Issue Position: Armed Services

Issue Position

In my work on the Committee on Armed Services, I focus primarily on providing support to our service men and women, their families, and the veterans who have served and continue to deserve our deepest thanks. As such, I will continue to focus on three specific areas:

* Ensuring that our military services have the resources they need to effectively defend our country. Through increased personnel numbers to ease strain, proper equipment for each member and each mission, and required time between deployments for retraining and re-equipping we show our troops that we will go the extra mile to give them the support they and their families deserve.

* Continuing to preserve our unparalleled air and naval capabilities. These are vital to deter and defeat any conventional competitors, swiftly respond to crises across the globe, and protect our security. Our technical advantage not only protects our troops, but provides vital economic stability at home.

* Ensuring that our country's largest National Guard is provided with the infrastructure and equipment it needs for foreign and domestic emergencies as well as time to restore and refit before deploying. In addition to working for deployed members of the armed services, I will continue to work to ensure that reservists and Guard members are treated fairly when it comes to employment, health, and education benefits they, and their families, deserve.

I am also a firm believer in equality in our armed forces, and I continue to work to end discrimination in the military on the basis of sexual orientation. Our men and women in uniform represent liberty and freedom to millions of people around the globe; it is only fair that we provide our own soldiers with equality in return. President Obama's recent call to change this policy is the right thing to do, and I support the Department of Defense taking active steps to formulate a plan to incorporate this change.

Taking care of the service members, their families, and our veterans that have done and continue to do so much in allowing us to enjoy our freedom is an honor.

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