Senator Sanders to head Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

Thank you Senator Murray for the work you did. I just hope Senator Sanders will take a good look at all the failures that have happened leading to suicides and attempted suicides going up while Congress kept funding the same failures instead of changing them.

Sen. Murray steps down from head of vets’ panel
Army Times
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 15, 2012

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who stood toe to toe with the Obama administration on expanding government assistance for the caregivers of severely disabled combat veterans, will step down as chairwoman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee to take on a new and bigger role in shaping the federal budget.

Murray announced Thursday she will seek the chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee in the 113th Congress, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of current chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Her move, which will receive almost certain approval from her fellow Senate Democrats, provides an opportunity for Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with and receives committee assignments from Democrats, to become the new chairman of the veterans’ committee.

Murray’s move is no surprise. She has been part of the Senate Democratic leadership and was the Senate chairwoman of the 2011 Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that tried, unsuccessfully, to reach a bipartisan agreement on taxes and spending.

“I had to really think about stepping down from the [veterans’] committee because these issues have been such a passion for me,” Murray said in an interview. “As I thought about it, I decided I could really fight for veterans just as strong on the budget committee.”
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