This week, the EANGUS National Office partnered with Senator Boozman (R-AR)—and a previous recipient of the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Eagle Award—in announcing the Senate passing H.R. 6416,The Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016. We are particularly pleased that the bill included Sec. 305 which grants honorary veteran status to our Guardsmen who served twenty years, but who did not meet the requisite requirements of time in Title 10 status during their career to earn veteran status—one of our association’s decade-long legislative resolutions and a topic near and dear to our members. On behalf of our membership, we thanked the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committee Members and Professional Staff for their help in resolving this issue. As you may recall, Mr. Mike Brink and Mr. Jon Clark of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Staff were awarded the 2015 Militia Awards for their support of the Reserve Component. Both were instrumental in seeing Sec. 305 through to fruition. A special thank you goes out to EANGUS Life Member/Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) for his introduction of the original veteran status language in the House of Representatives in the 114th Congress. Now our members with twenty years of service can truly be recognized for their service and sacrifice for serving their country!
EANGUS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Veteran Status Success
