WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are doing what they can to help veterans hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. But they also got a little side-tracked, debating the words of a president who has been dead for more than 150 years.
More than 117,000 National Guard troops and reservists were called up at the height of the nation's COVID-19 response.
They did their duty, but what about when they went back home?
The veterans' current 8.6 percent unemployment rate is more than double what it was in March before the pandemic hit.
"Those service members deserve to return to the lives they were living, without fear of losing their jobs," said Katie Pursewell of the American Legion.
House Veterans Affairs Committee members aimed to help improve things with the Veterans Economic Recovery Act.
"The Veterans Economic Recovery Act would offer a rapid retraining program so that veterans who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic can access short term training programs in high demand fields to help them quickly find new jobs," said Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tennessee).
One area of discussion before the panel where there was no consensus involved America's 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, and his motto for the Department of Veterans Affairs: " To care for him who shall have borne the battle."
The "Honoring All Veterans Act" would change the singular-gender phrase.
"The VA's motto in its current form has excluded millions of women and gender diverse veterans past and present and will continue to exclude future generations until it is changed," said Lindsay Church of Minority Veterans of America.
But, the VA wouldn't budge.
"At this point, the VA's position is that we do not see a need to enact a new motto," said Assistant Deputy Undersecretary Maria Llorente.
Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-New York) was unimpressed with that response.
"Honestly, I'm not going to let go of this issue, because, I just don't understand the VA's position on this," she said. "The one thing you could do to send the message to every person, man, woman, gay, straight who has worn the great uniform of this country of ours' is to have the motto not exclude them the minute they walk through a VA facility."