For the better part of the last six decades, the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees have held a joint hearing, before crafting their budgets, in which leaders of veterans’ groups are able to share their concerns directly with lawmakers from both chambers and both parties. It’s become an important “tradition” for everyone involved.
And now it’s been scrapped. (via News Unfiltered)
A proposal to end the long-standing practice of veterans groups addressing a joint session of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees is an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution, according to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). And in a strongly worded letter to House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), the DAV has urged him to continue the joint hearings as an invaluable tool in formulating public policy toward America’s veterans.
Chairman Buyer recently announced that veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.
“The tradition of legislative presentations by veterans service organizations dates back to at least the 1950s. And the timing of this announcement — just before Veterans Day — could not have been worse,” said DAV National Commander Paul W. Jackson.
Also consider the partisan context here. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) had been an aggressive advocate for veterans as chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. When Smith’s advocacy extended to criticism of Republican leaders for shortchanging troops, Tom DeLay replaced him with Buyer — whom DeLay could count on to “play ball” with the GOP agenda.
As for giving veterans the cold shoulder, does Buyer have an explanation? He does, but no one’s buying it.
Buyer is replacing the joint hearings with a February series in which veterans groups would outline their budget priorities just as the White House finishes sending its budget request to Congress. In the past, that series of budget hearings has been held in March, after lobbyists for veterans groups have fully examined the president’s request.
The lobbyists dismissed Buyer’s explanation that the earlier hearings would allow their groups greater influence on the VA’s annual budget. The chairman, the lobbyists charge, is seeking to avoid the public-relations headache of having disappointed veterans groups repeatedly blasting the White House budget.
“Some people don’t want to be criticized for being deficient,” said Richard Fuller, legislative director for Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA). “What they want to do is get rid of these [joint] legislative presentations because they have become, unfortunately now in the climate on Capitol Hill, very partisan.”
Remind me again which party claims to be the pro-military party? I’m always forgetting.