Political Quotes

“Madam President, today, as chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I applaud my colleagues for their support and Senate passage of S. 2258, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2014. All of my colleagues on the committee, including Ranking Member Burr and Senators Rockefeller, Murray, Brown, Tester, Blumenthal, Hirono, Isakson, Johanns, Moran, Boozman, and Heller, joined me in supporting this important legislation, introduced by Senator Begich. I look forward to continuing our bipartisan efforts to improve the lives of our Nation's veterans. This important measure directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to increase the rates of veterans' compensation to keep pace with the increasing cost-of-living in this country. The rate adjustment is equal to that provided on an annual basis to Social Security recipients and is based on the Consumer Price Index. Last year's cost-of-living adjustment of 1.5 percent affected so many important benefits, including veterans' disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children. VA has projected that more than 4.5 million veterans and survivors will receive these benefits in fiscal year 2015. I have been chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee for nearly 2 years, but during that period I have learned several very important lessons.…”