Editor, How good it was to see the only Georgia senator who serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to conduct a field hearing in Jesup to discuss a clinic for the 15,000 or so veterans in this area. It is sorely needed as the testimony revealed.
Just one question, senator:
What about the 20,000-plus disabled Georgia veterans (500,000-plus nationwide) who are eligible for the “best kept secret” of benefits, the Independent Living Program (ILP)? This benefit is for “veterans whose service-connected disabilities are so severe they are currently unable to purse an employment goal.” Twenty thousand in Georgia and 500,000 disabled veterans nationwide will never receive the benefit they earned with broken bodies and souls for their unselfish service to the country.
In the last five years, the number of severely disabled veterans in Georgia has steadily risen by several thousand to exceed the 20,000 mark, yet the number of disabled vets who received the ILP benefit for those same five years reached only 229.
Year after year, you continue to st ate, “We’ll look into it,” but nothing ever happens. When will they get their hearing?