This summer Congress will debate and vote on numerous issues of importance to veterans including funding levels for the VA, troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq, how to combat ISIS, critical job placement programs for veterans and much more.
Of course, we'll hear the usual rhetoric from Senators and Congressmen and women, only heightened in election years, about honoring our nation's heroes. But what we won't see or hear are policy solutions studied and written by the very people these policies impact most... veterans.
There are more than 2.5 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars returning home from over-seas deployment. Many recognize how decisions made in Congress greatly impact and have long-lasting effects on their lives as well as the lives of their family and friends. At the same time, they see the lowest percentage of veterans in Congress in generations.
In short, their experience is underrepresented.
For years, Congressional offices have expressed a desire to add veterans to their team, but veterans' lack of Hill experience has been an obstacle.
To combat this problem, the VetVoice Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization with over 450,000 veteran and veteran family members, have committed our organization to the first-of-its-kind veterans fellowship on Capitol Hill.
With a generous gift from the Corvias Foundation, we've been able to recruit, train, support and place veterans in Congressional offices for a nine-month period and begin the process of building a bench of high quality veterans who are experienced in how Congress works and who understand how public and foreign policy is developed, authorized and executed.
While many companies and organizations talk a good game about helping our nation's heroes, few step up to the plate like the Corvias Foundation has.
Because of the Corvias Foundation, we have been able to ensure that our veteran fellows earned a living wage so they could afford to accept positions in Congressional offices at no cost to the offices.
Our first class of fellows in the offices of Senators Brown, Ernst, Murphy, Manchin, and Donnelly will be winding down their fellowships over the next few months. Thanks to the opportunity these Senators gave our veterans, they have gained experience to be better positioned to develop their careers. This is not only benefiting these five veterans, but also the offices they are working in and the country they are once again serving - this time in a suit, not a uniform.
As our first class of fellows has has already shown, 21st century veterans are a great asset on Capitol Hill and provide first-hand accounts that are helpful to developing legislation and programs that support our veterans and members of the armed forces and in the development of national security policy.
Soon we will be recruiting our next class of fellows to continue this program to make sure veterans' voices are heard on Capitol Hill. One thing the last nine months has shown us is that we need more, not fewer, veterans on the Hill.