It was recently revealed that nearly 10,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in California were being forced to pay back their reenlistment bonuses ten years later due to staff mismanagement. This is absolutely unacceptable -- and nearly all of you agreed with me in our recent
constituent survey that action needed to be taken.
After hearing these reports, I promptly joined a group of my colleagues in calling on U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to immediately halt all attempts to reclaim these decade-old reenlistment bonuses. While I was pleased that the Pentagon relented and announced it will suspend its efforts, it is a shame that it ever got to this point.

To view our letter to the Secretary of Defense, please click here. |
As a veteran myself and the father of a decorated U.S. Navy Seal, I will continue doing all that I can to see that this never happens again. These men and women courageously served our nation at war and they should be honored – not punished due to the incompetence of government officials in California. In a twisted irony, this is the same Administration that on one hand demands these American heroes pay back their bonuses while on the other it refuses to recoup bonuses paid to VA bureaucrats that have failed to properly care for our veterans.