Press Releases

Milwaukee, Wis. – U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) made the following statement on the eve of Veteran’s Day to honor Wisconsin’s veterans:

“As American men and women are deployed across the world, we keep them in our hearts and our minds.  We must work to keep our promises to them when they return.

“I’m proud of all we’ve done to expand access to care for veterans here in Wisconsin.  We’ve added more counselors to help our vets deal with the invisible wounds of war.  And we’re currently updating the Zablocki VA Spinal Cord Injury Unit so that we can adequately care for our returning vets, especially with the rising incidence of Traumatic Brain Injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When it’s fully operational, it will serve vets throughout Wisconsin and neighboring states. 

“I’m working with the Veterans Administration and the National Parks Service to help ensure that we can we restore the Civil War era buildings on Milwaukee’s VA grounds.  President Lincoln chose that spot for us to care for the brave soldiers who risked their lives for our fledgling country, and these buildings are part of our state’s rich history.  I’ve fought to make sure that they can’t be used for anything other than serving our vets, and I am working so that they can be maintained to remain part of Wisconsin’s legacy.

“Nationally, we’ve improved the GI Bill.  We’ve expanded services to include families.  And we’ve been helping troops who were kept in Iraq and Afghanistan after they were supposed to come home.  So far, we’ve made retroactive stop loss payments to about half of the eligible troops.  But, that means there are about 70,000 some troops nationwide who qualify and may not know it.  Troops and vets whose service was involuntarily extended between September 11, 2001 and September 30, 2009 are eligible.  For more information on the payment, visit:  www.defense.gov/stoploss.

“The fight isn’t over.  I won’t stop working until our veterans have all the support they’ve earned.”