VFW NC Ladies Auxiliary: Legislative Program

LEGISLATIVE Jan. 2011

Posted at 07:24 on 2010-Dec-30 by Legislative Committee

Meet your new contacts:

House Republicans named their committee Chairmen recently for the 112^th Congress. Subcommittee chairs will be named when the new Congress convenes in January.  The chairmen include the following for key committees affecting veterans:

Jeff Miller of Florida - Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman

Howard “Buck” McKeon of California - Armed Services Committee Chairman

Harold Rogers of Kentucky - Appropriations Chairman

Paul Ryan of Wisconsin - Budget Committee Chairman

Stay tuned in, by going to http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.shtml and selecting the Committees that you want to follow.  When you do, it will ask you for your email address, and you will automatically get notified when there is news from that Committee.

For the Senate, go to http://www.senate.gov/ and select “Committees” from the menu at the top.  Or you can go directly to each Committee directly (see partial list below).  Watch this site for the announcements of new members when the new Senators take over in January.

Veterans Affairs Cmte:  http://veterans.senate.gov/ 

Armed Services Cmte:  http://armed-services.senate.gov/

Appropriations Cmte:  http://appropriations.senate.gov/

Budget Cmte:  http://budget.senate.gov/

Get to know these Congressmen’s aides.  They can be invaluable contacts as well.

Current VFW Legislative Alerts:

Don’t forget that all legislation which was left over from the previous Congress, died when not passed and must be resubmitted.  So watch the VFW’s legislative website http://capwiz.com/vfw/home/  to see new bills as they are presented.  And then don’t forget that you can click on a bill, read the text, and also send an email to your Representative and Senators automatically based on your zip code. 

You can also use that same website to sign up to receive alerts, see what bills affecting veterans are hot, read the legislative guidelines, and much more.

One more thing – in addition to commenting on proposed legislation, Americans can also suggest new legislation to your Congressmen. If you see a need for something, or have a question, get in touch with them. Their office will be of great help in this as well.

Remember – Congress works for US, and they are there to help!

Helen Carter