New Hampshire Delegation Fares Poorly with Veterans Group
Vet Grades
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
10-25-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 –The New Hampshire congressional delegation fared poorly in a new rating of support for the military overseas and the veterans back home.
New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass, R, received a C+ rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a two-year-old non-partisan advocacy group, as did Rep. Jeb Bradley, R, despite his being honored Wednesday as Person of the Year by the New Hampshire chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army. Republican Sens. Judd. Gregg and John Sununu each received a D grade.
“In our opinion,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of the veterans’ organization, “anything less than an A is a poor grade.”
While declining to comment on another organization’s rating system, Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the New Hampshire delegation has been “generally supportive of veterans’ issues.”
The new grades were calculated based on a member’s voting record on issues affecting veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and members of the armed services currently overseas.
Health care for reservists, military death gratuities and adequate spending for traumatic brain injury research, which Rieckhoff said was a “signature of this war that is affecting thousands of people,” were some of the top issues on which members of Congress were graded.
The veterans’ group scored senators based on 155 votes made since Sept. 11, 2001, while representatives’ scores were based on 169 votes.
Rieckhoff said the ratings, announced on Friday, represented a non-partisan effort to inform Americans about the voting records of a Congress that constantly professes its support of the troops.
“There are a lot of people in Washington who say they support the troops and we wanted to find out who really did and who was just offering empty rhetoric,” said Rieckhoff, who served in the Army in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
Because neither Sununu nor Bradley entered office until 2002, their scores were based on slightly lower vote totals.
Bradley, who sits on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he has “always been, and will continue to be, a strong advocate for our soldiers and veterans as a member of Congress.”
In August, Gregg and Sununu each voted against a $2 million increase in spending for traumatic brain injury research, which counted against them in the scoring.
Both senators, however, voted in April of last year to increase the military death gratuity to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan from $12,000 to $100,000.
The organization rated Bass and Bradley poorly because, for example, they voted last year against adding to a defense budget bill a provision that would have given free health care to all Reserve and National Guard personnel.
“In our opinion,” Rieckhoff said, “that’s inexcusable.”
Recently, Bradley succeeded in getting an amendment attached to a fiscal 2007 appropriations bill that added $795 million to the health care budget for veterans.
“When it comes to our veterans, and our troops serving in harm’s way, I will continue to support measures that provide them with pay, benefits and resources they need and deserve,” Bradley said in a statement.
Of the 1,500 veterans who are members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 127 are from New Hampshire, including a number of members of the state’s National Guard, according to Rieckhoff.
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