How Congress "Honors The Troops" - 2 SCHIP provisions provide aid to caregivers of wounded troops

[Amerigo Vespucci]

SCHIP: An Urgent Vote to Protect Wounded Veterans Fails



Posted October 18, 2007 | 01:42 PM (EST)

Today, Congress had an opportunity to override the President's SCHIP veto--and should have voted to do so. Two largely overlooked provisions of SCHIP would address the urgent issue of protecting military families as outlined by the Dole-Shalala Commission. Sections 621 and 622, under Subtitle C, provide one year of employment discrimination protection to family members caring for grievously wounded troops, and extend permitted work leave for these caretakers from three to six months.

Right now, when a service member is critically wounded, friends and family members put their lives on hold to be at their loved ones' bedside during the weeks and months of recuperation. Annette McLeod is one such family member. When her husband, Specialist Wendell McLeod, was injured while serving in Iraq, she rushed from her Chesterfield, South Carolina home to be with him at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. Caring for her husband, who sustained multiple injuries to the back and head, became her full time job. After three months at Walter Reed, the human resources department at the factory where she had worked for 20 years told her she had exhausted her time off. She was forced to give up her job and all of her benefits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/schip-an-urgent-vote-to-_b_69003.html