May 22,2006

Honorable Steven Buyer, Chairman
House Veterans' Affairs Committee
335 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 205 15

Chairman Buyer:

The purpose of this letter is to request a meeting with you as soon as your schedule will possibly allow after Memorial Day.

As the leaders of our respective organizations, we are both discouraged and angered with your response to our joint letter protesting your decision to unilaterally ignore decades of tradition by refusing to participate in our legislative presentations before the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees.

That you would label our attempt to speak to reason on this issue a "political stunt" is both offensive and disingenuous in the extreme. Your implication that we are putting politics above service to veterans is disgraceful and a calculated misrepresentation.

We have not in the past, do not now, nor will we in the future ever engage in any form of partisan favoritism in the context of our pro-veteran advocacy. Our only vote is for veterans.

Chairman Buyer, the painful irony here is that we have witnessed a precipitous decline in bipartisanship from the moment you seized control of the committee's helm. The House Veterans Affairs Committee, once a bastion of comity and bipartisan cooperation, is now stricken with partisan bickering and political strife that does a grave disservice to those veterans it was created to serve.

This deplorable situation must be put to an end.

You indicate that your door is open to us; we have chosen to accept this invitation. We will be accompanied by our Executive Directors and we would respectfully ask that you provide us with a list of dates when we can meet with you following the Memorial Day Recess.

Sincerely,

THOMAS L. BOCK
National Commander
The American Legion

PAUL W. JACKSON
National Commander
Disabled American Veterans

JAMES R. MUELLER
Commander-in-Chief
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.

EDWARD W. KEMP
National Commander
AMVETS