Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire and Oklahoma’s Republican Sen. James Lankford are teaming up to introduce new congressional legislation called “Increasing Access to Military Service Records Act.”
This sounds like a good thing for two reasons. First, timely access to military records is a must for veterans and their families in seeking service-related benefits such as medical treatment, unemployment assistance, home loans and student loans. Second, this legislation appears to be a bipartisan act.
Most agree our elected officials in Washington should be able to find common ground. Taking care of our veterans at home and abroad is usually a given.
That said, in this age of hyper-political drama, our most sacred symbols, institutions – and even heroes – are no longer above being used to further political agendas and enhance political campaigns.
In this instance, the Lankford-Hassan legislation may be nothing more than a check box on the way to reelection. It appears to be a not-so-subtle slap at the National Archives and Records Administration – where, until now, the service records for all military personnel are kept, along with our nation’s “top” and “classified” military secrets.
In a news release from Lankford’s office and confirmed with a phone call, the senator justifies the need for a “new portal” by saying 500,000 service record requests are backlogged from veterans. But the NARA website says otherwise, putting the number at around 259,000 as of July 1 this year, and stating a plan is in place to eliminate the entire backlog by December 2023.
NARA is the place where both big and little secrets about big and little people are kept for the purpose of national security, veterans included. NARA is charged to be the keeper of top secret and classified documents — the keeping of which have been disrespected in recent times by both sides of the aisle – and therefore deserves better that a deconstruction and dissimilation of its mission.
The solution is simple: Pass a Military Service Access Act that gives NARA the funding it needs. Empower NARA to upgrade technology and increase staffing, in the most timely manner possible, to advance services to veterans.
This Lankford-Hassan legislation calls for a “new portal” to be established through the Secretary of Veterans Affairs wherein separate digital records would be maintained for former members of the Armed Forces. An advisory committee regarding the maintenance of those records would also be added.
The current NARA archivist was appointed by the Biden administration and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The Lankford-Hassan legislation does meet the public service smell test.
This legislation does not propose to strengthen, support, update and improve NARA’s mission. Rather, this legislation calls for, at best, adding yet another layer of bureaucracy, cost and confusion to the veterans’ records access process. At worst, it weakens NARA’s ability to keep secrets secret and adds new hoops to jump, new processes to learn for our veterans and those who serve them.
It appears our good senator and a Democratic friend have chosen to make political hay, or as our more culturally-attuned neighbors would note, a political play at the expense of veterans.
Editor’s note: To Lankford’s credit, he has been a champion for veterans across the nation in many instances. Earlier this year, he introduced the Fry Scholarship Enhancement Act to support spouses and children of wounded and fallen service members. Lankford also secured into law the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvements Act of 2020, which includes legislation to extend eligibility for the Fry Scholarship to spouses and children of National Guard and Reserve service members who died of service-connected causes but whose deaths did not occur when the member was on active duty.
