Republicans Block Blumenthal Effort to Pass Take Care of America's Veterans Act Without Unprecedented Cuts to Veterans' Benefits

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Today, Republican leadership blocked Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal's (D-CT) attempt to pass an amended version of the Take Care of America's Veterans Act. Blumenthal's legislation would replace the controversial Republican proposal to cut veterans' benefits with an alternative proposal to cover the costs of the legislation with a small portion of the $75 billion in unobligated and unspent funds appropriated to the Department of Defense in H.R. 1.

Blumenthal emphasized his proposal's bipartisan support: "It would utilize unspent Department of Defense funds from H.R.1, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, to cover the entire cost of the bill. It's the only offset proposal for the Take Care of Veterans Act that has garnered bipartisan support, and it is the one that doesn't pit some veterans against other veterans…More than $75 billion of the Department of Defense funds in H.R. - a bill signed into law more than one year ago - remain unspent and unobligated. And CBO has confirmed, absolutely confirmed, enactment of my proposal prior to the Department's obligation of those funds would provide the savings we need."

Blumenthal objected to the Republican proposal to cut benefits for more than one million veterans who are currently eligible to receive benefits for tinnitus or sleep apnea: "These disabilities are not hypothetical or abstract. They're real, and they do disable people. And often, they are the result directly from combat or training…It may seem like an abstract principle, but to veterans who would lose sleep apnea and tinnitus benefits, it's a big deal. In fact, it can be a life-changing deal…We are creating a new generation of combat-injured veterans. It is unconscionable to claim that we can only care for them by forcing other veterans to sacrifice."

Blumenthal rejected Republican leadership's defense of these cuts: "(Their) argument essentially is that VA is going to take away these benefits through rule-making. And therefore, we should take advantage of the savings by action that is wrong, unconscionable, and deeply hurtful to veterans."

Blumenthal concluded by calling on his colleagues to abandon these cuts: "We need to do the right thing. Veterans deserve meaningful results from a grateful nation, and they should never be handed an invoice when the costs of war come due."

Last month, House Republicans pull a planned vote on the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, following a bipartisan House vote to replace the Republican benefit cuts with Blumenthal's proposal to utilize unobligated Department of Defense funds. Congressional Democrats and many Veterans Service Organizations have publicly opposed the Republican funding proposal included in the Take Care of America's Veterans Act.

The Senator's amended legislation would also have replaced the watered-down version of the Major Richard Star Act currently included in the Take Care of America's Veterans Act with the Blumenthal-authored version of the legislation that fully repeals the wounded veteran tax.

A video is available here.