{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-support-buffington-petition-for-veteran-disability", "Cotton, Colleagues Support Buffington Petition for Veteran Disability", "2022-02-07", "2022", "2022-02", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: James Arnold or Mary Collins Atkinson (202) 224-2353\n\nFebruary 7, 2022\n\nCotton, Colleagues Support Buffington Petition for Veteran Disability\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) today filed an amicus brief to support a review of Buffington v. McDonough before the Supreme Court.\n\nIn 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to give Thomas Buffington the disability payments he had earned, and the U.S. Court of Appeals has since defended the VA\u2019s decision. In doing so, the Federal Circuit ignored court precedent and violated a long-standing practice of siding with the veteran when interpreting law.\n\nThe senators disagree with the Federal Circuit\u2019s decision and are supporting a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court.\n\nSpecifically, the senators argue:\n\n\u201c\u2026rather than following Congress\u2019s instruction that the courts should interpret these laws, and should do so in favor of veterans, the decision below invoked Chevron deference to endorse an agency \u201cinterpretation\u201d that disfavored veterans. By refusing to apply the pro-veteran canon at Chevron\u2019s first step, the lower court departed from the plain language of the statute and improperly placed the agency\u2019s view ahead of the established rule that any statutory ambiguities must be resolved in favor of the veteran.\u201d\n\nText of the brief may be found here.\n\n\u201cNo veteran should have to fight the VA to get the benefits they earned, and no court should defer to the administration instead of Congress and deny that compensation. It was wrong for the court to distort Congress\u2019 wishes by invoking Chevron deference\u2014the VA should pay Mr. Buffington what he\u2019s owed,\u201d said Cotton.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:57:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-support-buffington-petition-for-veteran-disability"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4200410805642605, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}