This afternoon, members of the 114th Congress of the United States will swear to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies … an oath that begins with the same words the Oath of Enlistment begins with for most military men and women.

But this is a different Congress — a wave swept in a number of new Tea Party Representatives and Senators hell-bent on rolling back progress on veterans’ issues at home and escalating our military involvement in wars abroad.

Before the new Congress is sworn in, we want to know what are the issues you’re most passionate about in 2015. Let us know here.

Out of 535 members of the new Congress, only 25 have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and only 100 have served at any time. That’s down from a time not too long ago when a majority of Representatives wore the uniform at some point in their lives.

With more Tea Partiers and fewer members who have served, that makes protecting veterans’ health care more difficult, preventing further escalation in Iraq and Syria more challenging, and enacting programs to help veterans to transition at home after returning from abroad so much more important.

Your priorities are our priorities — let us know the issues you’re most concerned about here:

http://action.votevets.org/priorities

Of course, we’ll continue working towards electing more veterans in 2016. There are a number of veteran leaders consider Senate and House runs that we’ll be following closely.

Thanks for standing with us.

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran and Chairman
VoteVets.org