On Veterans’ Day, our nation joins together to celebrate and honor the brave men and women who have served our nation in the armed services. There is no group we hold in higher regard than our nation’s veterans. They represent the very best values of our country: courage, sacrifice, hard work and a willingness to put others first, both during and after their time in uniform.

Honoring our nation’s veterans requires more than just saying “thank you for your service.” It means making certain they receive the best quality care, benefits, and respect they deserve after their time in service. As Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, it is our shared duty to uphold the promises this nation has made to take care of those who have served.

This is a sacred obligation, and the committee has a long history of setting aside politics to deliver on this promise by advancing meaningful legislative reforms for veterans in Kansas, Connecticut, and across the nation. While we may not agree on every legislative proposal, we always agree on the need to prioritize the fundamental mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): to care for all who have borne the battle.

We also agree there is a lot of work to be done to honor our promises to our veterans. Veterans are best served when VA and its workforce are empowered to fulfill this mission with focus, accountability, and transparency. Strengthening oversight, improving efficiency, and making certain the VA is responsive to the needs of those it serves are essential to delivering the kind of care and benefits veterans are truly deserving of.

Serving those who have sacrificed for our nation takes real action, not just words. Through key pieces of legislation like the MISSION Act in 2018 and the landmark PACT Act for toxic-exposed veterans in 2022, we are working together to deliver the support our nation’s veterans need and deserve. As the cost-of-living changes, we are prioritizing increasing VA benefits, including disability compensation, clothing allowances and survivors’ benefits, to keep pace with these increased costs. Every year, we pass legislation to make certain that veterans and their families can maintain financial stability without the worry of falling behind financially due to issues outside of their control.

These challenges and goals are not Republican or Democratic issues. They are American values that we, the leaders of the Committee, are committed to help pursue. Together, we will continue working in a bipartisan way to make the VA stronger, more accountable and better equipped to meet the needs of those who have given much to defend our freedoms. Our veterans have earned nothing less.

On this Veterans Day and every day, we reaffirm our commitment to the men and women who served our country, despite great risk and personal sacrifice. Now, it is our responsibility to serve them with the unity, respect and gratitude they deserve.

Jerry Moran is the senior U.S. Senator from the State of Kansas and serves as Chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.  Richard Blumenthal is the senior U.S. Senator from the State of Connecticut and serves as the Ranking Democrat on the Committee on Veterans Affairs.

Click HERE to read their op-ed in The Ripon Forum’s Seventh Annual Veterans Day edition.