PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the wake of a lawsuit in Virginia to extend the deadline for the state's acceptance of military absentee ballots by ten days, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) today released the following statement urging Congress to do more to ensure that the ballots of the nation's armed forces are counted:
"Our soldiers stationed over seas should not be disenfranchised from voting. For many of our servicemen and women, this election is not only their first but also one of the most important, and they should have every opportunity to have their vote counted and their voice heard.
"Given the situation in Virginia and elsewhere across the country, it's clear that military voting remains a major problem and ballots should have been mailed out sooner to ensure that members of our armed forces could participate in this historic election.
"Congress had the opportunity to safeguard the votes of our military this year, but regrettably chose instead to do too little, too late. Given their sacrifice for our nation, I urge Democrat leadership to do more in the next Congress to make sure that military participation in our democratic process is vastly improved in the future."
NOTE: Blunt authored a congressional resolution, H. Con. Res. 388, that passed the House in September expressing the sense of Congress that the Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program take additional steps to ensure that members of the Armed Forces and their families have ample information on registering to vote and voting in the 2008 election. Similar legislation, authored by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), was never considered by the Senate.
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released a report last September citing that less than 17 percent of the 6 million citizens eligible under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act chose to participate in the 2006 general election. The EAC further found that of the 48,600 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ballots that were not counted by States and local jurisdictions in the November 2006 elections, 70 percent were not counted due to incorrect or undeliverable addresses and that more than 10 percent of all uncounted military and overseas absentee ballots were rejected because they were received past the required deadline.
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04 November 2008
10 September 2008
National Museum of the Marine Corps Thrives
BUSINESS WIRE --Amidst celebrations for the millionth visitor and continuing rave reviews from visitors, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and Marine Corps Heritage Foundation announce expansion plans. The announcement comes after the release of results from a visitors’ survey made available through the American Association for State & Local History. The survey found that the National Museum of the Marine Corps exceeded results of the top three museums previously measured in the AASLH survey in overall visitor experience, visitor expectations, impact, value, visitor return, visitor recommendation and reputation.
The Museum will soon expand to include three additional galleries with exhibits interpreting the periods from 1775 through World War 1. The galleries will feature immersive experiences for which the Museum is world-renowned. Construction on the new galleries will begin in October with the opening expected in the spring of 2010.
The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s fundraising campaign to complete the Museum is also under way. New components that the Foundation and its supporters will fund include over 80,000 square feet of additional historical galleries, a large-screen theater, a permanent art gallery and artist studios, a performance space, classrooms and a display-storage gallery for many artifacts currently not accessible to the public.
With funding provided by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and its supporters, the adjacent Semper Fidelis Memorial Park also continues to expand. Additional trails and overlooks are already lined with 10,000 commemorative bricks and another 2,000 are reserved for new trail segments. Memorial benches and monuments will be installed in the next phase of development, along with the construction of a new chapel slated to begin in October. The nondenominational chapel will be a quiet,contemplative space where visitors can remember the sacrifices of Marines. Designed by Fentress Architects, the structure will evoke images and memories of improvised field chapels familiar to combat Marines.
In the less than two years since dedication, the Museum has become recognized as a top Virginia destination for families across the region and throughout the nation. Recent surveys found that 75% of visitors to the Museum were from outside the state of Virginia.
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The Museum will soon expand to include three additional galleries with exhibits interpreting the periods from 1775 through World War 1. The galleries will feature immersive experiences for which the Museum is world-renowned. Construction on the new galleries will begin in October with the opening expected in the spring of 2010.
The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s fundraising campaign to complete the Museum is also under way. New components that the Foundation and its supporters will fund include over 80,000 square feet of additional historical galleries, a large-screen theater, a permanent art gallery and artist studios, a performance space, classrooms and a display-storage gallery for many artifacts currently not accessible to the public.
