Senate Republicans vote down expanded educational and medical benefits for veterans

Last week, Senate Republicans voted down a bill that would have funded expanded educational and medical benefits for our veterans.

Republicans said the bill, supported by more than two dozen veterans groups, was "too expensive."

Via Politico:

“I thought that maybe, just on this issue, this Senate could come together and do the right thing for our veterans,” Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told reporters after the bill was sent back to his committee.

”I am going to keep going on this. We are not going to give up on our veterans,” he vowed. “At some point, we are going to pass this legislation.”

Members of both parties are typically reticent to oppose legislation designed to help veterans and their families, but the downfall of Sanders’s bill underscored the frosty relations in the Senate and Congress at large, where it’s been tough to get much done.

Just two Republicans, Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Dean Heller of Nevada crossed party lines and joined Democrats in their bid to move the bill forward.