Two military veterans serving in Congress said in an interview that aired Sunday that they are pushing to expand health care benefits for the children of veterans.
Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in a joint pre-Memorial Day interview, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) said their shared history of military service has informed their efforts to ensure that coverage is extended for children up to 26 years of age. The legislation would cover dependents of current military families, as well as those who are retired.
“We’ve been working with this caucus of bipartisan military veterans to apply pressure, because if we don’t apply that pressure, if we don’t put a spotlight on this problem, it will become mired in dysfunction. of Congress right now,” Ryan said, referring to the For Country Caucus in Congress.
Ryan added: “There are hundreds of thousands of service members and their families in this country right now who don’t have the same health care coverage as other Americans. That’s scandalous.”
Waltz said they expect the legislation to pass at some point: “I really think we’ll get this through eventually. Legislation can sometimes be a little bit like, I don’t know, like football. You run down the middle and It’s ten feet and a cloud of dust. But I think we’ll get through it.”
The For Country Caucus is led by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.). Waltz is a former Green Beret, Ryan a former military intelligence officer in the Army.
Waltz and Ryan spoke near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and discussed other related issues with host Margaret Brennan, saying that because such a small percentage of Americans now serve in the military, many Americans don’t realize what military families need.
“In terms of the gap between the 99 percent of Americans who don’t serve and the 1 percent, that’s very problematic as a democracy,” Ryan said.
Ryan also said he felt the government and country as a whole were not doing enough to address suicide among veterans. “It should be an issue that every American recognizes as their own,” he said.
“The entire country should celebrate Memorial Day weekend,” the New York Democrat said, “and yes, you can celebrate it, but please take a moment and think about the names on this wall, the names on the monument in your local hometown, the names on the memorial bracelets of the veterans you see.”
Waltz said one of the things he and Ryan and other veterans in Congress had in common was “survival guilt,” wondering why they came back alive and others did not.
“I look in the mirror every time – every morning before I go into the Capitol and I tell myself that I have to be worthy of that sacrifice, you know, worthy of that sacrifice,” Waltz said, “and I think it’s our job as leaders, as elected leaders to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of their sacrifice.”
