WEEKLY REVEREND WRAP: Reverend Warnock Fights For Georgia Veterans, Military Families; Walker Overstates Charitable Giving 

Also This Week: Walker Doubles Down On Support For National Abortion Ban

This week, Reverend Warnock helped secure wins for Georgia veterans and military families. Meanwhile, a new report revealed Herschel Walker overstated his charitable giving.  

Read about this and more below. 

REVEREND WARNOCK FIGHTS FOR VETERAN HEALTH CARE 

This week, the bipartisan veterans legislation championed by Reverend Warnock was signed into law. This bill will increase transparency and accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans who report concerns they experience with VA health care services. This latest bipartisan effort is part of Reverend Warnock’s extensive record of fighting for Georgia’s veterans and military families. 

WJBF Augusta: Bill to increase transparency at VA signed into law, electronic system for veterans to submit complaints

• President Joe Biden has signed into law the Patient Advocate Tracker Act, which will increase transparency and accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for veterans who report concerns that they experience with the VA health care services, which is bipartisan legislation championed by U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA).
  
• According to lawmakers, Senator Warnock introduced a version of the bill in the Senate with U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA).

• Lawmakers state that the bill would require the VA to create an electronic system specifically for veterans to submit complaints regarding the healthcare services they receive, and the system will allow a veteran to file a complaint electronically with the patient advocate and view the status of the complaint, including interim and final actions that have been taken.

REVEREND WARNOCK FIGHTS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES 

Last week, Reverend Warnock introduced the bipartisan Love Lives On Act, legislation that will allow spouses of deceased servicemembers to retain survivor benefits when they remarry. Currently, a surviving spouse could lose survivor benefits if they remarry before the age of 55. This bill tackles this problem affecting Georgia families by ensuring surviving spouses of active-duty, veteran, and retired servicemembers retain their benefits in the event that they remarry. The bill also reforms the administration of survivor benefits relating to health care, educational benefits, and access to base resources. 

Watch WJCL Savannah’s Coverage HERE

Marvis Herring, WJCL Savannah: “The spouses of servicemembers who died fighting for our country have expanded access to family benefits thanks to the Love Lives On Act. It was introduced by Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock last week.” 

Reverend Warnock: “We’re talking about people who paid the ultimate sacrifice. These are soldiers who lost their lives fighting for us. Their families deserve the benefits and the support.” 

Marvis Herring, WJCL Savannah: “Warnock co-sponsored the Love Lives On Act with a Republican Kansas Senator. It expands benefits in several new ways, including allowing surviving military husbands and wives to keep survivor benefits even if they remarry. “Surviving Spouse” is also now redefined to include same sex couples. Spouses can also regain their tricare benefits if they remarry and that marriage ends. We spoke to Sammi Hester, a longtime Savannah resident. In 2006, her husband Sergeant First Class Richard Hester died by suicide while stationed at Fort Stewart. He’d struggled with PTSD after fighting in Iraq. Hester told us she had to jump several hoops to retain benefits to support their kids and herself. She fully supports the Love Lives On Act because it removes the red tape for grieving families.” 

Sammi Hester, Gold Star Family: “Having those resources is vital. Having those support networks, and legislators who will fight to continue those resources and those services for families is such a necessity. My daughters are now in college, but their needs are just as great as in 2006.”

Marvis Herring, WJCL Savannah: “This week Senator Warnock also led the resolution in the U.S. Senate for the nation to observe this week as Gold Star Families Week.”

Fox54 Augusta: New legislation looks to change how surviving military spouses receive benefits

• Tammy McCracken’s husband David served our country for years. She says she was with him every step of the way until he tragically lost his life 11 years ago. “We kind of moved all over the world, lived everywhere,” she said. “The pain of losing David was completely unbearable.”

• She says the months after losing David were hazy, but there was one statement from survivor outreach services that stuck out to her. “They said hey by the way, if you’re thinking about remarriage, you cant until at that time it was 57. Or you lose all of your benefits,” she recalled. 

• Under current laws a surviving spouse could lose all survivor benefits if they remarry and are under the age of 55. “For me its like my husband fought for our country for 30 years, it was him that served, but I was there too,” McCracken said. 

• These rules could change under the new Love Lives on Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Republican Kansas Senator Jerry Moran and Democratic Georgia Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock. The new legislation would allow surviving spouses to retain their survivor benefits upon remarriage, regardless of the age. 

