Senators Scott Brown, John Kerry Release Veterans Day Statements

The state's two senators released remarks in honor of the Veterans Day holiday today.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

"On Veterans Day we honor the 24 million Americans who, at one time or another, have answered the call to serve their country in uniform. Also today, we as a nation must renew our commitment to these American warriors.   

For ten years, thousands of our nation’s veterans have shown uncommon courage and resilience during multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. We are lucky to live in a country where brave men and women are willing to risk everything so that we can be safe.

They fight for each other, for us, and for the ideals that bind us together as one people—principles like freedom, equal justice and democratic government.

While we rally to salute soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines when they are deployed, unfortunately, America is failing to provide them with the support they need and deserve when they return home.

Our nation’s newest veterans often grapple with staggering unemployment levels, homelessness, and combat-related disabilities. Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom face an unemployment rate of 12.1 percent—more than 3 points above our national average. 

That means, right now, at least 240,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling to find a job somewhere. In the Guard and Reserves, the numbers are even worse, with unemployment as high as 20 percent.

It is absolutely unacceptable for a veteran to come home after a deployment, where he or she served at great personal sacrifice, and have to battle with unemployment or homelessness. The adversity facing our veterans is a call to action for our country.

Last February, I introduced the Hire A Hero tax credit with Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina, which expands a tax credit for small businesses who hire returning veterans, including members of the National Guard and Reserves.  President Obama also included a similar provision in his American Jobs Act.

This bill had been trapped in a divided Senate all year until Thursday — the day before Veterans day — when the Senate finally broke through the gridlock and passed this legislation on a bipartisan basis.

In addition to the tax incentives, the bill we passed takes new steps that will help our veterans find jobs. It will revamp the old Transition Assistance Program so our armed services can better prepare active duty members to transition from the military to the civilian workplace. 

The progress we’ve made in the last week is about more than our veterans. It is also about their families—the spouses, children, parents and others who have shared in the sacrifice of their loved one serving our country. 

Still, there’s more we can and should do. Our veterans should come home to our thanks, our gratitude, and our assistance — not an unemployment check.

As America celebrates and honors the contribution of our veterans, we must come together as a nation and take action to help those who have served.

For me and my family, thank you to all the Veterans. May God bless you."

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

"For all Americans, this is a day of special pride and remembering. For those of us who served, it is that and much more. Today we celebrate the nobility of young Americans willing to go thousands of miles from home to fight for the notion that in the final measurement someone else's freedom was connected to our own — whether recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, or on now distant battlefields in Vietnam, Korea, Europe and the Pacific, and elsewhere around the globe. We remember that spirit of service that bonded men and women together — making us more than we were when we left for duty — a spirit which didn't diminish once we had returned home.

We celebrate brave men and women who have given more of themselves than many will ever know — who have risked life and limb, lost friends in battle, and have seen things that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. We — as citizens protected by the greatest military in history — owe them all an incredible debt of gratitude, and we owe that debt also to the families they left behind and the families that were lucky enough to welcome them home and sustain them in all the days of their lives.

We have an obligation this Veterans Day — and every day — to continue to keep faith — in deeds, not just words — with the Lord's words that "There is no greater love than sacrificing yourself for a friend." We know still the truth that every advance we've made on behalf of our veterans has been the result of the commitment of Veterans to each other and their vows never to give up the fight; and we reaffirm our responsibility to keep faith with the generation of veterans returning home today.

And so, it is in that spirit that we remember all who fought with our brothers and sisters — for our families — for our nation. God bless them all and God bless the United States of America."