Bill to shield veterans services from government shutdown advances

http://www.stripes.com/news/bill-to-shield-veterans-services-from-government-shutdown-advances-1.311230

Bill to shield veterans services from government shutdown advances
By Travis J. Tritten
Stars and Stripes
Published: October 30, 2014

WASHINGTON — A bill to secure the funding of veterans’ services in a time of uncertain federal budgets won an initial legislative victory on Capitol Hill this week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will call a vote before the end of the year on the Putting Veterans Funding First Act. Reid announced this in a letter sent Tuesday to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, who is in the midst of a tough re-election battle.

Reid’s green-light on the vote was no doubt a midterm run-up gift to Begich — he called the senator a “tireless advocate” of the state’s 73,000 vets — but it also answered the calls of groups such as Disabled American Veterans, who say veterans need to know health, benefits and other services will not cease due to a budget impasse in Congress or a shutdown of the federal government, which have both been threats in recent years due to political gridlock.

In his letter, Reid said he decided to allow the floor vote to coincide with Veterans Day.
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