Henry Cuellar for Congress | Proven Leadership for Texas

 

Supporting Our Servicemen and Women

 

Congressman Henry Cuellar is committed to addressing the needs of America’s military and their families. Since coming to Congress in 2005, Congressman Cuellar has helped pass bipartisan legislation to increase military pay, improve military education, strengthen military health care and provide critical assistance for millions of military family members nationwide. By approving legislation to increase military capabilities and strengthen the Department of Defense, Congressman Cuellar has continuously advocated for the nation's military branches and applauds the work they do. 

 

 

Supporting Military & Families Through the Economy

 

Military Pay Raise:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation to provide all service members a pay raise of 3.5 percent in 2008 and 3.9 percent in 2009 and will provide a pay raise of 3.4 percent in 2010. (2007-2009)

 

New Job Opportunities: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation to provide businesses a $2,400 tax credit for hiring unemployed veterans in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (2009)

 

Help for Disabled Veterans: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation to provide disabled veterans a payment of $250 to help make ends meet during this economic downturn in the Recovery Act (ARRA). (2009)

 

Tax Cuts:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation to provide $1.2 billion in tax cuts for military personnel and families, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and recovery rebates for military families.  (2008)

 

 

Supporting Military Education 

 

New GI Bill: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that restored the promise of a full, four-year college education for about 2 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, making them part of the economic recovery.  (2008)

 

Transferability of GI Bill Benefits: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that allows for the transfer of new GI Bill benefits to family members for service members with 10 years of service, or six years of service with a commitment to serve at least four more.  (2008)

 

GI Bill Benefits for Family of the Fallen: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that allows all children of service members who have died on active duty since 9-11-01are eligible for the full education benefit, regardless of the length of military service of their parent.  (2009)

 

Better Benefits for Reserves:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that allowed Reservists

serving on active duty to use their enhanced education benefits for up to 10 years after leaving the reserves, instead of requiring immediate use.  Reservists with three cumulative years of active duty service can qualify for education benefits at 80 percent of the active duty rate.  (2007)

 

 

Strengthening Military Healthcare

 

Military Hospitals: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that provided $2.3 billion for new hospitals that serve military personnel and their families at Fort Benning, Fort Riley, Fort Hood, Camp Pendleton, and Camp Lejeune since 2007. 

 

Electronic Health Records at VA: Congress called for in 2007 and President Obama recently announced the creation of a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic record to provide service members with a single, accurate, and paperless medical record from the day they enlist through their retirement. Accurate electronic medical records are essential to reducing costs, eliminating errors, and providing seamless care.  (2007, 2009)

 

TriCare Benefits: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that protected military families from increases in TRICARE co-pays and deductibles, and restored over $1 billion in military

health care funding. (2008)  

 

Health Care for Reservists: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that  expanded TRICARE health coverage to reserve members and their families for 180 days prior to mobilization, instead of just 90 days. (2009)

 

Post Traumatic Stress & Brain Injury: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that required a

comprehensive DOD policy to address traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health conditions; established DOD Centers of Excellence on PTSD and TBI to

improve treatment, research, training and rehabilitation; helped ensure continuity of care for TBI patients; guaranteed a VA mental health assessment within 30 days of request; and expanded hiring of mental health professionals. (2007)   Established mandatory and confidential one-on-one mental health screening for all returning veterans.  (2009)

 

Investments in VA Hospitals: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that increased

veterans' funding by $23 billion (more than 60 percent) since January 2007 -- including the largest single increase in the history of the VA.  These increases have resulted in:  VA hiring over 17,000 doctors and nurses, adding 145 Community-Based Outpatient Clinics and 92 Vet Centers for local mental health screening and counseling, and making health care available for 266,000 Priority 8 veterans (who make less than $33,000 per year) by the end of 2010.  (2007-2009)

 

 

Improving Military Housing 

 

Military Housing:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that helped to eliminate all inadequate

military family housing, using both government construction and public-private partnerships, resulting in a $24 billion investment in family housing more comparable in standards with private homes.

 

Help During the Housing Crisis:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that  expanded

DOD’s Homeowners Assistance Program and provided $555 million to help military homeowners who may be forced to sell their homes at a loss because of orders to relocate, or wounds and illnesses incurred on

deployment. (2009)

 

Help for Returning Veterans: Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that prohibited home foreclosures for nine months after military service; provided a much needed increase to the VA home loan limit; enabled more veterans to refinance their existing high-risk loans through VA home loans; and made thousands of veterans eligible for low-interest loans.  (2008)

 

 

Supporting Military Families

 

Military Child Care:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that  Invested in expanding child care spaces on military bases by roughly 20,000 since 2007, including $239 million in the Recovery Act. (2007-2009)

 

Family Support:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that made key investment in family advocacy programs, which provide military families with access to child psychologists, child care, financial counseling and other support to help cope with the disruption and stress common with military life.

(2009)

 

Military Family Tax Cuts:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that  Established a special survivor indemnity allowance in a first step toward ending the Military Families Tax, which unfairly penalizes about 55,000 survivors, most of them widows, of those who died from service-connected injuries. These widows lose most of their survivor benefits if they also receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation benefits (because their spouse died of a service-connected injury).  This year, Congress increased the allowance to $150 per month in 2014 and doubling to $310 by 2017.

(2007, 2009)

 

Stop Loss Payments:  Congressman Cuellar helped pass legislation that provided over 185,000 service members who have had their enlistments involuntarily extended since September 11, 2001 with $500 per month for every month they were held under stop-loss orders.