Chair of the California State Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), telephoned the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), and members of the California Congressional Delegation to urge them to take action to end the aggressive collections of enlistment bonuses that were granted to California Army National Guard Members.

The Army provided these bonuses to our Guard Soldiers as an incentive to reenlist and redeploy into combat zones. Senator Nielsen issued the following statement:

"Our service men and women who made the extraordinary commitment to extend their active duty deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan did so with honor.

“This action by the federal government is outrageous and must be corrected immediately, as numerous veterans have been devastated financially by these collection actions. 

“This is a betrayal of our Soldiers. I am confident that Chairman Thornberry and members of Congress will right this wrong.

“In the coming days, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), Chair of the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, and I will work together on a bipartisan, bicameral communication to the Congress to resolve this problem.”