Alaska’s Congressional delegation has abandoned U.S. veterans

It is a disgrace the way our congressional delegation has abandoned U.S. veterans. The Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which Murkowski, Sullivan and Begich all voted for, gave more tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations, while at the same time squeezing the middle class and the poor. Among the casualties are U.S. veterans. 

In order to fund more tax breaks for the top 1%, government services to everyone else had to be cut. NPR reported that the Trump administration killed a Veterans’ Administration home loan program. Veterans are now losing their homes to foreclosure. The New York Times reported that the Veterans Affairs Department cut thousands of positions for doctors and nurses, and left vacant many unfilled positions. Furthermore, the Trump administration reversed expanded health benefits for women. The VA also pledged to end support for Housing First, the approach that was the VA’s greatest housing success. Huffington Post reported that mass firings at the VA — where many of the employees are veterans — will negatively impact its critical mission in healthcare, disability claims, services for transition to civilian life, suicide prevention and addiction treatment. 

The VA cut funding for research, including a promising study using electronic medical records to improve outcomes for veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The New York Times reported that among the cuts at the VA was a collaborative research study with Harvard Medical School into veterans’ suicide. NPR further reported that the VA is making it harder for male veterans to get care for breast cancer — a rare disease for men, but just as deadly for them as it is for women. It has been widely reported, including in the Huffington Post, that ICE has arrested for deportation legal residents who served in the military with a promise of thereby obtaining US citizenship. Apparently, we are no longer a people of our word. 

The repercussions of the decimation of the staff and programs at the VA will last for years. It will not be easy for a new administration — one committed to honoring the service keeping the promises to our veterans — to undo the damage done by the Big Beautiful Bill by fully funding the agency and its programs. 

While all of our congressional delegation shares the responsibility for this disgraceful bill, I think it is Sen. Dan Sullivan who is the most to blame. He runs his campaigns in part on the fact that he is a former Marine and a champion of veterans’ causes. In a Congressional hearing, he went so far as referring to them as “my veterans.” Well, he has let them down and they are now our veterans. It is up to us to inform our congressional delegation that they will soon answer to us at the polls. Candidates now running for Senate and the House of Representatives should give voters specifics of how they will revitalize the VA.