U.S. Senator and Bothell resident Patty Murray, senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, released the following statement as the nation prepares to observe Veterans Day:

“On Veterans Day, we honor and celebrate the courage and commitment of our nation’s heroes, both past and present. When these brave men and women signed up to serve our country, we agreed to take care of them. They kept their end of the bargain and we must keep ours.

“Our veterans have leadership ability, discipline, and technical skills to not only find work but to excel in a 21st Century workforce. But despite these facts, veterans across the country continue to struggle as they try to find work.

“For too long we have invested billions of dollars in training our young men and women with skills to protect our nation, only to ignore them once they leave the military. For too long, at the end of their career, we patted our veterans on the back for their service and then pushed them out into the job market alone. Thankfully, we have been able to take real, concrete steps toward putting our veterans back to work with new laws like my “VOW to Hire Heroes Act” and other legislative efforts.

“We have also worked to build partnerships with private sector businesses in order to tap into the tremendous amount of goodwill that companies have toward our returning heroes. In fact, just this week, our own Microsoft and Starbucks launched major, nation-wide initiatives to put our men and women in uniform back to work.

“This is the legacy of opportunity we have to live up to for our nation’s veterans. This is the responsibility we all have on our shoulders. It doesn’t end on the battlefield. It doesn’t end after the parades Monday. In fact, it never ends.

“Our veterans don’t ask for a lot and too often they are coming home and facing unnecessary stresses and struggles. On this Veterans Day we need to redouble our efforts – government, businesses, and citizens – to guarantee our veterans get a fair shot and to guarantee them that they are not measured by fear or stigma, but what they can do, what they have done, and what they will do.”