With funding provided by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and its supporters, the adjacent Semper Fidelis Memorial Park also continues to expand. Additional trails and overlooks are already lined with 10,000 commemorative bricks and another 2,000 are reserved for new trail segments. Memorial benches and monuments will be installed in the next phase of development, along with the construction of a new chapel slated to begin in October. The nondenominational chapel will be a quiet,contemplative space where visitors can remember the sacrifices of Marines. Designed by Fentress Architects, the structure will evoke images and memories of improvised field chapels familiar to combat Marines.
In the less than two years since dedication, the Museum has become recognized as a top Virginia destination for families across the region and throughout the nation. Recent surveys found that 75% of visitors to the Museum were from outside the state of Virginia.
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13 July 2008
America Supports You: Fisher House Dedicated at VA Medical Center
More than 400 guests attended a dedication ceremony for the 39th Fisher House recently built on the grounds of Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Richmond, Va., one of the VA's four Level 1 polytrauma centers.
"It was an opportunity to be able to properly dedicate the home and have all these veterans organizations and families and friends ... come in the home and see exactly what kind of services we're going to be providing these families," said retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne Walker, manager of the new Fisher House.
The 16,800-square-foot facility, which serves as living quarters for family members of active-duty servicemembers and veterans receiving care at the medical center, resembles a large, private home more closely than it does temporary lodging. Each of its 21 rooms -- nine upstairs and 12 on the first level -- has a private bathroom, a 32-inch flat-screen TV and DVD player. The family room has a 50-inch flat-screen TV so those using the Wii videogame system won't miss a single detail. Residents of the house also can cook their own meals in the full kitchen.
"These families are under an enormous amount of stress. To be able to have a place that they can come home and relax and it's not a hotel room, it means everything [to them]," Walker said.
That is precisely why this is the biggest model the Fisher House Foundation builds, said Jim Weiskopf, the Fisher House Foundation's executive vice president of communications. "That's about as large as we'd want to go, because we want them to look and feel like homes and not like hotels, and we're able to do that with our facilities," he said.
For Fisher House, the Richmond facility represents more than just an opportunity to help wounded warriors and their families. It's a promised kept.
"There are four Level 1 polytrauma centers in the VA," Weiskopf said. "Building at Richmond fulfills our pledge to the VA to get a Fisher House at all of the Level 1 polytrauma centers."
The VA's three other Level 1 polytrauma centers are in Palo Alto, Calif.; Minneapolis; and Tampa, Fla.
The first families will begin moving into the new Richmond facility July 21.
The Fisher House Foundation is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad.
"It was an opportunity to be able to properly dedicate the home and have all these veterans organizations and families and friends ... come in the home and see exactly what kind of services we're going to be providing these families," said retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne Walker, manager of the new Fisher House.
The 16,800-square-foot facility, which serves as living quarters for family members of active-duty servicemembers and veterans receiving care at the medical center, resembles a large, private home more closely than it does temporary lodging. Each of its 21 rooms -- nine upstairs and 12 on the first level -- has a private bathroom, a 32-inch flat-screen TV and DVD player. The family room has a 50-inch flat-screen TV so those using the Wii videogame system won't miss a single detail. Residents of the house also can cook their own meals in the full kitchen.
"These families are under an enormous amount of stress. To be able to have a place that they can come home and relax and it's not a hotel room, it means everything [to them]," Walker said.
That is precisely why this is the biggest model the Fisher House Foundation builds, said Jim Weiskopf, the Fisher House Foundation's executive vice president of communications. "That's about as large as we'd want to go, because we want them to look and feel like homes and not like hotels, and we're able to do that with our facilities," he said.
For Fisher House, the Richmond facility represents more than just an opportunity to help wounded warriors and their families. It's a promised kept.
"There are four Level 1 polytrauma centers in the VA," Weiskopf said. "Building at Richmond fulfills our pledge to the VA to get a Fisher House at all of the Level 1 polytrauma centers."
The VA's three other Level 1 polytrauma centers are in Palo Alto, Calif.; Minneapolis; and Tampa, Fla.
The first families will begin moving into the new Richmond facility July 21.
The Fisher House Foundation is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad.
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