Franken, Joined by Klobuchar, Offers Common-Sense Solutions to Improve Veterans’ Benefits
Posted in Press Releases on August 19th, 2008
At Joint Appearance With Minnesota’s Next Senior Senator, DFL-Endorsed U.S. Senate Candidate Calls On Federal Government To Honor Sacrifice Made By Our Troops
SAINT PAUL [08/19/08] – U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken joined Senator Amy Klobuchar today for a news conference to recognize the achievements of the 110th Congress in advancing veterans’ benefits and propose new solutions to ensure that veterans receive the benefits they’ve earned through their sacrifice.
Al Franken:
“Minnesotans are proud to have Amy Klobuchar working for them in Washington. But she needs a partner who will join her in standing up for Minnesota veterans. I’ll fight for guaranteed funding for veterans’ health care, improved mental health services, and help for military families.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar:
“I am proud to stand with Al Franken in his campaign — and I’ll be proud to stand with him in the Senate as we fight together to honor our veterans, change the way Washington works, and help all Minnesotans.”
Franken, who expressed his desire to serve on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, has visited troops overseas on seven USO tours – four to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today Franken offered three proposals to expand veterans benefits:
1. Guarantee every veteran health care for life.
- Make VA health care funding mandatory and sufficient to cover every veteran.
- Reduce the claims backlog by 50% in twenty-four months by cutting red tape, moving the military to electronic medical records, and automatically transferring information between systems.
- Provide thorough, extensive, and effective outreach to veterans and their families to inform them of how to use the benefits and services they have earned – by making sure every veteran is able to count on a single point of contact, like a VA caseworker.
2. Focus on mental health.
- Provide thorough, professional mental health screenings – combined with suicide prevention resources – for enlisted troops as well as veterans.
- Improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and traumatic brain injury.
- Combat the shortage of mental health professionals with incentives for recent graduates as well as retiring military doctors to serve the particular mental health needs of veterans and the families of deployed troops.
3. Respect the sacrifice made by military families.
- Raise military pay and benefits so that families who lend us their loved ones don’t forfeit their economic security.
- Allow families of mobilized Guard members and reservists access to military health care benefits so that spouses and children don’t lose coverage.
- Create a grant program for community organizations that bring military families together to provide support and counseling during the difficult time when a loved one is away.
