Latest news with #AllisonJaslow
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Veterans' Groups Object to Trump's Proposal to Rename Veterans Day
President Trump's announcement that he planned to change the name of Veterans Day, on Nov. 11, to 'Victory Day for World War I' prompted a backlash from some veterans' groups, which complained that the move would champion conquest over sacrifice and ignore the sacrifices of most living veterans. In a social media post late Thursday, Mr. Trump also said he would declare May 8, the date that Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945, 'Victory Day for World War II' instead of Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, as it is commonly known in the United States. But some veterans' advocacy groups said the focus of the new names on winning overlooked veterans who served in more recent wars that had more mixed results. 'It is not the veterans' fault if we don't win wars,' said Allison Jaslow, the chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who also served in Iraq. She added that 'Veterans Day should be an acknowledgment of the ways that fellow Americans have served and sacrificed to protect and defend what we have in America.' In 2023, the census counted 15.8 million veterans living in America. This year, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that about 66,000 American World War II veterans were alive. There are no surviving veterans of World War I. That means that with Mr. Trump's proposed name changes, more than 99 percent of living veterans — a group that includes Vice President JD Vance, who served with the Marines in Iraq — would be left without a holiday commemorating their service. Congress recognized the need for a holiday that would encompass the service of all veterans in 1954, when it passed legislation to formalize Nov. 11 as Veterans Day. Since 1919, the date had been recognized as Armistice Day, in honor of the agreement that the Allied powers and Germany signed to end World War I in 1918. Congress had made Armistice Day an official federal holiday in 1938. Though presidents enjoy fairly wide latitude to recognize certain occasions or individuals by executive order, only Congress can create binding federal holidays, meaning Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally force an official name change for Veterans Day, which is one of 12 federal holidays that were established by law. Some veterans' groups pointed to the history of how Veterans Day was expanded to include all veterans to argue that Mr. Trump's proposal was undermining the spirit of the holiday. 'Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, honoring the end of World War I — then it was changed to honor ALL who served,' the group VoteVets, a left-leaning political action committee, wrote in a social media post, adding: 'Veterans don't need rewritten history. They need respect — and the benefits they earned.' Democrats have argued that the Trump administration's cuts to the V.A., which are expected to include a reduction of 80,000 workers, will undermine veterans' benefits. A spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a nonpartisan advocacy organization created in the 19th century, said the group had reached out to the White House to clarify Mr. Trump's plans and inform the president that it continued to endorse having the holiday honor the service of all veterans. 'Since the original legislation was introduced to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day — a day that is dedicated to all veterans who fought for peace — the V.F.W. has endorsed that change,' said Rob Couture, a spokesman for the organization's Washington, D.C., office. In February, Al Lipphardt, the group's national commander, issued a statement criticizing the Trump administration's plan to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the V.A., and spoke against it in congressional testimony. Another major veterans group, the Disabled American Veterans, offered the most succinct response to Mr. Trump's proposal. Their statement posted online said, 'No.' But one of the largest veterans' service organizations has been notably silent on the president's Veterans Day announcement. A spokeswoman for the American Legion, which was created through congressional charter after World War I and calls itself 'the nation's most influential, effective and dependable advocate of veteran affairs,' declined to comment on Mr. Trump's idea. The group also declined multiple requests for comment in February when Mr. Trump allowed Elon Musk to fire tens of thousands of federal employees, of which roughly 30 percent are military veterans. Vietnam Veterans of America, which was started in 1978 and given a congressional charter in 1986, did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump's proposed renaming would effectively return Nov. 11 to its original status as a holiday exclusively marking World War I. But while May 8 is recognized as the end of World War II's fighting in Europe, it is not the date that the United States declared victory in the overall war. The battles in the Pacific theater dragged on for several more months and were punctuated by America's use of nuclear weapons against Japan in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Just days later, Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced that his country would surrender unconditionally. Victory Over Japan Day, or V-J Day, is celebrated in the United States on Aug. 14 because of the time difference when that announcement was made. But Japan did not sign a formal surrender agreement until Sept. 2. Mr. Trump argued in his social media post that 'many of our allies and friends' already recognized May 8 as Victory Day, and that the United States should follow suit because in World War II, 'we did more than any other Country, by far.' 