• “Its not just service members that show up, their families do,” Sen. Warnock said.  “There’s nothing about their moving on that deletes the service that they’ve already provided.” Senator Warnock says introducing this legislation is important for him because of Georgia’s rich military background. “People who represent us and who serve us, and get the best for us. Ought to get the best from us,” he said. 

Watch WTVM Columbus’s Coverage HERE

Katrice Nolan: “Most people aren’t sure what a Gold Star family is, which concerns one woman I spoke with as well as our U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock. A Gold Star family is one who has lost a military member during combat. In years past, if a former military spouse remarries they would lose their benefits. Now legislation introduced by Senator Raphael Warnock is allowing those spouses to keep their benefits. Warnock says this is needed especially if that military member has children.” 

Reverend Warnock: “When holidays come up, and their loved one is not there at the Thanksgiving table, or at Christmas, or during other holidays. And we continue to pray for them, but here is something we can actually do to support them, and I am deeply honored to be pushing this legislation.”

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: Surviving military spouses may keep benefits once they remarry if Warnock’s bill passes

• Sen. Raphael Warnock is pushing bipartisan legislation that would allow spouses of dead military service members to keep certain Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense benefits if they remarry. 

• “Our service members give us their best, and their spouses and other family members sacrifice a great deal in order for them to serve,” Warnock told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview. ”When those service members die in the course of their duty, their family should feel secure, no matter what happens in the future.”

• Key portions would: Allow surviving spouses to retain the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) if they remarry, regardless of age. 

• The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a national nonprofit that offers support to those grieving the loss of a military service member, estimates that 450,000 survivors are receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. Of those, 75,000 are under the age of 55. In Georgia, 19,000 surviving spouses receive the compensation and roughly 1,000 are under the age of 55.

REVEREND WARNOCK FIGHTS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES 

Last week, Reverend Warnock continued to fight for business owners in Augusta. His most recent effort will create a new micro-enterprise center, which will house all business resources in the same place—providing a space where small business owners and new entrepreneurs can get technical assistance, design an innovative business plan, and receive mentoring and training. This latest effort is part of Reverend Warnock’s extensive record of supporting small businesses and protecting jobs for Georgians. 

Watch Fox54 Augusta’s Coverage HERE

Jared Eggleston, Fox54 Augusta: “This new center aims to have all the resources that a business needs under one roof. And now through new funding secured by Senator Warnock. This vision is one step closer to becoming a reality. Business in downtown Augusta is booming. […] Augusta Technical College and its President, Dr. Jermaine Whirl, have partnered with the DDA on this project.” 

Dr. Jermaine Whirl, Augusta Technical College President: “It’s something that has been needed for a number of years. […] This is a tremendous project.” 

Jared Eggleston, Fox54 Augusta: “This project will be funded in part by 2.3 million dollars in congressional spending secured by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.” 

Reverend Warnock: “This is about strengthening small businesses and growing jobs in the Augusta area. […] To encourage innovation, to give folks that want to start a small business, who are trying to get their business off the ground, to get the kind of technical assistance they need. Sometimes you have to create a context, or an ecosystem, for growth.” 

Fox54 News Now: Downtown Augusta to get new microenterprise center

• A big investment is coming to downtown Augusta. It is called a microenterprise center and those behind it hope it will help small businesses throughout the city.
  
• The center will be funded by a $2.3 million investment and will soon join businesses on Broad Street.
  
• […] “We want it to be accessible. Where companies can get access to things that they need. This is a tremendous project,” he said.
  
• This project will be funded in part by $2.3 million in congressional spending secured by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.
  
• “This is about strengthening small businesses and growing jobs in the Augusta area,” he said. “To encourage innovation, to give folks that want to start a small business, those who are trying to get their business off the ground the kind of technical assistance they need. Sometimes you have to create an ecosystem for growth.” 
  

Watch WRDW Augusta’s Coverage HERE

Will Rioux, WRDW Augusta: “Margaret Woodard with the Augusta Downtown Development Authority realized many businesses didn’t know all the resources available to them. This building will house all business resources under one roof while offering mentoring and training of small businesses with Augusta Tech. This is even a place people can pitch ideas to an investor or, if a business doesn’t have a physical storefront but wants to grow, this is where you can do that.” 

Margaret Woodard, Augusta Downtown Development Authority Executive Director: “Young people, it’ll bring entrepreneurs, it’ll bring vitality, and foot traffic, it’ll become a little epicenter.”

Will Rioux, WRDW Augusta: “Last year Augusta gained 50 new businesses. We’re on track for 30 this year.” 

