The chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., brought out a bill this week helping veterans who lose their abilities to have children due to wounds.
Miller, who is retiring from Congress, unveiled the bill on Monday. The proposal would help “veterans who have suffered a traumatic injury to their reproductive organs and who, as a result, cannot have children” with as much as $20,000 “which could be used at the veteran’s discretion, including for adoption fees or other personal expenses.”
On Tuesday, Miller explained why he introduced the bill in Congress.
“This bill is about providing those who sacrificed more than most can imagine fair compensation and the opportunity to raise a family,” Miller said. “If a veteran does decide to use this benefit to start a family of their own, the real winners would be the children. Who better to raise America’s next generation than the bravest of our current generation? But no matter how each affected veteran might utilize this benefit, one thing is clear: they earned it.”
Miller’s bill was sent to the House Veterans Affairs Committee which he continues to chair. So far, there’s no Senate counterpart but there could be opposition from a prominent Democrat in the Senate who insisted it did not go far enough.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Military Times that more needed to be done especially when it came to covering other fertility options, including surrogacy.
“Fulfilling our promise to take care of our veterans shouldn’t be a partisan issue, which is why I’m so disappointed by continued half-measures like this. Simply put, this latest proposal falls far short of covering the care a veteran and their spouse needs to fulfill their dreams of starting a family," Murray told Military Times.
Almost 1,400 members of the Armed Forces lost their ability to have children during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
