Josh Riley Mobile Photo

Let's Get To
Work, Together

Join the team that’s fighting for Upstate New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 25, 2023

Contact:
Daniel Fleiss
(201) 354-7709
daniel@joshrileyforcongress.com

MARC MOLINARO VOTED TO CUT VETERANS’ BENEFITS.  NOW HE’S LYING ABOUT IT.

ITHACA, N.Y. — On April 26, 2023, Marc Molinaro joined George Santos, Marjorie Taylor Green, and the most extreme elements of the Republican Party in voting to cut veterans’ benefits. Now, facing an outpouring of public criticism, Molinaro is lying about his vote. In a May 22 interview with the Daily Freeman, Molinaro falsely claimed: “Cuts to the veterans services and benefits are off the table.”

Molinaro is lying. The “Limit, Save and Grow Act,” which Molinaro voted for and supports, definitively cuts veterans’ benefits.  Here are the facts:

  • Section 201 of the bill specifically cuts billions of dollars from the Veterans Medical and Health Care Fund. That is money that was intended to provide healthcare to homeless veterans, upgrades to housing facilities for veterans, employment and training service for veterans, and to reduce the backlog of veterans’ claims.
  • The bill also mandates sweeping, across-the-board cuts to federal spending without excluding veterans from them.
  • According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Molinaro’s vote would slash 30 million outpatient visits for veterans, and it would increase the disability backlog by 134,000 claims.
  • That’s why Veterans of Foreign Wars stated they were “gravely concerned” about the legislation, and the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America said the vote “sends veterans a clear message: your care and benefits are up for negotiation.”

Josh Riley issued the following statement in response to Molinaro’s vote:

“Veterans deserve support from the country they served, and NY-19 deserves the truth from the Member of Congress who is supposed to serve them.  But Marc Molinaro callously voted to cut veterans’ benefits and then he falsely denied having done so.  It is the latest example of Molinaro saying one thing (he supports veterans) and doing another (selling them out).”

Riley, whose grandfather served in the U.S. Army, has a proven track record of advocating for veterans. As counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Riley led efforts to advance legislation that funded programs for veterans with PTSD, and he organized committee hearings to hold financial institutions accountable for ripping off servicemembers and their families. As an attorney in private legal practice, Riley represented veterans services organizations in litigation to cut through red tape to get veterans the benefits they earned.