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Rubio Campaign Press Release - Here's What Marco Will Do for Vets

October 08, 2015

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Men and women who have served our country deserve our everlasting gratitude, and better treatment than they're getting right now. The VA system is outdated and broken, and far too many veterans are homeless, unemployed, or impoverished.

Marco has led bipartisan Congressional efforts to reform the VA: He introduced legislation with House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller allowing secretaries of the VA to fire senior executives at the VA that are not doing their jobs, which was signed to law. Beyond the VA, Marco has helped put in place stronger financial protections for veterans targeted by scammers, promoted efforts to ensure that veterans have additional educational and employment options after their service, and expanded patient-centered health care options for veterans with service-connected disabilities.

By reforming and modernizing the VA, opening up educational and job opportunities that will help veterans, and strengthening the military, as President Marco will make sure our veterans get the treatment they deserve.

VA Reform

Marco has introduced legislation allowing secretaries of the VA to remove any VA employee based on performance or misconduct. Without the basic accountability this measure offers, we'll never have a VA that works for veterans rather than bureaucrats.

Similarly, competition will push the VA to provide top quality care. If veterans don't feel like the Veterans Health Administration suits their needs, Marco supports giving them the option to use the exact same funds to see an approved private sector provider of their choice.

Marco will also fight to streamline and reform the VA bureaucracy and protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

Education That Works for Vets

Marco's plans for higher education reform will offer veterans more flexible, up-to-date options for higher education, including an emphasis on vocational training.

With reforms to higher education like accreditation reform, for instance, veterans will have new and better professional and educational opportunities after leaving the service. What a soldier has done in the military — say, driving a truck or running a logistics operation — should help count toward education and professional certifications here at home.

Restoring Military Strength

Marco's plans to strengthen the military will ensure that our servicemembers will go into battle with the best training and equipment we can offer. Reversing sequestration will mean that veterans aren't coming home to pink slips. Military benefits systems also need to be examined and updated to make sense in the 21st century economy, to ensure that pensions and other compensation are attracting the very best to the military.

Speeches & Op-Eds

Marco will stand with POW/MIA families and veterans. (March 10, 2016)

Marco Rubio, Rubio Campaign Press Release - Here's What Marco Will Do for Vets Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/326180

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