A lifelong Okie, It’s a little late to relocate. I can’t believe the political ineptness of this state & its’ rabid moral majority<\/p>\n
Coburn named as senator holding up vets bill<\/p>\n
Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator \u2014 Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma \u2014 to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill.<\/p>\n
Coburn has been identified by Senate aides as the lawmaker preventing consideration of S 1963, the Veterans\u2019 Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009, by using an informal but legal practice of putting a hold on a bill.<\/p>\n
Coburn\u2019s staff did not respond to questions, but Senate aides said the first-term senator has expressed concern about creating new and unfunded benefits and wants the opportunity to amend the measure.<\/p>\n
One of Coburn\u2019s suggestions is to divert money from unspent economic and job stimulus programs to cover costs of new benefits for veterans and their families, according to sources who have discussed the issue with Coburn\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
So far, at least, Senate leaders don\u2019t want to let Coburn offer any amendments because of the precedent that would set to delay other legislation. Actual funding for benefits traditionally is handled separately from the bills that authorize the benefits, Senate aides said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this fall, Coburn placed holds on S 252, the Veterans Health Care Authorization Act of 2009, and S 728, the Veterans\u2019 Insurance and Benefits Enhancement Act of 2009, which led to the introduction of S 1963, which combines key provisions of the two earlier bills in an effort to get around Coburn\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent Monday night to the Senate majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the 13 military and veterans groups ask the Senate to get on with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is essential that Congress act on this comprehensive measure without further delay,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cThousands of disabled veterans with serious medical conditions and the family members who care for them are counting on this additional support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter says passing the bill by Veterans Day would be a \u201cfitting way\u201d to honor veterans.<\/p>\n
Those signing the letter include the nation\u2019s major veterans groups \u2014 The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, AmVets, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Jewish War Veterans, plus the Military Officers Association of America, National Military Family Association and Wounded Warrior Project.<\/p>\n
Steve Robertson, legislative director for The American Legion, said delaying the bill hurts families caring for severely wounded combat veterans who would benefit from the stipends, health care, counseling and respite care that would be provided to caregivers in the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of family caregivers, delay is costing them their jobs and their savings. It\u2019s having a big impact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Robertson said he has spoken to Coburn\u2019s staff about the earlier holds on S 252 and S. 728, but the conversation was fairly one-sided, with Coburn\u2019s aides trying to get Robertson to dissuade veterans from flooding the senator\u2019s office with calls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made it clear that Sen. Coburn sees this as using his rights as a senator to place a hold on a bill, and that he was not doing anything illegal or wrong,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cI agree with that, but that doesn\u2019t mean it makes sense to hold up a bill that would do a lot of good things for veterans that has cleared a committee and is ready for a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate assistant majority leader, mentioned Coburn\u2019s hold in a Tuesday floor speech without citing Coburn by name, saying that the bill was being held up by one senator over cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much is a veteran\u2019s life worth?\u201d Durbin asked, adding that he hopes the hold is lifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lifelong Okie, It’s a little late to relocate. I can’t believe the political ineptness of this state & its’ rabid moral majority Coburn named as senator holding up vets bill Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator \u2014 Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma \u2014 to release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrambler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}