Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) During a lengthy Senate hearing Wednesday regarding 26 bills affecting benefits for veterans, U.S. Senator Larry Craig received positive reactions to six bills he is sponsoring, including one (S. 225) that would amend the Wounded Warrior legislation he sponsored and Congress passed in 2005.

Craig noted that Toshiro Carrington, a Navy Seal, is one of those who would benefit from a change the Idaho Republican is proposing. Carrington lost his left hand and the top of his right thumb during a training accident at Camp Pendleton in California on December 15, 2004, when an explosive charge was accidentally detonated by another sailor.

"When we passed the original Wounded Warrior benefit, we provided payments to those servicemembers seriously injured and wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq from September 2001 onward. And from December 2005, we covered all U.S. servicemembers seriously injured anywhere in the world. My new legislation this year would extend coverage to all servicemembers, no matter where they were, from the start of the war on terror. Toshiro Carrington is with us today and is one of those who would benefit from the change I am speaking about," said Craig, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Craig's original Wounded Warrior bill has since provided nearly $200 million to over 3,000 veterans seriously wounded and injured since the war on terror began in 2001. The payments range from $25,000 to $100,000, depending on the severity of the injury.  [For application information, see: Traumatic Injury Protection Under Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance.].

The average payout is approximately $64,000. Coverage includes injuries such as the loss of limbs, hearing and sight.  Payments are generally made within eight weeks after the servicemember is hurt.

But as the Idaho Republican talked about changes that are needed to improve the lives of veterans, he cautioned that if Congress passed all 26 bills now before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the total would come to nearly $100 billion dollars.

"I am not pointing fingers. I have six bills among the twenty-six we are reviewing today. Our heart tells us to do everything we can for every person who ever wore a uniform, but our pocketbooks tell us we need to prioritize," said Craig.

Spending on VA programs has grown from $48 billion in 2001 to over $80 billion this year.

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