'We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,' he wrote. 'That's because we don't have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!' Poland and France celebrate Victory Day on May 8, while Russia celebrates it on May 9. Since the start of his second term, Mr. Trump has announced a series of name changes. He ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America. Mr. Trump also renamed the tallest mountain in North America as Mount McKinley, undoing a 2015 decision that had restored the peak's Alaska Native name, Denali. This week, he announced via social media that he was 'reinstating Columbus Day,' though it has been a congressionally established federal holiday since 1934.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan vets group to step down later this spring
Iraq War veteran Allison Jaslow announced Thursday that she will step down from her role as CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America later this spring, prompting a search for the next leader of the veterans organization. The group — founded in 2004 — has been a prominent and sometimes controversial voice in the veterans community over the last two decades, focused largely on issues impacting the youngest generation of American veterans. Unlike most of the legacy veterans organizations, which have leadership changes annually, Jaslow is only the third CEO in the organization's history. She is the group's first female leader and its first openly gay chief executive. Her departure comes after two years in the CEO role and more than nine years of work with the organization, including spearheading the organization's 'She Who Borne the Battle' campaign, which highlighted the contributions and needs of women veterans. Jalsow said in recent years the organization has focused more on developing leadership training programs to elevate the voices of post-9/11 veterans and the challenges facing them. 'It's a very rewarding thing to be able to bring veterans to Washington, D.C., invest in them, to train them, and give them the tools not just to advocate for our priorities but also themselves,' she said. 'And those are tools that they take home to their communities where they can help other veterans advocate too.' Jaslow served two combat tours in Iraq with the Army. She has also worked in multiple Capitol Hill posts and recently served as an adjunct professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. VA secretary insists massive staff cuts needed to refocus department In testimony before Congress on March 4, she delivered a blistering rebuke of lawmakers from both parties, saying that partisan fighting has blocked sensible compromises that can benefit veterans and all Americans. 'If you really want to get the backs of Post-9/11 generation veterans, how about you stop asking us and our fellow Americans to keep soldiering on when none of us is satisfied with the leadership we have in this country right now?' she said. 'How about you follow my generation of veterans' lead and make sacrifices on behalf of our country that prove that you're worthy of the office that you hold?' Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars era now make up about 30% of the nation's veteran population, the second-largest segment behind the Vietnam War era. But they also make up about half of all veterans in the civilian workforce, a percentage that is expected to grow in coming years.
The Hill
26-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Should veterans' preference in federal government jobs be on the chopping block
Allison Jaslow, an Iraq War veteran and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, weighs in on how DOGE's spending cuts is hurting military veterans. #military #vets
NBC News
21-02-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Mass federal layoffs deliver a gutting one-two punch to America's veterans
President Donald Trump's sweeping efforts to purge the federal workforce have dealt a striking one-two punch to an already largely vulnerable population: America's veterans. Besides scrambling for a new way to make a living, former service members who lost their government jobs are bracing for the potential impact the mass terminations may have on their personal lives after the Department of Veterans Affairs dismissed more than 1,000 people who help provide services to them. 'I'm worried about wait times,' said a disabled Army veteran, who was let go from her VA job last week. 'If there's not enough staff, from the clerks on up to the providers, it delays your time to be able to be seen, whether it's an emergency or nonemergency.' The layoffs could have cascading effects on veteran unemployment and put millions of veterans at risk of having their benefits disrupted, said Allison Jaslow, an Iraq War veteran who leads the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. It's a double whammy to a group of people who researchers say experience mental health issues at disproportionate rates compared with their civilian counterparts and who face unique service-related challenges, including difficulty adjusting to civilian life and employment barriers. 'You're talking about a population of Americans who have really taken a beating.' Allison Jaslow, veterans advocate Post-9/11 veterans and service members, in particular, are recovering from 20 years of war, during which many of them deployed multiple times and without a draft. 'It's a population that's already, in many cases, carried a significant burden on behalf of our country and also at the hands of political decision-makers,' Jaslow said. 