Here a subject that is being buried in this time of patriotic fever and all the talk of supporting our troops.

The Bush administration and the leadership of the House are trying to push though legislation to dump the disable veteran in to the ash pile. It is a proposal to change the definition of “service-connection” for VA benefits.

This is being put forth in the defense authorization bill currently pending in Congress. This would bypass the relevant congressional committee and public hearings on the matter.

The Bush administration has proposed this ill-conceived policy of restricting the disability criteria in order to pay for the cost of compensation to military retirees that became disabled in the defense of their country. If authorized, this change would result in the loss of not only monthly service-connected compensation benefits, but also vocational rehabilitation services, benefits for surviving spouses and children, burial benefits and the clothing allowance now provided to severely disabled veterans and other current services.

Also, service members who are injured by negligent medical care would be unable to sue to recover compensation for their injuries.

This is how the Bush administration and the House leadership plan to treat our veterans and men and women in uniform today and tomorrow. Realize if they fail this time they will be back to terminate as many benefits as they can. The wealthy seem to be the top priority of this administration. It’s time to put a stop to this proposal.

Mark W. Andrews, Wales