Rep Greg Matthews: Having the Guard's back

T.A. Barnhart

Earlier this month, I spoke by phone with Rep Greg Matthews (HD 50, Gresham), who serves as Vice-chair of the Veterans and Emergency Services Committee. The 2009 Legislature has passed, and continues to work on, a variety of legislation regarding veterans' issues: ending unlawful employment practices, chemical exposure, educational benefits, and even making current benefits available to vets regardless of when they served (to make benefits available to Vietnam Era vets).

Rep Matthews is a vet himself, a former Airborne MP who was part of the rescue of American medical students from Grenada. Following his three years in the Army, he served as a police officer in Gresham for nearly 11 years. Since then, he's been a member of the Gresham Fire Department, starting as an arson investigator and later a firefighter on the line. "Perhaps that's the best thing that could have happened. I just continued to serve the city." He quipped, "We're fighting fires in Salem, too, but at least back home I get protective equipment."

He was elected to the Legislature in 2008 to represent Gresham, the city where he was born and raised, replacing Republican John "Lt Gov" Lim as part of the blue wave that swept Oregon and the nation. He asked to serve on the Veterans committee, his appointment to which he calls "a real honor." Another honor he enjoyed, during the campaign, was having John Kroger, a Marine vet, walk with him. They were able to discuss issues as they met the people of Gresham on the doorstep, and, once the session started, they joined forces to develop legislation together.

"One of the things that deeply concerned me long before I came in here was the fact that we'll have a lot of veterans that leave their jobs now to go serve their country and, I was curious, looking for the mechanism that ensures their re-employment. And there really wasn't any kind of state enforcement tool. We've got a great group, the Employers Support for the Guard and Reserve group. I know a few of the folks are retired general and what-not on there. They do a great job in educating employers, but as I mentioned in the Floor speech, what we found out, it's not so much a problem of the private sector. It's more with some public employees sometimes. They come home and find they've been replaced, and now someone's got seniority.

"We wanted to make sure we could define this in Oregon law, so we could say, 'We appreciate your service, and when you come back, your job is waiting for you, and we'll make sure that happens'."

HB 3256 was one result of the Matthews-Kroger collaboration; it provides state standards for determining unlawful employment practices regarding Oregon service members. (Matthews pointed out that Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian played an integral role in the development of labor-related legislation such as HB 3256.) Most of the legislation the committee dealt with, however, was the result of the work done in 2008 by the Governor's Task Force on Veterans Services, which produced 39 initiatives on a range of veterans issues.

"I requested the Speaker assign me ... of any committee, I really wanted to be on the Veterans & Emergency Services Committee, and that is chaired by Jean Cowan. [I] ended up being vice-chair, that was a real honor. Of all the committees I'm on, what made that so productive was the work of the Task Force. They brought forward a recipe for success for the Legislature if we could just follow it and connect the dots, maintain as these bills went through our process in the House and across over to the Senate. The bills the Attorney General and I came up with were just kind of extras into the pile"

Matthews pointed out that Paul Evans, the Governors liaison on veteran and affairs, and the entire Dept of Veteran Affairs have been great partners with the committee and Legislature on these issues. "I cannot say enough good about the work that Paul Evans has done and the commitment he's made," said Matthews. Throughout the session, he and Evans meet every Tuesday to discuss progress on legislation and what was needed to keep things moving forward successfully.

"There's been a very strong group [the Task Force, Dept of Veterans' Affairs AG's office] that has never once wavered, they've come through and followed this thing through to the very end. Nobody's celebrating. We're looking forward to the next set of work we have to get done. We'll continue to work towards that.

"There's going to be a lot of good things for all vets of all conflicts, all services."

Along with HB 3256, other legislation Matthews noted in our talk:

HB 3480, dealing with exposure to chemical agents (apparently stuck in Ways & Means Subcommittee On Public Safety, according to the Legislature's website).

HB 3020 was signed into law by Gov Kulongoski on June 2nd. This regarded a situation that "bothered a lot of folks" said Matthews. Under HB 3020, if someone knows that a person is a vet, a disabled vet, or a military spouse, an unlawful trade practice conducted against them would be considered an "unconscionable tactic", subjecting the perpetrator to a higher level of punishment. HB 3020 provides a level of protection to vets and their families that has been missing.

"That is big: Our veterans are proud, and they should be ... often times they self-identify, whether it's through license plates on their vehicles or something in the home, something in their yard; this would put a protection in place that would make it" abuse of them a more serious criminal offense.

The assistance of Kroger's and Avakian's office in developing legislation was, Matthews said, "comforting for me [as a] first-term legislator. There's conflicts at every turn in this building it seems, but I never once saw a turf war over the veterans issues on how we're best going to protect our veterans. Everybody's come together to find a way to make it happen."

(I spoke with Tony Green, Director Communications for the AG's office about their involvement with veterans legislation. The AG, a former Marine, had two lawyers on his staff, both vets, who volunteered to work on these bills with Matthews: David Kramer and Paul Sundermeir. Green said AG Kroger understands first-hand what service to country means. He supports civil rights in general, and is determined to protect those of Oregon's veterans.)

Veterans issues are like firefighter issues, said the vet-turned-firefighter: "Firefighters have never really cared if you're a Democrat or Republican, if you're red or you're blue; it doesn't really matter. What matters is how you are on the issues that matter to them. Veterans are the same way."

