Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | DAV Magazine

National Commander Dempsey asks: Does Congress have the will to care for vets?

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

National Commander Raymond E. Dempsey capped the DAV's annual Mid-Winter Conference with a rousing testimony in Washington, Feb. 24, addressing a joint session of the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs Committees.

"The only question is whether our government has the will to live up to its obligation to all our nation's veterans," Commander Dempsey said at the congressional hearing.

Hundreds of DAV members and leaders filled the room in which the Commander testified, spilling into the hallways. They were in town for the conference and to deliver the DAWs message to their Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill.

The Commander's testimony stressed the DAV's current top legislative priority, passage of the recently introduced Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act (see story on page 7).

"This legislation is all about making government more efficient, transparent and accountable," Commander Dempsey told lawmakers. "These are three key elements that President Obama, Congress and veterans all agree are needed in these challenging times."

The Commander's testimony was well received by members of the committees, who agreed the issues he brought up were in dire need of attention.

"You laid out an agenda for us which, I could tell you, each one of us accept," House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-Calif.) told Commander Dempsey. "You said the key issue was do we have the will to do it. And that's going to be the issue."

"And you have to be involved not only in Washington, as you are here today and lobbying, but when you go back home, keep your eye on your representatives, make sure that they are voting for a VA that will, in fact, meet the needs of our veterans," Filner said. "So ... your agenda is our agenda."

DAV members at the hearing liked what they heard from both the Commander and lawmakers.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Today was very impressive," said Richard Robinson of Monroe County Chapter 15 in New York. "If we get half of what the politicians said they will do, we will be way ahead of where we are now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"I was very pleased with the agenda Commander Dempsey brought forth," said Charles Benjamin Clarke, a member of Pennsylvania's Chapter 15. "We came down from Philadelphia to support the Commander and to hear what he and what our lawmakers had to say. I am happy with the committees' apparent willingness to immediately address the issues that need to be acted upon now. I think the outlook is much...