Noriega, Cornyn Spar Over Veterans’ Issues

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Democrat Rick Noriega portrays Republican U.S. Senate incumbent John Cornyn as no friend to Texas military veterans.

Noriega’s a Houston state representative and an Army National Guard officer who wants to win over fellow military voters in his bid for the U.S. Senate seat now held by the Texas Republican incumbent Cornyn.

He’s chastised Cornyn for not initially supporting legislation to double college aid for recent military members and allow their education benefits to be transferred to a spouse or children.

But Cornyn rejects the label of anti-vet that Noriega’s trying to hang on him. He cites his Senate votes and constituent work that he says prove his commitment to help past and present military members. And, Cornyn notes, his own father served in the Air Force for 31 years.

The brewing dispute between Cornyn and Noriega over veterans sssues escalated amid debate over the expanded GI Bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last Monday.

Noriega’s supporters delivered petitions to Cornyn’s Texas offices demanding that he get behind it. Cornyn later voted for a different version of the bill. He said he wanted a version that allowed the transfer of education benefits, something he said would help with retention in the all-volunteer military.

Cornyn’s father went to college on the original GI Bill after World War II. Cornyn’s first vote against the new bill didn’t sit well with some in the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose members talked about it at their state convention last week.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)