Vets Groups Spend Relatively Little On Lobbying

In honor of Veterans Day, LobbyBlog looked at which veterans organizations have been actively lobbying lawmakers in the the third quarter of the year.

Their expenditures have been modest compared to the headline-grabbing lobbying expenses poured into hot-button issues like health care reform and climate change.

1. Leading the veterans lobby is Disabled American Veterans, which reportedly spent $210,000 lobbying Congress, the Department of Labor and the Department of Veterans Affairs on a myriad of policies, according to lobbying disclosure reports.

2. AMVETS reported spending $90,000 lobbying Congress on health care, flag protection and national defense, among other issues.

3. The 50,000-member Vietnam Veterans for America focused its reported $60,000 lobbying for women and homeless vets as well as Agent Orange and Hepatitis C.

4. Not surprisingly, Paralyzed Veterans Of America honed in on health care issues, reporting $53,719 lobbying for chiropractic care and physical therapy as well as cemetery expansion and service dogs.

5. The relatively new group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America reported a meager $10,000 lobbying Congress, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, among other departments. The group lobbies on veterans outreach, education and health care.

Comments

[Tulka2]

When i was a child, there were old men shrunken inside their WWI uniforms on every street corner on Veteran's day. They sold red paper poppies, but gave them to little girls for free. One Veteran's Day, a few year's later we, my sisters and i, noticed all the old men were gone.

Blowing in the wind. Scattered to the ages.

[horhay]

Your comment reminds me of a poem written by Canadian officer, Lt. Col. John McCrae, 3 years before he died of pneumonia during WWI:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)