On His First Day on the Senate Finance Committee, Sununu Votes Against New Hampshire Families And Disabled Veterans

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Bill Lofy
January 31, 2008(603)573-5067

(Manchester, NH) - On his first day as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator John E. Sununu yesterday sided with the far right wing of his party by voting against an economic stimulus package that passed the Senate Finance Committee. The bill, among other provisions, extends unemployment benefits to New Hampshire families and provides tax relief for disabled New Hampshire veterans.

"Is it any surprise that on his first day on the Finance Committee, John E. Sununu voted against the interests of New Hampshire families and disabled veterans?" said Bill Lofy, director of the Stop Sununu campaign of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "This bill will extend much-needed relief for unemployed Granite Staters and give eligible disabled New Hampshire veterans a $500 tax rebate that they would not have received under the House version of this bill."

"That Senator Sununu would vote against this bill is baffling, but not surprising," Lofy continued. "Time and again, John E. Sununu has voted against extending unemployment benefits and against health care benefits for New Hampshire's veterans. His record on these two issues is long, consistent, and abysmal."

Sununu consistently votes against extending unemployment benefits. In 2005, he voted twice against unemployment benefit extensions, including those for victims of Hurricane Katrina [Vote 85, 3/25/03, Vote 234, 9/15/05]. In 2004, he voted against extending unemployment benefits by 13 weeks to people who had exhausted their state jobless benefits [Vote 88, 5/11/04]. In 2003, Sununu voted four times against granting unemployment benefit extensions[Vote 14, 1/22/03, Vote 152, 5/15/03, Vote 199, 5/23/03, Vote 269, 7/10/03].

Sununu's record on assistance to our nation's veterans is even worse. He has voted to cut or provide insufficient funding for veterans' health care programs at least 28 times.

• He voted against the initial FY08 Budget Resolution, which included a veterans funding hike [Vote 114, 3/23/07; Vote 172, 5/17/07; Senate Budget Committee, 3/20/07, 5/17/07].

• He voted to allow veterans' health care fees to triple [Vote 67, 3/16/06].He opposed mandating veterans' health care funding [Vote 63, 3/16/06].

• He rejected a $1.5 billion increase in veterans' health care [Vote 41, 3/14/06].

• He voted against a $19 billion increase in military and veterans' hospital funding [Vote 7, 2/2/06]

• He rejected $500 million a year for veterans' mental health care [Vote 343, 11/17/05]

And these are just a few examples from 2005 to 2007. Prior to these votes, Sununu voted against veterans' health care assistance 19 times.

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