"Honoring the Service of Our Veterans"

With Memorial Day this week, I, like many of you took extra time to remember and recognize the sacrifice given by our veterans to the nation. Much support has been expressed for our troops serving abroad in Iraq, and veterans who have already served deserve the same support and honor. Our veterans are the only ones who can truly understand what our troops are going through today because they have been there in the past.

In Congress, we approved a federal budget for the year that provides a significant increase for veterans' pensions and other benefits. Unfortunately, there were some false reports circulated that Congress had reduced veterans' benefits. In fact, I received a number of phone calls and letters about this issue. Whether or not you heard this disinformation, the numbers from our budget tell the real story about Congress' support for veterans.

In total, we increased veterans funding by 10.7 percent over last year's total. That translates to $6.2 billion more for programs, benefits and services for veterans and a total budget of $63.8 billion. Much of this will be devoted to supporting health care and increasing veterans' disability compensation. Veterans with service-connected disabilities and their survivors will receive an annual cost-of-living increase in benefits starting this December.

The cost of providing medical care for veterans has been rising. However, we can't let the cost diminish the quality of care. The budget increases for medical care will help the Veterans Administration make additional progress toward eliminating unacceptably long waits for appointments. The budget also makes more money available to help the VA keep pace with rapidly growing health costs.

I hope these improvements in benefits are helpful to veterans. While we can never fully repay them for their service, we can further thank them by providing increased education benefits under the Montgomery GI bill, increasing benefits for Medal of Honor recipients and providing for concurrent receipt of disability and retirement benefits, all of which we have done in Congress over the past two years.

I spent the Memorial Day weekend at several ceremonies to recognize veterans across the Second District and at the dedication of a new veterans' memorial in Nelson County. Those who have served with such pride and dignity have earned our respect and appreciation. We learn from the history they were a part of.

One way for veterans to share their experiences with generations to come is through the Veterans History Project authorized by Congress and run by the Library of Congress. The Library is asking all veterans and their families to join in creation of a national collection of interviews, written histories and wartime letters, diaries and photos. You can participate by making an audio or video interview with a war veteran and sending it to the Library of Congress. Local veterans groups, libraries and museums are invited to start their own collections of veterans' histories as well.

If you would like more information on the Veterans History Project or want to obtain a project kit, you can call the Library of Congress at 888-371-5848 or visit the project's website at www.loc.gov/vets. I encourage grandchildren to interview their grandparents, students to interview those in their community or veterans groups to sponsor a recording session. By creating an audio or video recording, veterans will be honored in our nation's permanent historical record and we will be able to hear their stories and remember their service for all time.