Holder visits WPAFB

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a gathering of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base airmen Friday the federal government has pushed to protect their voting rights while deployed overseas as well as helping them avoid unfair mortgage foreclosures, among other concerns of those in uniform.

Holder, along with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and a cadre of federal lawyers, appeared before about 150 people, at Bane Auditorium inside the Air Force Institute of Technology, the service’s post-graduate school.

To emphasize the U.S. Department of Justice’s push, Holder said his department had reached multi-million dollar settlements with some mortgage lenders on alleged improper home foreclosures, to going to court or reaching settlements in 14 different jurisdictions to guarantee voting rights.

The department has filed 44 cases in recent years for alleged violations of federal law that protects the civilian jobs of reservists and National Guardsmen while they serve in uniform, Holder said.

“We will continue to use every available resource, and every appropriate tool at our disposal, to hold violators accountable for unlawful actions that unfairly target those who serve,” he said.

The meeting comes about a month after Holder was held in contempt of Congress for withholding documents in the Fast and Furious operation.

Brown, D-Ohio, sponsor of the Servicemembers Protection Act, introduced the legislation in June. The bill, among other measures, would strengthen protections for military members who face “wrongful foreclosures,” late or inconsistent voting ballots and employment discrimination in civilian jobs.

If approved, the bill would among other measures hike civil penalties on banks that violate the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, allow the Justice Department to expand investigations into home foreclosures, and require states report on how timely they send absentee ballots overseas and set a uniform standard on how to send ballots to service members, among other measures.

In a statement to the Dayton Daily News, Travis Considine, a spokesman for Republican senatorial candidate Josh Mandel who is running against Brown, noted the Senate hopeful understands the issues that face military men and women who are deployed.

“As a two-tour Iraq war veteran, Josh Mandel personally understands the importance of protecting service men and women from certain civil obligations while deployed in order for them to devote themselves entirely to doing their duty and returning home safely to their families,” Considine said.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcus Dixon, who attended the forum, welcomed efforts to crack down on preying on service members’ education benefits. “That’s something that’s important to me,” he said.

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