FIGHTING FOR OUR VETERANS
Our nation bears a solemn obligation to the millions of men and women who have selflessly heeded the call to duty and have bravely fought for our nation. No matter his or her rank, branch, or age, every American who has worn our nation's uniform deserves our support not only when deployed in harms way, but in the months, years, and decades that follow his or her service.
Taking care of our servicemembers also means standing with all of the military families who bear the brunt of repeated deployments and time spent apart from their loved ones. Military family members should not lose their jobs if they care for a loved one who has been wounded or injured in battle. In 2008, the Support for Injured Servicemembers Act, a bill I introduced, was signed into law. This was the first ever expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and provides military family members six months of unpaid leave from their jobs to care for injured servicemembers. It also provides up to 12 weeks of leave for families to manage child care and financial planning responsibilities that arise from a family member's deployment. This Congress, I introduced H.R. 3403, the Supporting Military Families Act, to further expand this leave to families of veterans who have been wounded or become ill while on active duty. President Barack Obama signed this bill into law in October 2009.
In recent years, I also have supported legislation in Congress to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including the Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which increased the department's budget to $78 billion. This funding will help increase the number of veteran's outpatient clinics, renovate surplus veteran's buildings for use as housing for homeless veterans, and provide mortgage relief to military families. For the first time, this spending bill includes more than $48 billion in advanced funding for medical services for Fiscal Year 2011. This will ensure a stable and reliable source of funding to meet the physical and mental health needs of our veterans.
Many of our veterans forfeited the pursuit of higher education in order to serve our country, and we must reward their sacrifice. That's why I was a supporter of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, which was signed into law last Congress. This bill provides servicemembers with up to four years of educational assistance and benefits, including a monthly stipend, room and board, and other help to cover costs associated with school. This legislation also allows unused education benefits to be transferred to spouses and children.
However, the VA mistakenly determined that, because many of California's public universities charge their students fees instead of tuition, California's servicemembers were not eligible for the full amount of tuition assistance. I strongly opposed this determination and signed a letter to the VA Secretary Eric Shinseki asking him to correct this inequity. The VA has since announced that California servicemembers now are able to access the full benefit calculated under the law.
You can count on me to continue fighting for better benefits for the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our country. They have stood by us in harm's way, now it's our turn to stand by them.