ACTON — Let me start by saying that two years ago, I voted against Chellie Pingree – twice. Each time I chose a veteran that was running against her. Only a veteran, I thought, would really stand up for fellow veterans.
I was wrong.
Rep. Pingree has proven to be a loyal friend and fierce advocate for Maine veterans, and she has earned my vote. I don’t think we can say the same thing about her opponent.
One of the many issues that Pingree has successfully fought for is advance funding for the Veterans Affairs Department.
Unlike many parts of the government, the VA has had to rely on year-to-year funding, never knowing from one year to the next which services and programs could be continued and which would have to be cut.
In 2008, Pingree promised veterans that she would fight for advance funding for the VA and said she fully supported permanent, mandatory funding for the department.
Veterans deserve nothing less, she said.
Her opponent, Dean Scontras, said it would be too expensive.
Throughout our history, men and women have put on this country’s uniform and set off to defend our nation.
They’ve left behind families – brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. They’ve missed birthdays and holidays, endured hardships most of us can only imagine, and some of them have never returned.
For those who did come home we made a solemn promise: for their service and sacrifice, we as a nation pledged to take care of them for the rest of their lives.
It is not a promise made lightly and it is not a promise that should depend on the moods or political ideology of politicians. It’s not a promise that should be broken because someone like Scontras thinks that there are better ways to spend our money.
In her two years in office, not only has Pingree lived up to her promise to fight for advance funding of the VA, she has worked to improve access to the care and benefits veterans deserve.
Maine has many retired Guard and Reserve personnel, and I’m sure that fact was on Pingree’s mind when she wrote legislation that guaranteed retiring Guard and Reserve personnel be given a full briefing of the benefits owed to them.
It has been a long-standing practice to give such briefings to active duty personnel when they leave the service, but Pingree saw that members of Maine’s Guard and Reserve were sometimes falling through the cracks.
Pingree also picked up the cause of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) Previously VA regulations required that a veteran document the specific event that was the cause of PTSD.
But Pingree understood that was an unreasonable burden for some personnel serving and getting injured in combat zones.
She fought to make it easier for veterans diagnosed with PTSD to get the care and benefits they deserve. And when the Obama administration was poised to adopt this change in policy, she personally went to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and asked that the policy be applied to veterans of all eras – not just those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
There isn’t a better example of Pingree’s personal involvement in veterans’ issues – and toughness – than the case of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and VA Togus.
When Pingree learned that Anthem was denying claims for veterans’ care at Togus and claiming some fine print in a contract let them do it, Pingree put a stop to it.
She went to the president of Anthem and told him to pay the bills. It worked, and Togus was allowed to resubmit half a million dollars in previously denied claims. Pingree has proven that she deserves the support of Maine veterans.
This November, I won’t make the mistake I made twice before. I’m voting to send Chellie Pingree back to Congress, and I hope you will too.
– Special to The Press Herald
Send questions/comments to the editors.
