National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I rise to discuss amendment No. 1494, which I believe would move our Nation one step closer toward finally securing equal protection under the law for veterans in the United States. I thank the other cosponsors of this amendment, Senators Leahy, Durbin, Brown, Hirono, Blumenthal, Baldwin, Schatz, Peters, Gillibrand, Markey, Whitehouse, Coons, Wyden, Franken, Murphy, Murray, and Boxer.

This amendment would end the current prohibition on benefits for gay and lesbian veterans and their families who live in States that do not recognize same-sex marriage. My amendment is based on the Charlie Morgan Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act, which I was proud to reintroduce earlier this year.

The bill is named for Charlie Morgan, a former soldier and chief warrant officer in the New Hampshire National Guard and the Kentucky National Guard. Charlie was a military veteran with a career spanning more than 30 years. I first met Charlie in 2011. She was on her way home from deployment in Kuwait, and she had just been diagnosed for a second time with breast cancer. Concerned for her wife Karen and their young daughter's well-being, Charlie became an outspoken critic of the Defense of Marriage Act, which at the time prohibited her spouse and child from receiving the benefits that she had earned during her service.

Sadly, Charlie did not live to see the Supreme Court overturn the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. However, because of her example, her leadership, and her courageous advocacy, our Nation took another historic step toward ensuring equal treatment and civil rights for all.

Despite the Supreme Court's overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, there are still provisions remaining in the U.S. Code that deny equal treatment to LGBT families. One of those provisions is in title 38, which deals with veterans benefits.

Today, if you are a gay veteran living in a State such as New Hampshire that recognizes same-sex marriage, your family is entitled to all the benefits you have earned through your military service. However, a veteran with the exact same status, the same service record, the same injuries, the same family obligations, but living in a State that does not recognize same-sex marriage will receive less.

The impact of this discrimination is very real. Monthly benefits are less, spouses and children are not eligible for medical care at the VA, and families are not eligible for the same death benefits.

There are even reports that the VA has required gay veterans to pay back benefits because their State will not recognize their marriage. In one case, a young woman--a 50-percent disabled combat veteran--was initially approved for benefits for her wife and child but later told by the VA that because of where she lived and whom she loved, she was not only going to lose a portion of her benefits but the VA was also going to withhold her future payments until she paid the VA back. This is just disgraceful--to cut the benefits earned by a combat veteran and then also require that she pay back the VA, all because of whom she married and where she lives. Perhaps the most frustrating part of this story is knowing that if this woman moved across the border to another State, she would have no problems with the VA.

My amendment would fix this issue for these men and women who have volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces. They have volunteered to put themselves in harm's way, to leave their families and their homes, and to travel around the world to protect America and our way of life. Yet they are being deprived of the very rights they have risked their lives to protect.

So again, let's be clear what we are talking about. The Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional to deny Federal benefits to legally married, same-sex couples and their children. Yet, due to unrelated provisions of the Federal Code, State legislatures have the ability to indirectly deny Federal benefits to certain disabled veterans and their families solely because they are in a same-sex marriage. It is unjust and, according to the Supreme Court, it is unconstitutional.

Now, my amendment is not new to the Senate. Last Congress the Veterans' Affairs Committee approved it by a voice vote, and earlier this year, 57 Senators voted in favor of a budget resolution amendment on this issue. Now, when we vote--hopefully very soon on this amendment--Senators will have the opportunity to end an unjust and unconstitutional provision of law that discriminates against veterans.

Many of us talk about the need to honor the service of our veterans and to make sure they have access to the care they deserve, and we should all do that. But if you believe that all veterans, regardless of their sexual orientation, deserve equal access to the benefits they have risked their lives for, regardless of where they live, then you will vote in favor of this amendment.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support passage of this amendment when it comes up for a vote.

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