Reverend Warnock: “Small businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, and this gives us a chance to help those small businesses to thrive, to get the technical assistance they need, and to create a context for innovation to create more jobs in the region.”

Will Rioux, WRDW Augusta: “The goal is to not only bring in new business, but help keep it alive.” 

Reverend Warnock: “This building here in Augusta will literally provide a tent for small business to thrive in that area and that’s a win-win for everybody.” 

REVEREND WARNOCK FIGHTS FOR GEORGIA MANUFACTURING JOBS 

This week, Reverend Warnock urged the Administration to allow maximum flexibility in implementing the Inflation Reduction Act law to ensure Georgia car buyers and manufacturers can take full advantage of expanded tax credits for electric vehicles. Reverend Warnock fought hard on behalf of automakers based in Georgia, to urge Yellen “to offer maximum flexibility… of the electric vehicle tax credits.” 

AP: US Sen. Warnock: Electric car tax credit needs ‘flexibility’

• Warnock sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raising concerns that the revised tax credit President Joe Biden signed last month as part of a sweeping climate and health law could place some automakers at a competitive disadvantage. 

• “I urge you to offer maximum flexibility for vehicle manufacturers and consumers to take full advantage of the electric vehicle tax credits available under the law,” Warnock’s letter said.

• In an interview, Warnock said he hopes to see Treasury officials interpret Congress’ revisions in a way that “we don’t end up punishing the very companies, like Hyundai, that are helping us bring this clean energy future.”

• Warnock insisted the climate and health bill that Democrats pushed through Congress was a big win for Americans, and it “signals that we’re serious about the role electric vehicles will play in the future.”

• “As we see this expansion in South Georgia, the prospects of building electric vehicles made by Georgia workers, we need to do everything we can at the federal level to strengthen that work and not to hamper it,” Warnock said.

REVEREND WARNOCK FIGHTS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING

This week, Reverend Warnock supported the Atlanta City Council’s approved plan to seek federal funding on a project that would bring more green space to Downtown. The project—called “the Stitch”—would be a three-quarter mile platform placed over the Downtown Connector that officials say would be focused on building affordable housing and attracting residents Downtown. 

Fox5 Atlanta: City Council seeks federal funding for Downtown Atlanta’s ‘The Stitch’ project

• The Atlanta City Council has approved a plan to seek federal funding on a big project that would bring a lot more green space to Downtown.

• The project, known as the Stitch, would be a three-quarter mile platform that would be placed over the Downtown Connector and be placed between Ted Turner Drive and Piedmont Avenue.

• Designers say the platform would create the space for a 14-acre park in Atlanta as well as engender 14 million square feet of new development, which officials say would be focused on affordable housing and attracting residents Downtown.

• “I am grateful to my peers on Council for their vision, as well as the state administrators and federal officials who are part of this effort,” said Councilman Amir Farokhi, who introduced the bill. “Hopefully, this mass show of support will push this catalytic project to the top of the national application list. This is a generational opportunity to repair wounds of the past, add housing and park space to our center city, and prove that our ambitions can become reality.”

• The proposal also received letters of support from Rep. Nikema Williams, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and the Georgia Department of Transportation.

• “It [the Stitch] will reconnect divided communities, [and] promote equitable-development and environmental justice through affordable housing and transportation,” said Warnock. “[It will] catalyze economic development, facilitate people-focused mobility and community connectivity, enhance environmental resilience, and improve the health and wellbeing of Atlantans.”

HERSCHEL WALKER DOUBLES DOWN ON SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL ABORTION BAN 

This week, during an interview with Newsmax, Herschel Walker doubled down on his support for a national abortion ban, saying “if I had a vote right now, it would be yes.” The statement follows Walker’s confirmation last week following introduction of a national abortion ban in the Senate when he said, “I WOULD support this policy.” Herschel Walker has also made it clear that he believes the U.S. should outlaw abortion with no exceptions, even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.

Watch Herschel Walker’s Full Interview on Newsmax HERE

NEW REPORT REVEALS NO EVIDENCE HERSCHEL WALKER FOLLOWED THROUGH ON HIS CHARITY PLEDGE

A new report found that after Herschel Walker “pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities,” there’s no evidence Herschel Walker and his company made the donations promised. This latest revelation adds to the long list of Walker’s false claims about his business record, his academic record, his involvement in law enforcement, and his involvement in for-profit programs that targeted veterans and service members. 

