Latest Headlines
- Man Gets 50 Years In Prison For 2022 Murder At Cantonment Gas Station
- Pedestrian Checking Trailer Tire Struck By Car In Two Vehicle Crash Near Century
- State Funding $240 Million Beulah I-10 Interchange
- Failed Urban Development Centery YouthFirst Program Finally Repays Unsecured Loan From Century
- FDOT Updates Status Of Century Highway 29 Construction Work
- Walnut Hill Man, Three Others Charged After Alleged Overdose On Embalming Fluid, GHB
- Escambia Man, 77, Charged With Shooting Multiple Rounds At Santa Rosa County SWAT
- Escambia (AL) Volunteer Fire Departments Receive State Grant, Present Service Awards
- Tate Grad, UWF Standout Darrien McDowell Selected In 2024 MLB Draft
- Escambia County Corrections’ Wilson, Hankins Graduate From State Leadership Programs
Congressman Tasked With Looking Out For Veterans
November 11, 2013
It’s not just Veterans Day that Congressman Jeff Miller thinks about those who have served. Veterans are always on his mind, one of his top priorities.
The Chumuckla Republican represents the 1st Congressional District which is home to more veterans than any other district in the entire United States. He’s also chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, which is responsible for authorization and oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA is the second largest department in the federal government with over 300,000 employees and a budget of over $150 billion.
And right now, he’s not pleased with the answers his committee is getting — or, more importantly, not getting – from the VA.
“It’s unbelievable. In an agency and an administration that touts their transparency, there is very little transparency. It’s unbelievable,” Miller told NorthEscambia.com in an exclusive interview. “We have been trying since I became the chairman to get information out of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and they have stonewalled us at every turn.”
The VA has not provided answered over 100 separate requests for information made by the Veterans Affairs Committee, with four of those requests dating back to 2012. Due to the unanswered requests, the committee created the Trials and Transparency website to highlight the problem.
Miller said he does believe the problem is partisan; many of the requests have been made by the committee’s ranking Democratic member Rep. Michael H. Michaud of Maine.
“We are not doing it from a partisan standpoint; we are doing it because our veterans deserve answers and, unfortunately, they are not getting them,” Miller said.
Regardless of problems getting answers from the VA, Miller’s office still works to get action for local veterans. One of his staff members in Pensacola is devoted solely to working for veterans.
“We will help them in any way that we can worth through the bureaucracy, and our success rate is usually pretty good,” the congressman said.
Politics and VA oversight problems aside, Miller said Veterans Day is an extremely important holiday.
“Veterans Day is important to all of us to say thank you and remembering those that have served and worn the uniform of this country,” he said. “It’s a day where Americans can stop and pay tribute to those who have answered the call and have run to the sound of the guns…We are the country we are today because there have been men and women throughout our history that have never wavered in their patriotic duty to this country.”
Pictured top: Congress Jeff Miller poses with veterans in Century. With Miller are (L-R) Herbert Boutwell III, a two-tour Vietnam veteran; his father, World War II veteran Herbert Boutwell, Jr.; and Benjamin Boutwell, Desert Storm, Global War on Terrorism and U.S. Air Force Retiree. Pictured inset: Rep. Jeff Miller addresses a Veterans Day event in Century. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
11 Responses to “Congressman Tasked With Looking Out For Veterans”
Congressman Miller Sir, sorry to have to inform you but…….you can’t always please everybody……like you didn’t already know……..ha! As long as your doing your best, that’s all a mule can do! Keep up the good work! Alot of us know your doing just that!!!! Again,…. thank you sir!!!
I would not vote fro him for the very reasons Henry Coe wrote about.
Jeff Miller is all for Jeff miller, period.
Miller helped my 89 year old good friend/neighbor recieve a disability he acquired from WWII, so I support him for doing so. Miller will continue to get our votes. Thank you sir!!!
Thank you Henry Coe. You said it much better than I could have.
Miller absolutely uses Veterans and his position as Chair for partisan politics, which is the purpose of the article.
Because he says he isn’t using this information or problem for partisans politics, while he is doing that very thing, makes him a lying political hack.
Miller would ask for information, that he knows he can’t just ask for, so he could say he is being blocked when in reality the VA is following laws regarding how information request are handled with what is allowed and can only be changed by Congress.
Miller is counting on people being gullible and not understanding this. It is a complete disgrace for Miller to use Veterans as his political football.
America is the land of the free BECAUSE of the Brave! Honor our Veterans always!
I would like to say happy veterans day to all my fellow vets and ask everyone to take a minute of reflection for those who gave some and some who gave all, so that this great Nation may carry on being a beacon of freedom and democracy the world over.
We must never forget the price of freedom is paid in blood, sweat, and tears of all Americans. May God Bless those who served and those who are now serving. No matter where you serve, your service is vital to this Nation and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Long live the United States of America.
That is one thing about Mr. Miller: He has been looking out or veterans since day 1. Thank you to all of our veterans and those looking to help them out. God Bless you all!
with the current potus and his admin in place the task will be a challenge…
Thank You to all that served
I hope everyone will thank a veteran today. We don’t like what the V.A. is doing, but we need to thank those who have put their lives on hold to be in the military. Remember, all your rights and freedoms and thank someone,( maybe even GOD).
Me, just saying
Saying you’re going to do it isn’t helping my brothers and sisters, not to mention our parents and grandparents, get the treatment they often so desparately need. There are more recent and ongoing horror stories involving the VA, that many newly discharged and retired Veterans are seeking to avoid it all together. What kind of system is that? Why should we be AFRAID of an organization that is supposed to be FOR US?
Being the “government”, there should be no stones you cannot turn. If there is a way that a controlled department of the government can stonewall its parent organization, then leaders need to be removed until it stops. And, yes, that means Congressmen and Senators alike. If you are not affecting change for the people, you need to be removed.