Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn.Member, House Veterans’ Affairs CommitteeAs a 24 year guardsman and a veteran myself, I am proud to sponsor the Honor America’s Guard Reserve Retirees Act (H.R. 3787) which has been a priority among the veterans community for years.As you are all well aware, the reserve component of our military performs an invaluable role in supporting the active duty component, responding in times of national emergency, and most importantly standing ready to deploy to overseas missions in times of need, as so many of those who have served in the guard and reserve post-Sept. 11th have done.And for those who take on that responsibility and that risk for 20 or more years, we reward their service much as we do the members of the active duty military, with things like military retired pay, medical care through the TRICARE program, and even burial in a veterans’ cemetery.However, under current law, if members of the reserve component have not served a qualifying period of federal active duty, there is one honor that we do not bestow upon them: we do not give them the right to call themselves "veterans" of the armed forces.I believe that this oversight does a disservice to those who, like their counterparts in the active duty component, volunteered to serve their country and made them liable for activation at any time.Furthermore, I think it is a matter of basic common sense that if qualification for reserved retired pay is sufficient to secure government sponsored burial in a federal veterans’ cemetery, it should also grant the right to offer a hand salute during the playing of the national anthem, or take part in official Veterans’ Day events.While this may not seem important to some, for those who wore the same uniform, were subject to the same code of military justice, received the same training and spent twenty years or more being liable for call-up, this lack of recognition is a gross injustice.H.R. 3787 would finally correct this injustice in the most straight-forward way possible: by adding reserve component military retirees to the Title 38, Section 101(2) definition of the term "veteran." This particular section of the U.S. Code is considered the most fundamental in defining who is and is not a veteran under our law.By including guard and reserve retirees under this, the most basic definition of veteran, we ensure that they are not relegated to second class veteran status, but are instead full, unalloyed veterans.As I have said, the sole purpose of this legislation is to grant veteran status to those who have been denied it up to this point. In light of this fact, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that no new material benefits accrue to those who would gain veteran status under this legislation.To begin with, as I have already mentioned, guard and reserve retirees already have access to a number of veterans’ benefits, such as retirement pay, TRICARE medical care at age 60, space available military aircraft travel, and burial in veterans’ cemeteries.Furthermore, due to the nature of their service, even as veterans they would not qualify for a host of other benefits such as those granted under the post 9/11 GI Bill, which have a minimum active service requirement, or for things like VA Healthcare which have low-income requirements (the overwhelming majority of guard/ reserve retirees would be Priority Group 7 or 8).The original text as introduced used Section 106 to qualify reserve component retirees by deeming their service active duty. While it would have achieved the goal of including this group in the Section 101(2) definition of veterans, it would also have qualified them for a whole slew of benefits which are available only to veterans of active service.Because of my commitment that this legislation not create any new entitlements or benefits, I decided to reject that approach, and intend to introduce an amendment in the nature of a substitute that goes at the Section 101(2) language directly.Furthermore, in order to avoid even the potential for any unintended or unforeseen benefits accruing to reserve component retirees, we have also included conforming amendments to Chapters 11, 13 and 17, covering all disability benefits, DIC payments and VA healthcare, which ensures that those servicemembers who qualify for veteran status under the new language shall not have access to any benefits to which they would not otherwise be entitled.The conclusion that this legislation will not result in any unintended consequences has been supported by both the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which has certified this legislation as adding no new burden on the federal budget or cost to taxpayers, and by the Congressional Research Service, which has gone through the statute with a fine toothed comb and identified every single active reference to 38 USC 101(2) – a list which I will gladly share with anyone who is interested.Finally, I would like to point out that this legislation is supported by the members of The Military Coalition, the Association of the United States Army, as well as the National Military Veterans Alliance, which together represent several million active duty service members, veterans and their families.I am pleased this legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 28, 2010, and I am hopeful it will pass the Senate in the coming days so we can finally give the members of the reserve component the honor that they have earned.