Furthering his commitment to assist those selfless men and women who have fought for our nation, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3) has co-sponsored the Uphold Our Promise to Veterans Act to restore funding for military retiree pension benefits by cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid  and generating proceeds from the sale of federal lands.

“As I have stated, the Bipartisan Budget Act, which I supported, was not perfect. While I believe the overall spending cuts in the current budget were a priority, it was unfortunate that the growth rate of the cost of living adjustment for working-age retirees was impacted. We can address this issue by ending foreign aid to less-than-friendly nations like Pakistan and Egypt and instead fund our military pension program,” Luetkemeyer said. “Given the state of the economy and the seemingly unlimited amount of federal spending, we must choose wisely how money is distributed and taking money away and I believe serving our veterans comes way ahead of funding foreign governments and holding massive amounts of federal land that go unused.”

The Uphold Our Promise to Veterans Act would cut all economic and security funding to Pakistan and cut all funding to Egypt while mandating that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service start a program to sell unused federal land. Meanwhile, Congressional budget leaders are expected to consider in the coming days the issue of disabled veteran pensions through the appropriations process.