With the Oregon National Guard due to ship to Kuwait by the end of the month for final training prior to their 10-month stint in Iraq (my older son, Alex, serves with Bravo Company, out of Corvallis), the state is already hard at work preparing for their return next year. Those on their first tour, said Matthews, won't realize how much better the reintegration process is than following past deployments. "For those who've already served and come back, what they should see is greater outreach [regarding] benefits. More of an educational component going out there, to say what the benefits are coming to them, how they access those benefits, getting them in direct touch with those."

Central to these efforts is the so-called "soft landing", an effort that requires federal assistance and is being worked on by the entire Oregon Congressional delegation, with Sen Ron Wyden taking the lead. [I contacted Wyden's office to try to arrange an interview on this, but they were not ready to speak about it just yet. Wyden's staff lead on this issue has assured me he'll contact me when the legislative process is ready to move forward; I'll report on that when I have the information.]

The current process for reintegration following a tour of duty is minimal, Matthews said.

"They basically land and are given a debrief, and in between them saying 'I'm ok' ... in between the debrief and [going home to] the families, is the fact that they have to say, 'Yeah, I'm doing ok and I don't need anything.' What we're trying to do is give them that extra time so the families can identify what the needs might be so these soldiers can as well, and the leadership has a chance to regroup and keep in touch with these soldiers. You're not going to be able to identify them so quickly within the first two days; you're going to need that 3-month period [of the soft landing]. Hopefully we can get that done."

Matthews expressed gratitude for the work of Oregon's members of Congress as partners in these matters. Every time the state has needed help at the federal or Congressional level, "there's been someone waiting in DC to pick the baton and we're handing it to them. That's pretty exciting, too." Often, he said, before Chair Jean Cowen let legislation pass from the committee to the floor, all necessary arrangements had been made with the Congressional delegation to ensure the bill would receive federal support or that national legislation would be proposed to support Oregon's efforts.

"I'm pretty proud of the way Oregon's treating its veterans. It's easy for me because I am a veteran. But you don't have to be a vet to support our veterans, to support our soldiers. Our troops ... you look at the six degrees of separation, everybody knows somebody impacted by this war or impacted by service. Everybody's concerned, whether you're deployed or not. They just want our military to be safe."

Despite the successes of the 2009 session regarding veterans issues, Matthews recognizes the work is far from finished. Once the session is over, there will be a debrief to review what got done and what remains to be done. He's still waiting to learn what's going to happen with HB 2571, which limits tuition for out-of-state students who are also vets; that bill has yet to pass the House. "We did get great support, the university system is helping us with that."

Matthews also spoke of two specialized classes of veterans, one which received some benefits from this Legislature and the other which will need to wait until 2010 or 2011 for specialized legislation. The first, Vietnam Era vets, have found themselves shut out of a number of benefits programs simply because of the passage of time. Matthews thinks that's wrong.

"I think we need to understand is that there is a generation of soldiers out there who came out of the Vietnam Era. Reintegration was not successful for them for a whole lot of reasons, having that 30-year moratorium in HJR 7, having that lifted by the voters, will allow them access to a home loan that they've never taken advantage of, never had that opportunity." [HJR 7 refers a constitutional amendment to voters that will allow Vietnam Era Vets to receive loans from Oregon War Veterans' Fund.]

He's also happy that the Legislature removed the 15-year limit for qualifying as a vet for Oregon civil service jobs (HB 2510): "Once a veteran, always a veteran. You can't put an age on that. We thought it was only right that you recognize their service forever, not for the 15-year period."

The class of vet which did not receive specific, and necessary, legislative attention is women soldiers. Matthews emphasized that the reason for this was not neglect but a desire to get the legislation right.

The issues that women soldiers face, he said, are different than what their male colleagues have to cope with. The problem is so large, the Veterans Task Force couldn't develop proper legislation. "It will be a priority of our commitment", he said, noting that the Task Force is still reviewing research in order to bring forward recommendations.

"Quite honestly, it was far too important to push something through that we hadn't researched enough. But it's also something that is going to be very demanding of [the Task Force's] time because it is that important of an issue."

For women soldiers, Matthews said, "Trauma is much different. You get a mortar round blast, the anatomy is such that they're suffering some serious trauma as a result of that." He also pointed out that matters of rape and sexual harassment need to be addressed. "We heard from some very brave soldiers who came forward, and these are women we certainly want to be there to support them."

Finally, I asked him about HB 2556 (Keep the Guard Home), but he was reluctant to give an opinion on whether its passage would have, as some on the right have argued, undermine the troops. He acknowledged the conflicts that exist even within the families of deployed Oregon soldiers, but his focus has been on supporting the troops. Because they were, he believed, going to be deployed regardless of any actions, his goal was to take care of them, especially when they return.

"I'll make it clear: [2556] has not been a conversation of the caucus, not a conversation of our committee. It's not that anyone's talking around it; it's just that it hasn't happened."

By the way, Senators Wyden and Merkley, if you plan to head to Iraq during the Guard's deployment (which I believe you will), Rep Matthews would like to join you. As would this Guard father/blogger. Just saying.

By T.A. Barnhart June 20, 2009