclaim a loud “yes” to death and destruction and “No” to life, health and education.”
The vetoed Labor-H bill invests $4.5 billion above the president's request for the Department of Education ROUGHLY THE COST OF 2 WEEKS IN IRAQ including:
- $2 billion above the President's request into programs that help families pay for college - benefiting 8.5 million students - to prepare our nation for the 21st century economy. This includes increasing the maximum Pell Grant from $4,310 to $4,925.
- $600 million above the President's request for No Child Left Behind Programs including funding for Title I grants to help low-income kids (+ $401 million), improving teacher quality (+$250 million), after school programs (+$100 million), and classroom technology (+$272 million) while making responsible cuts to problem programs.
- $800 million above the President's request for Special Education to help educate the 6.9 million American kids with disabilities.
- $254 million above the President's request for Head Start to help low-income children be successful in school.
As important as all the Labor-H funded programs are to all Americans, the focus of Veterans’ Benefits and America’s Priorities or Endless War in Iraq? is spending on programs that impact our veterans and their families. During the call, Bob Johnson, a Vietnam Veteran, drew on his personal experience when he defended funding for programs that help treat veterans returning from war with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. “These programs have been underfunded for years and now face deeper funding cuts just as the need is going to be on the rise as returning Iraq Veterans try to cope with the horrors of war as well as the knowledge that this war was based on lies,” Mr. Johnson said.
“Returning Veterans now face the highest suicide rates in 26 years," he continued. "This will only get worse as this endless war drags on year after year with on end in sight and our troops face more and longer deployments. It is our responsibility to fund the programs that will help them survive their return home. Our soliders are the best in the world and the youth of our nation and will do exactly what our leaders ask of them to do to the point of death. For this nation to treat them as expendable assets when they come home from war is a national disgrace and a gross dishonor to their sacrifice .”
Sandy Miller ended the call with this observation about the struggles our country faces in the years ahead, “We can see the wounds of war in amputees and in the injured, but the wounds of war are generational and communal. They aren't necessarily wounds that you can see. They are wounds that you can feel and they are wounds that will affect our society for generations to come.”
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