Protect veterans, Period.

CONGRESS COULD DO MUCH MORE TO PROTECT AMERICANS WHO HAVE SERVED THEIR COUNTRY, AND NOT JUST FROM FRAUD.

*The following was submitted as a Letter to the Editor for the New York Times It was not accepted.

Illustration by Nicholas Konrad; photographs by Getty Images

The New York Times recently published an article titled “Protect Veterans from Fraud.” The question of fraud is important, but the Editorial Board failed to address the more significant problem of denying veterans their civil rights. As a Post 9/11 veteran, I am much more concerned about and affected by institutions depriving veterans of equal opportunities in employment, housing, and education.

We do need to protect veterans, but not only from fraud. We need to protect veterans from bias and discrimination as well.

For example, the 1972 Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment & Assistance Act mandated government contractors create affirmative action for veterans. But when a veteran sued the Department of Labor, the court observed that the statute amounted to “no law at all.”

The 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act expanded federal hate crime laws to cover sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and military service. However, the Department of Justice has never enforced the protections for military families and continues to ignore a recent Congressional inquiry on the matter.

We do need to protect veterans, but not only from fraud. We need to protect veterans from bias and discrimination as well by demanding that the departments of Labor and Justice properly enforce veterans’ protections. With more considerable attention to laws that already do that, we can begin to close more substantial loopholes that my battle buddies and I continue to fall through.