washington – Rep. Pat Ryan said Sunday that he sees the divide between the small proportion of Americans — less than 1 percent — who are active duty members of the U.S. military and the rest of the country as “deeply problematic as a democracy”.
“When you lose touch between those who are fighting our wars and their families and everybody else, that's something so essential that we have to figure out how to bring people together and get more people to serve,” Ryan told “Face the Nation”. before Memorial Day.
Ryan, a veteran, said he and his colleagues in Congress have worked to prioritize recruiting within an annual defense bill, citing challenges between each branch of the military with recruiting numbers.
“We've been pushing and a lot of guidance to say that this is not acceptable to the Department of Defense,” Ryan said. “And, and we're starting to see the numbers go up.”
But for the New York Democrat, he said the “most powerful thing” he's done in Congress is participating in a hand-washing tradition at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to mark Memorial Day. The bipartisan effort was started by Rep. Mike Waltz, who also appeared on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
CBS News
Waltz, a Florida Republican who is also a veteran, said of the tradition that it is “important to the American people” to see lawmakers from different backgrounds “honor our ancestors” together, despite their differences.
“I saw the acrimony and the infighting and I said, you know, let's get a group of veterans together,” Waltz said, explaining how the tradition began. “People who really have skin in the game.”
Ryan and Waltz announced they will work to increase the number of veterans in Congress, saying they hope to get more people who have served in the military or who have performed national service to represent Americans.
And Waltz noted that when it comes to serving the country, “service doesn't just have to be in the military.”
“One of the things we're adamant about and advocate for is getting back to national service as a country,” Waltz said. “That doesn't necessarily have to be uniform, but it could be with the national park, inner-city tutoring, care for the elderly. But how do we get young people out into an environment where they're learning leadership, discipline and follow-up. , in the service of a cause greater than themselves and with other Americans who may not look or come from the same backgrounds as them.”
Waltz suggested that the government incentivize service, proposing that young people could complete a year of service after graduation and receive a benefit.
“I think we have to rethink the service as a country,” he added.
