Issue Position: Defense

Issue Position

* Supported a defense authorization bill in 2007 that helps our troops better provide for their families by providing them a 3.5 percent pay raise, .5 percent higher than the president's request. The bill will also assist our troops on the battlefield by providing $4.1 billion for special vehicles that better protect them against improvised explosive devises.

* Supported the Wounded Warrior Act, which responds to the Walter Reed scandal by improving the care of injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The scandal resulted from a series of allegations of unsatisfactory conditions and management at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The legislation will improve the management of medical care, personnel actions and quality of life issues for members of the Armed Forces who are receiving medical care in an outpatient status.

* Supported the Veteran's Guaranteed Bonus Act, which provides essential financial security to our wounded servicemen and women by guaranteeing full payment bonuses earned and owed to them. This legislation fully addresses the military bonus problems in which members of the Armed Services who are wounded while on active duty are not receiving their full bonuses because their service was prematurely cut short.

Supported legislation that cracks down on Pentagon waste and cost overruns by dramatically beefing up oversight of weapons acquisition, promoting greater use of competition and curbing conflicts of interest. The legislation was signed into law by President Obama in May 2009.

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