Today, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Ranking Member Jon Tester (D-Mont.) led a bipartisan group of Senators – all members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – urging President Trump to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harry W. Colmery, a Kansan and World War I veteran as well as the original author of the G.I. Bill.

“Having recognized the desperate situations many servicemembers returned to following admirable service in World War I, Mr. Colmery, a distinguished Kansan and World War I veteran himself, drafted and developed the G.I Bill in 1944 to support servicemembers and new veterans’ adjustment to peacetime,” the senators wrote.

“Mr. Harry Colmery devoted himself to our country through his own military service as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War I, and subsequent efforts to ensure the nation dutifully addressed the needs of our Armed Forces,” the senators continued. “America’s investment in the G.I. Bill has not only provided servicemembers with the benefits they deserve, but also strengthened families and communities in addition to bolstering our Nation’s ability to attract an all-volunteer military force.”

Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Tester were joined by Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Michael Rounds (R-S.D.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.).

In 2017, Mr. Colmery’s legacy was honored when Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017. Sen. Moran has sent letters to both President Obama in 2014 and President Trump in 2019 urging Mr. Colmery to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Last June, Sen. Moran was also involved in introducing legislation, S.Con.Res.20, to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mr. Colmery.

The full letter is below and here.