DEREK CARSON, Staff Writer
BURLINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (click here) spoke with reporters across the country via teleconference Wednesday, describing and praising his most recently proposed bill.
The omnibus bill, which was introduced to the Senate last week, is entitled the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefit and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014, which would end recent controversial cuts to pensions of military retirees under the age of 62, as well as create numerous other increased benefits for veterans.
"This is one of the most comprehensive pieces of veterans legislation in decades," said Sanders of the bill, which he touted as largely bi-partisan effort of the Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs, of which Sanders is the chairman.
"This bill addresses many of the concerns veterans groups have brought forward, and in a very comprehensive way," he said.
Sanders said hundreds of thousands of service members from Afghanistan have returned to the United States with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a traumatic brain injury. He also pointed to reports that show that almost three times as many Vietnam veterans took their own lives after returning home than died during the war. "These service members have paid a very high price for their service. We have to do everything possible for them and their families," he said...
