You are an officer within the state of a Senator on the Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. Why is this important? Well, the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee is working on creating a bill to make numerous technical corrections to the Post-9/11 GI Bill. They are holding a hearing to discuss technical corrections on May 19th, and we’d like to let them know that transferability of GI Bill benefits for PHS officers is important and should be included in the legislation they create. This is where local officers come in:
Please help with reaching out to these Senators to let them know how important GI Bill transferability is for us PHS officers. Any PHS officer who is a constituent of one of the Senators on the VA Committee (a full list of these Senators appears at the end of this e-mail) has a right to and is strongly encouraged to contact their Senator and let him/her know about the importance of transferability for PHS officers. This can come in the form of telephone calls, e-mails, letters, even personal visits. If you or another officer has written the Senator in question already, it’s time to do so again, this time emphasizing the Senate VA Committee legislation of Post-9/11 GI Bill technical corrections that’s in progress.
VERY IMPORTANT: Just be sure to emphasize to all interested officers that no contact with elected representatives to influence legislation can come from or using government resources. Don’t use your gov’t computer or e-mail account (even from home). Don’t use your gov’t phone or letterhead. If you appear to meet a Senator or his/her staffer, do not wear your uniform. In fact, if this e-mail has come from your gov’t e-mail account, do not forward it from this account to other officers. (Forward it to your personal account, then send it out from there.) You can identify yourself to your Senator as an officer in PHS and talk about what you do, but you can’t make it sound as though you are writing on behalf of the government (PHS, your agency, etc).
Here is a template letter, which will make letter-writing relatively simple. This is the time for action. If you were unsure if you could make a difference or wanted to wait for the right time — well the time is now.
This is really straight forward — all you need to do is put the date, the name and address of the Senator of whom you are a constituent (list of addresses below), and your name and rank. Then print the document and get it in the mail. I have included phone numbers, fax numbers, and links to web contact forms here as well if you’d like to use any of those modes of communication (or if you really want to be thorough, feel free to use all four means of communication together). We really need to let each of these Senators know how important this is, so please spread the word as much as possible to officers in your area (again, not using government resources).
Whatever you send in whatever form you send it, please send a copy to COA Government Relations Director Judy Rensberger (jrensberger@coausphs.org). If you have a phone call or a meeting with a staffer, please e-mail Judy and tell her about it. She will follow up with the Senator you contact and she will be able to track who we’re making contact with.
Even if you have written your Senator before, please do so again. Please note that this template is just meant for Senators on the Committee for Veteran’s Affairs, the ones listed below. Please DO NOT try to send this template letter to another Senator, at least not without modifying the language to make it appropriate. Also, please only send this to a Senator if you are his/her constituent.
If you and other officers you work with care about the possibility of a free college education for a child or spouse, surely it must be worth the 10 minutes to fill out this letter, print it, and put it in the mail.
Finally, please DO NOT put this off. Spread the word with your fellow officers right away. The Senate VA Committee hearing on corrections to the GI Bill is Wednesday of next week (May 19th). They need to hear from us before that day, hopefully in numbers too strong to ignore.
Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee (http://veterans.senate.gov/committee-members.cfm)
Chair:
Daniel Akaka, D-HI
Ranking Member:
Richard Burr, R-NC
Members:
John D. Rockefeller IV, D-WV
Patty Murray, D-WA
Sherrod Brown, D-OH
Jim Webb, D-VA
Jon Tester, D-MT
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Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK)
144 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
phone. (202) 224-3004
toll free. (877) 501 -6275
fax. (202) 224-2354
Web Contact Form: http://begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator
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Roland Burris, D-IL
Arlen Specter, D-PA
Bernie Sanders, I-VT
Johnny Isakson, R-GA
Roger Wicker, R-MS
Mike Johanns, R-NE
Lindsey Graham, R-SC