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Since February 2008, I
wrote to my elected representatives, Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator
George Voinovich and Congressman Mike Turner on multiple occasions
regarding the Adkins et al v. Rumsfeld (later Gates)
lawsuit. This lawsuit, a constitutional challenge to
the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act (USFSPA)(10 USC
1408) was the largest Federal litigation within the last 20 years
involving the issue of dividing military retirement pay at
divorce.
During the years of litigation, I
was a bit shocked to see how the Department of Defense and
Department of Justice in the administration of President George W.
"A Promise Made Is a Promise Kept" Bush fought this lawsuit
tooth and nail for multiple years despite the fact USFSPA does
absolutely nothing for military retirees.
At the end of this litigation, I
requested my elected representatives inquire into this situation
and demand accountability for the DoD and DoJ actions and
inactions. Here are the results of my
communications:
- Senator George
Voinovich
- Original
Fax:
- Washington DC,
Fax # 1-202-228-1382
- Sent Feb 5, 2008,
7:48 pm
- Follow-up Inquiry Fax Sent:
Apr 17, 2008, 4:35 pm
- Results as of Aug 15, 2008:
No Response
- Result as of Aug 21,
2008: Staff member leaves voice mail stating the
senator would not respond as he does not comment on
Federal litigation due to "separation of powers".
- Result as of Aug 25,
2008: I returned the phone call and requested a
written response from Senator Voinovich and referral of my
questions to the Senate committee with responsibility over
government management. I also asked for the Senator to
confirm he had no opinion on Marbury v Madison, the 1803 US Supreme Court
decision on separation of powers.
- Result as of Sep 21, 2008:
No Response
- Senator Sherrod Brown
- Original Fax:
- Washington DC, Fax # 1-(202)
228-6321
- Sent Feb 5, 2008, 8:36
pm
- Senator Brown responds on Mar 18,
2008
- States he asked DoD to respond
directly to my questions
- Status on Aug 15,
2008: No response from DoD
- Follow-up Inquiry Fax Sent
: June 15, 2008, 1:52 pm
- Result as of Aug 15,
2008: No Response
- Result as of Aug 19,
2008: Within 12 hours of posting this page on
Aug 18, 2008, I received a phone call from Senator Brown's
office stating they were in contact with DoD that morning on
my questions and a response would be coming shortly from the
Senator.
- Result as of Sept 21,
2008: No response
- Congressman Michael Turner
- Original Fax:
- Washington DC, Fax #
1-202-225-6754
- Feb 5, 2008, 8:32
pm
- Follow-up Inquiry Fax Sent:
May 30, 2008, 9:48 pm
- Results as of Aug 15,
2008: No Response
- Result as of Sept 21,
2008: No
Response
At this point, each of these
elected officials received not only my original fax, but also a
follow-up fax including the original communication. Having
received two copies of my questions, these officials can't resort to
the "dog ate my homework" posture of "I can't find your fax".
The facts lead to only these
conclusions:
- Senator Voinovich totally ignored
this military retiree.
- Senator Brown, a member of the
Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, couldn't get DoD to
answer his request, so he continues to ignore my follow-up
inquiry.
- Congressman Turner, who recently
sent me a taxpayer-funded, full color flyer on his accomplishments
for veterans, also totally ignored this military retiree
despite the Congressman's membership on three committees with
jurisdiction over my questions, namely House Veterans Affairs,
House Armed Services, and House Government Reform
Committees.
- After this page was first posted on
August 18, 2008, two Congressional staff members tried to bluster
past the response failures of Senators Voinovich and Brown;
unfortunately, their efforts did not fool me or lead to their
Senators' written responses.
Just for the record, I'm posting
copies of my original letters to these elected officials.
Maybe they can find and answer these copies!
Feb
5 2008 letter to Senator Voinovich
Feb
5 2008 letter to Senator Sherrod Brown
Feb
5 2008 letter to Congressman Turner
After all this, "ignored" seems
to be the wrong verb for this page's title. "Disrespect" is a
bit more accurate. There is no excuse for failing to answer a
military retiree's questions about Federal litigation actions
involving military retirement. Even worse, there is no excuse
for any American elected official to ignore any citizen's questions
about America's governmental actions.
What say you, Senator Voinovich,
Senator Brown, Congressman Turner? |
