In Today’s USA Today: Veterans Bring Americans Together In Election That Divides

New York, NY August 24, 2016 – On the heels of the announcement made by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and NBC that the two major party candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will participate in the first ever IAVA Commander-in-Chief Forum on September 7, IAVA Founder and CEO, Paul Rieckhoff shared perspective on the role of veterans issues in the campaign dialogue in a piece in today’s USA Today. IAVA and its members work diligently every day to drive the national conversation around the unique challenges our veterans and their families face.

Rieckhoff commented on the hard fought battles to shine a light on the struggles faced by veterans and their families:

“There’s been huge progress on simply getting the candidates to focus on veterans issues.”

Rieckhoff concluded by noting that despite good intentions, there is still extensive work to be done on behalf of the 22 million American veterans:

“They’re both talking about VA reform. That’s good to hear,” Rieckhoff said. “But we’ve got to hear details. Saying you’re going to clean up the VA is like saying you’re going to clean up Washington. It’s the new political pander line… How are you actually going to do that?”

Veteran issues have achieved a prominence in this presidential race not seen in previous campaigns. Both candidates addressed the VFW’s convention in July and will speak at the American Legion convention later this month. They will appear at a first-ever forum on Sept. 7 held by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which counts 187,000 veterans as members.

Full text of the USA Today article can be seen here.

IAVA’s assessment of both candidates positions on veterans issues can be found here.