Congress Tries Again to Define ‘Veteran’

Lawmakers are once trying to broaden the federal definition of who is a veteran. Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, and Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, along with Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minnesota, have introduced legislation in both chambers that would allow National Guard and Reserve retirees to legally refer to themselves as veterans.

“These folks took an oath, and that oath was to defend our nation at any cost, to stand ready for decades, at a moment’s notice, to deploy anywhere in the world in defense of our great nation,” said Walz, a retired command sergeant major in the Army Guard.

NGAUS has long supported this effort. The association believes the current law that requires a certain amount of time on active duty to be a veteran is misguided and leaves out the thousands of men and women who served honorably but were never called to active duty

“The current law punishes these people for something that was outside their control,” said retired Colonel Pete Duffy, the NGAUS legislative director. “It’s time they were given this honor by the country they served.”

Efforts to do this have failed in the past because some lawmakers feared it would also widen the eligible population for benefits despite the promise of bill sponsors that it would not. The sponsors of the current Honor America’s Guard-Reserve Act of 2015 say the same thing.

“National Guard and Reserve members who selflessly serve in defense of our country should be honored for their sacrifice,” says Boozman, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Along with NGAUS, the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States supports the legislation.