Highlights of Senator Boxer's Record Supporting Veterans

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Senator Barbara Boxer believes we must never forget, and never fail to honor, those brave men and women who have served our country and fought to preserve America’s freedoms, principles, and ideals. America’s veterans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Senator Boxer believes that the federal government has a moral obligation to live up to its commitments.

• End Delays in Health Care Funding: Funding for veterans’ health care has too often become embroiled in, and been delayed by, partisan bickering in Washington – bickering that has nothing to do with veterans.  Veterans have already sacrificed; they shouldn’t have to sacrifice their health care because of Congressional inaction.  Senator Boxer supports ensuring that the VA has sufficient, timely, and predictable funding, including supporting legislation that would fund the VA a year in advance.

• Improve Mental Health Care: Senator Boxer is the lead Democratic sponsor of bipartisan legislation to improve the mental health care benefits for service members and veterans, including members of the Guard and Reserves.  The bill would enhance the counseling and other benefits available to survivors.  This action followed a law that Senator Boxer authored in 2005 to create a Defense Task Force on Mental Health in order to develop a strategic plan for addressing mental health issues within the Armed Forces.

• Provide Life Insurance Coverage for PTSD: Beginning in 2005, the Traumatic Injury Survivors’ Group Life Insurance program pays a one-time, tax-free benefit of up to $100,000 to cover the short-term costs of service members who suffer a debilitating injury, such as a traumatic brain injury or the loss of an arm or eye.  Senator Boxer is fighting to expand the program to include severe and acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  In 2008, she wrote a law to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit a report to Congress on expanding the insurance program to cover PTSD.

• Enhance Research on Brain Injuries and PTSD: Over the past two years, Senator Boxer has successfully secured $9 million in funding for the Veterans Health Research Institute at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.  This funding is being used to improve the diagnosis, prevention, and management of traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and PTSD.

• Fund Meals for Hospitalized Members of the Military: Senator Boxer was outraged to learn in 2003 that hospitalized members of the military were actually being charged for their hospital meals, imposing a serious financial burden on some members of the military and their families.  When Congress sought to reverse this policy, Senator Boxer led the successful fight to make it retroactive to September 11, 2001, ensuring that hospitalized veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts who had paid for their meals would be reimbursed for them.

• Improving Housing Assistance: The fact that an estimated half million veterans nationwide are homeless highlights the need to address the inadequacy of housing programs for veterans. In 2005, Congress passed a law authored by Senator Boxer to require an independent study and analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on housing assistance for veterans and on how those programs can be improved.

• Providing the Purple Heart to POWs Who Die in Captivity: The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who die or are injured in the line of duty. However, Prisoners of War (POWs) who died in captivity previously were not eligible for the Purple Heart. Senator Boxer introduced legislation to change that. As a result, Congress required the President to reexamine this policy, and as of last October, POWs who die in captivity are now eligible to receive the Purple Heart posthumously.

• Establishing National POW/MIA Memorial: In December 2004, a comprehensive veterans’ benefits bill was signed into law. That bill included a provision authored by Senator Boxer to designate the memorial at Riverside National Cemetery as the National POW/MIA Memorial.

• Providing Overdue Recognition for Vietnam Veterans: Senator Boxer authored a resolution that unanimously passed the Senate in 2007, calling for the establishment of a Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. Such recognition would honor the service and sacrifice of Vietnam veterans, who did not receive the traditional welcome home ceremonies that they deserved.

• Providing More Health Care Facilities: Senator Boxer has worked tirelessly to build and improve facilities for veterans in California. For example, she was a persistent advocate for the opening of a much-needed VA clinic at Travis Air Force Base. And she helped secure millions of dollars to fund construction of a 400-bed facility in Chula Vista.

• Ensuring Treatment for Exposed Veterans: Senator Boxer cosponsored legislation to provide treatment to veterans with Gulf War Syndrome and called for the creation of a Special Senate Committee to investigate the illness. She has also supported legislation to increase treatment for World War II veterans exposed to nuclear radiation and Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

• Enhancing Veterans Educational Benefits: In 2007, Senator Boxer was a cosponsor of legislation authored by Senator Jim Webb to increase the education benefits available to those who served in the military after the terrorist attacks of September 11. The bill, which became law in 2008, helps pay for the costs of tuition, room, and board.

• Ending Reduction in Pension Benefits: Senator Boxer strongly supports allowing “concurrent receipt” of retirement benefits and disability pay. The current law that prohibits all veterans from receiving both is an unfair penalty on those who served our country and are disabled as a result.

• Increasing Pay of Service Members: Senator Boxer has been a consistent supporter of military pay raises, has repeatedly voted to provide better compensation to service members and their families.