'You're talking about a population of Americans who have really taken a beating.' The federal government is the single largest employer of veterans in the country, said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents 110,000 federal employees. Nearly 30% of the more than 2.2 million federal employees are veterans, he said. More than half of those veterans are disabled, according to the latest publicly available data by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Erwin fears nearly a half-million veterans could go jobless under Trump's stated cost-cutting plan to gut the federal workforce and drastically cut federal spending — and he worries their struggles won't end there. Last week, the VA announced it had dismissed more than 1,000 employees as part of Trump's plan. The agency, which previously had more than 479,000 people on its payroll, said the cuts would allow more than $98 million each year to be redirected toward health care, benefits and services for veterans. In a statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the personnel changes 'will not negatively impact VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries.' The layoffs did not hit responders with the Veterans Crisis Line, the agency's suicide hotline, a VA spokesperson told NBC News on Thursday. The VA said 'mission-critical' positions were exempt from the reductions. 'This was a tough decision,' Collins said, 'but ultimately it's the right call to better support the Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the department exists to serve.' Outrage from lawmakers, as chaos ensues In a letter Wednesday, dozens of Democratic senators laid out several ways they say the terminations have already harmed veterans, as they urged Collins to immediately reinstate those who were fired last week, citing critical staffing shortages and an increased demand for services. The lawmakers said openings for new clinics have been delayed, while service lines at VA hospitals and clinics have been halted, and beds and operating rooms at VA facilities have been suspended. In a statement, however, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said he was 'disappointed' to see his Democratic colleagues 'fearmonger veterans and their families about phantom cuts to benefits and services.' 'I take Secretary Collins at his word when he says there is no impact to the delivery of care, benefits, and services for veterans with this plan,' Bost said. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, did not immediately return a request for comment. The widespread layoffs, the Democratic senators said, have sowed unnecessary chaos at the VA. 'Not only will this latest action put veterans' care and benefits at risk, but it further confuses, demoralizes, and threatens a VA workforce we need to fulfill our nation's sacred promise to our veterans and their families who have already sacrificed so much,' the senators wrote. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said a 'substantive' number of terminated VA employees were veterans and military spouses. Marine veteran Andrew Lennox, 35, had been working for the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System in Michigan for about two months before he was laid off through an email on Feb. 13. 'These aren't customers. These are patients. These are veterans.' Andrew Lennox, former va employee 'I checked my government phone, and I was like, I got fired,' he said, adding that he burst out laughing in disbelief. Lennox said he had felt alone after leaving the military. But, he said, the job gave him a new sense of community, full of people he understood and felt understood by. 'It was something that made me proud,' he said. 'I was being able to serve again.' Now, Lennox worries about the long-term or permanent effects Trump's policy changes will have. 'These are very complex and fragile institutions that if you try and slash away, it grinds to a halt,' he said. 'These aren't customers. These are patients. These are veterans.' 'You're gonna break something that we can't fix,' he added. The disabled Army veteran, who requested anonymity as she attempts to reverse her termination, said she keeps in touch with close colleagues. 'Everybody's on edge,' she said, 'not knowing what's going to happen from day to day.' George Buchanan, an Army veteran who still works for the Veterans Benefits Administration in New York City, said confusion sparked by a sea of personnel changes has gone mainly unaddressed in his office. 'We didn't have any big meetings about it, although obviously everyone was asking about it,' he said. Buchanan said fewer workers will likely lead to longer lags in disability compensation cases. 'I would worry because they're getting rid of so many people,' he said. 'It's going to greatly delay appeals and cases being decided.' Erwin, the union president, warned the terminations would have ripple effects on the remaining employees of an agency that serves more than 9 million people. 'There will be no mercy for the Department of Veterans Affairs,' he said. A VA researcher in the northwest said she has already begun to feel the impact of the fallout. Her already thinned-out department has turned into a 'skeleton crew,' she said, which has halted studies on the results of burn pits, suicide prevention, oncology and infectious disease. 'We can't effectively proceed with the research any longer,' said the worker, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The cancer researcher, who was still employed as of Friday, worried how further cuts would hinder her department, which helps hundreds of late-stage oncology patients through grant-funded interventional studies involving new therapies and drugs. 'I don't even mean to be dramatic, but it's a life-or-death situation for these patients when we're their last hope,' she said. 'It's kind of hard to wrap your head around.'
