Duckworth Defends Disabled American Veterans as Senate Republicans Promote Trump’s Dangerous Efforts to Take Away More of Their Benefits

Duckworth Defends Disabled American Veterans as Senate Republicans Promote Trump's Dangerous Efforts to Take Away More of Their Benefits

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)-a member of the U.S. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee (SVAC)-lambasted Republicans for platforming a false, dangerous narrative designed to help Donald Trump rip as many promised benefits as possible from disabled American Veterans who earned them through their sacrifices in uniform. During the SVAC hearing, Duckworth derided the cherry-picked, anecdotal evidence Republicans used to try and inaccurately characterize the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Disability System as being plagued by waste, fraud and abuse when the facts show the overwhelming majority of benefits claims are well-earned and made by honest American heroes. Video of Duckworth's remarks can be found on the Senator's YouTube.

"Nobody is denying the unfortunate reality that there exists a small number of Veterans who will dishonor their service by defrauding the VA-they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Duckworth. "But we cannot allow the actions of a very small minority of criminals to guide a Trump-led redesign of the VA disability benefits system into a bureaucratic black box that is even more frustrating and less fair to our heroes who served in uniform. Frankly, I'm outraged that my Republican colleagues are amplifying such misleading and flawed attacks against the VA disability benefits system to the detriment of the same American heroes they've chosen to serve on this Committee."

Duckworth also grilled a witness Republicans shamefully called to testify at the hearing, who despicably pushes the message that Veterans who accept disability benefits are mooching off the VA.

"Portraying disabled Veterans as a group of 'takers' who will happily never work again for $3,100 per month is incredibly condescending and disrespectful to these Americans," continued Duckworth. "Your characterization of disabled Veterans who accept disability compensation as being moochers who are 'trapped' by the system advances a damaging stereotype that shames many Veterans into forgoing VA benefits-at a cost to themselves and their loved ones. Your rhetoric that downplays the severity and reality of invisible wounds of war runs the real risk of doing more harm than good."

Duckworth has been a fierce leader and advocate for improving our Veterans' and servicemembers' access to the care they need. Last month, she reintroduced legislation that would improve Veterans' access to contraception and increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness for contraceptive products at the VA. A few weeks prior, Duckworth sent a letter to VA Secretary Collins demanding he block ICE from stealing VA resources at Hines VA Hospital in Chicago. Duckworth also joined U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in reintroducing legislation to help make it easier for our Veterans who struggle with infertility to build their families.

Earlier this year, Duckworth railed against the Trump Administration for indiscriminately firing Veterans Crisis Line workers and introduced her Protect Veteran Jobs Act with U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) to reinstate the thousands of Veterans who were fired in Trump's mass layoffs-an effort Republicans shamefully blocked in March.

-30-