IL-14: James Marter Issues Position Paper on Veterans Affairs, but Not Sure He Knows It

James Marter

Late Sunday night, 14th district candidate James Marter did something I’ve been pleading for candidates to do for quite some time — he issued a detailed policy/position paper in a Facebook meme.

The issue he wrote about was Veterans issues, and was doing it primarily in response to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood’s legislation, H.R. 3525 being passed in the House back on the 26th of September.

I’m not sure he knows what he did, but I encourage Marter to do more of it.

Modesty prevents me from taking credit for this apparent course-correction for his campaign, given this was stated in the rankings McHenry County Blog published recently.

So here is what Marter says on his issues page on his campaign’s website under “Veterans Admin (VA)”:

“I support our Veterans. Within VA hospitals & centers, investigate & solve the crisis of incompetency and corruption. Help our veterans!”

Source: Marter For Congress website
.

So that brief statement is Marter’s abstract. Here is the entire meme from his campaign Facebook page, and please click “See more” to view the entire article:

I will put the Health care needs of America's veterans and Americans first! My mother was a medical technologist, she…

Posted by Marter for Congress on Sunday, October 20, 2019
Source: Marter for Congress Facebook Page

The video link at the end of Marter’s Facebook post is from late September and recaps the issues brought up in the meme.

The position paper needs refinement. It’s reads a little rough, and in addition to his growing up watching his mother work at the Peoria VA facility, he goes on to discuss H.R. 3525 in some detail, including what happened on the House floor in late September.

Additionally, there are other veterans issues in addition to H.R. 3525 which Underwood is working through the House Veterans Affairs Committee, where she is a member. Recently, her and Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced legislation (H.R. 3932) and last month, additional veterans legislation were introduced. Links to these bills at the end of the article.

Marter, and other candidates, are encouraged to use the July 17 House Homeland Security Committee video below, to collect specifics about H.R. 3525 when it was reviewed in committee, including the Republicans’ concerns about the legislation.

Starting at the 1:40:12 point on the video, when Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, MS) calls up H.R. 3525, and Underwood speaks to her legislation and amendments.

Congressman Clay Higgins (R, LA), who was sitting-in for Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R, AL) as the acting ranking member, expressed strong objection to the “within 12-hours” direction of the Underwood legislation for treating migrants at the border, noting Americans, particularly veterans at VA facilities, do not have such protections. 

Congressman Higgins’ response to Underwood begins at 1:45:44 emphasizing VA facilities.

After Higgins’ discussion of his objections, and a procedural amendment-to-an-amendment on the electronic health records component and after Chairman Thompson weighs-in his support, 2 voice votes took place on the amendments, and a final voice vote to advance Underwood’s bill to the House. 

All candidates, take advantage of the resources, including here on McHenry County Blog to refine positions on all of the major issues as you refine your respective positions.

And speaking of immigration, the first 1 hour and 40 minutes of the committee video from July 17 was spent on debate for one of the Democrats’ main immigration bills–H.R. 2203. This bill, which Underwood supported in late September on passage, is the core legislation for improving conditions at the southern border.

The House Democrats rushed to pass H.R. 2203 prior to the August recess in late July, failed to do so due to differences among the Democrats. Those were resolved in September and the bill passed.

Links:


Comments

IL-14: James Marter Issues Position Paper on Veterans Affairs, but Not Sure He Knows It — 2 Comments

  1. Treason all of them who vote for this !

    Impeach them all now!

    Fire them all now!

  2. They may end up with Ft Leavenworth hangings.

    Treason is still a Capitol offense..

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