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Obama highlights work on veterans’ issues

by Devin Henry - 11/14/15 6:00 AM ET

President Obama is marking the week of Veterans Day by noting his administration’s work on veterans’ employment, healthcare and homelessness.

In his weekly address, Obama said his administration has worked to increase the Veterans Affairs Department’s budget, expand benefits for veterans and reduce the backlog of veterans’ medical care claims by nearly 90 percent.

{mosads}“This week, America came together to salute our veterans – to express our appreciation to all who served so that we might live free,” Obama said.

“But our gratitude should extend beyond what our veterans have done for us in the past. It should remind us of our responsibility to serve them as well as they have served us. It should compel us to keep our veterans central to the ongoing work of this nation.”

The unemployment rate for veterans, Obama said, is down to 3.9 percent, less than the rate of the public at large. He added that his administration is “reducing the outrage of veterans’ homelessness” and has worked to get “tens of thousands of veterans of the streets.”

Obama, who marked Veterans Day in a Wednesday speech at Arlington National Cemetery, said there’s more work to do on veterans’ issues — both for the federal government and the public at large.

“We all have a role to play,” Obama said. “Less than one percent of Americans are serving in uniform. So it’s true most Americans don’t always see and appreciate the incredible skills and assets that our veterans can offer.”

“But every American should know that our veterans are some of the most talented, capable people in the world. They’ve mastered skills and technologies and leadership roles that are impossible to teach off the battlefield. They know how to get stuff done.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs underwent a political upheaval last year after the revelation of secret wait-lists at VA facilities around the country.

Then-secretary Eric Shinseki resigned his position in 2014, and the administration has worked to focus on veterans’ issues issue since then.

Obama has set a goal of ending veterans’ homelessness by the end of 2015, and while that goal will not be achieved, the administration has noted its progress on both homelessness and the claims backlog.

“[Veterans] deserve the chance to keep serving the country they risked everything to defend,” Obama said. “And so we must come together to keep giving them that chance, not just on Veterans Day, but on every single day of the year.”

Tags Barack Obama Department of Veterans Affairs