The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), announced its support of the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Act.
The IAVA is one of the leading advocacy and support organizations for post-9/11 veterans, having connected more than 1.2 million veterans with resources. It is a non-partisan organization with programming in advocacy, public awareness, and one-on-one case-management support.
Paul Reickhoff, a U.S. Army Veteran of the Iraq War, founded IAVA in 2004. Since then they have led the charge to pass the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for America’s Veterans Act, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act and many other pieces of valuable legislation to help veterans.
Additionally, the IAVA advocated for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provided for the World Trade Center Health Program and reopened the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Again, in 2015, the IAVA helped to pass the reauthorization of the Zadroga Act through the omnibus spending bill.
In continuation of its mission, the IAVA has now called for passage of the Never Forget the Heroes Act, which would extend the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund indefinitely, rollback the recently announced 50-70% cuts in compensation, and return to paying 9/11 victims what they deserve in full.
On February 25, 2019, IAVA Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Butler, commented “We applaud the introduction of the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Act by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Peter King (R-NY) and call for its immediate passage by Congress.”
As we reported recently, the Never Forget the Heroes Act is supported by U.S. Representative for New York’s 11th Congressional District, Max Rose, who is U.S. Army Veteran of the Afghanistan War, and U.S. Senator for Arkansas, Tom Cotton, who is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Senator Cotton served among thousands of Americans who joined the armed forces in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks.