Capping her career-long advocacy on behalf of the nation’s military veterans, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray announced Thursday that she has been appointed to chair the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
“This is truly an amazing journey for me, to be where I am today,” the Washington Democrat said in a telephone conference call. “I want to make sure we are the voice and the face of veterans, and that we work hard to make sure they are not denied benefits.”
She said the appointment took her back to her days as a college student at the University of Washington, when she served as an intern at a Seattle Veterans Administration hospital psychiatric ward in 1972, during the height of the Vietnam War.
Back then, she said, she never dreamed “that I would be in a premier position to be (veterans’) top advocate in the U.S.A.”
Murray, who won her fourth six-year term in November, has served on the committee since 1995. She will succeed Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who is moving to the chairmanship of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
The daughter of a World War II veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart, Murray will be the first woman to chair the veterans’ panel.
“This is a great honor, but an even bigger responsibility,” she said in a statement. “As chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I have a tremendous duty to the 22 million veterans across the country who have stepped up to serve our nation and who deserve the highest quality care, benefits, and treatment in return.”
Throughout her Senate career, Murray has fought for the needs of homeless veterans, women veterans and veterans injured in combat. She successfully fought the George W. Bush administration’s efforts to close veterans’ hospitals in Vancouver, Walla Walla and Medical Lake.
Most recently, Murray has taken on the cause of veterans who suffered traumatic brain injuries during deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though most receive excellent care in military hospitals, she said, the nation has yet to come to terms with the costs of the long-term care many will require. Those costs include the need to train more mental health professionals to deal with brain injuries, she said.
“We have done a great job of saving lives on the battlefield,” Murray said. But many veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries and other severe injuries will need care for years, she added. “We need to be there for them 20 to 30 years from now. We need to get a handle on what this will cost us. These veterans are afraid that when we bring the last troops home, we will forget them.”
Another priority, Murray said, will be cutting the red tape that delays getting benefits to veterans. “Veterans coming home today wait months to get that first disability check,” she said. “That’s not responsible just on its face.”
Better training for Department of Veterans Affairs employees who process those claims is essential, she said.
“I plan to work each day to ensure that the VA is working for our veterans, not against them,” she said. “Our service members should never have to come home from fighting a war only to fight to get the benefits and care that they deserve.“
Murray also hopes to tackle the problem of jobless veterans with help from the business community.
“At a time when unemployment is high, in the veterans’ population, it’s even higher — 20 to 21 percent,” she said. “ We are working hard to make sure the services we provide are there, but there’s another side to this: Making sure our businesses hire veterans. I am deeply concerned that people don’t put the word ‘veteran’ on their applications because they fear they will go to the bottom of the stack.”
Some National Guard members are concerned they won’t get hired if they divulge their military status because of employer concerns that they might be called to active duty, she said. And some employers are reluctant to hire combat veterans for fear that they may suffer from post-traumatic stress.
“Too many veterans are struggling to get access to mental health care, worker training, and other resources to help them transition from the battlefield to the civilian world,” she said. “And still, far too many veterans are sleeping on the streets after serving their country.”
Murray has been honored for her work on behalf of veterans by the Vietnam Veterans of America, American Ex-POWs, the VFW, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.