“Herschel Walker couldn’t tell the truth if his life depended on it and every day he gives Georgians a new reason they can’t depend on him either,” said Warnock for Georgia campaign manager Quentin Fulks. “Georgians have a clear choice between Walker’s never ending lies and Reverend Warnock’s record of working for all Georgians.” 

New York Times: Herschel Walker’s Company Said It Donated Profits, But Evidence Is Scant

• Back when he was a businessman running a food-distribution company, Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, said his company offered its customers more than just burgers and hot wings.

• “You are not just serving delicious, appealing food … you’re teaming up with Herschel, in an effort to level life’s playing field for those in need,” his company website once read.
  
• Mr. Walker, a former football star, pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities, a promise the company said was “part of its corporate charter.” For years, Mr. Walker’s company named four specific charities as beneficiaries of those donations, including the Boy Scouts of America and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
  
• But there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises. When The New York Times contacted those four charities, one declined to comment and the other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade.
  
• “Herschel has been supportive verbally. I don’t think he’s given us any money,” said Jim Baugh, the founder of a now-defunct charity called the PE4Life Foundation. As late as 2017, one of Mr. Walker’s companies cited that foundation as a recipient of corporate donations, but Mr. Baugh said his foundation ceased operations in 2014.
  
• Mr. Walker’s Senate campaign declined to say when, how or even if Mr. Walker’s company had made the donations it promised. A campaign spokesman, Will Kiley, said in a short written statement, “Herschel Walker has given millions of dollars to charities,” but he declined to provide details.
  
• Mr. Walker, who is facing Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in his first bid for public office, has been dogged by repeated instances in which he was found to have given misleading or outright false details about his life story.
  
• He falsely claimed to have graduated “in the top 1 percent” of his class at the University of Georgia, when in fact he had not graduated at all: He left the university after his junior year to play professional football. He also said he had “worked in law enforcement” when he had not.
  
• And Mr. Walker said in 2020 that his food-distribution company, Renaissance Man Food Services, employed about 800 people. Earlier that year, it had listed just eight employees when it applied for and received a $111,300 loan from a federal program to assist companies through the pandemic.
  
• “At this point, it’s clear that pretty much everything Herschel Walker says bears no resemblance to the truth,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a written statement.
  
• Mr. Walker, a Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Georgia in 1982, retired from football in 1997 and began a career in business. He now owns a holding company, H. Walker Enterprises, which owns Renaissance Man Food Services, according to court records and Mr. Walker’s Senate financial disclosures.
  
• Beginning around 2007, Mr. Walker and his companies began to describe a corporate policy of donating profits.
  
• “Fifteen percent of all my company profits go to charity,” Mr. Walker said in a magazine interview in 2009. “As a person who was blessed, I think it’s my responsibility to share the blessing with others.”
  
• In some instances, Mr. Walker or his companies did not use the 15 percent figure and instead just said “a percentage” went to charity.
  
• Mr. Walker’s companies are private, so there is no public accounting of their profits. But, in financial disclosures required for his Senate run, Mr. Walker indicated that they produced a healthy income: He reported $3 million in “partnership distributions” from H. Walker Enterprises and $214,000 in salary from Renaissance Man Food Services.
  
• The Times was unable to reach Mr. Walker’s company directly. The phone number listed on its website has been disconnected, and the company did not respond to messages sent through the site.
  
• It was unclear what Mr. Walker’s company meant when it said a practice of making donations was written into its corporate charter. Public records from Delaware — where both H. Walker Enterprises and Renaissance Man Food Services were created in 2002 — show no sign of such a pledge. Instead, both companies were created with a one-page “certificate of formation” that listed their name and address but said nothing about charitable giving.
  
• From 2007 to 2017, Mr. Walker’s companies identified the same four charities — the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Special Olympics, PE4Life programs, the Boy Scouts of America — and others who were unnamed as among the recipients of charitable donations, according to archived versions of their websites.
  
• In response to queries from The Times, the Special Olympics declined to say if Mr. Walker or his companies had ever donated, citing internal rules about donor privacy.
  
• A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America said there was no record of any donations from Mr. Walker or his companies to the Boy Scouts’ national chapters or the Boy Scouts of America Foundation.
  
• The Times also reached out to local Boy Scout chapters in two places with connections to Mr. Walker — a council in North Texas, where Mr. Walker lived for many years, and a council in Savannah, Ga., where H. Walker Enterprises is based.
  
• Both said they had not received any donations from Mr. Walker or his companies.
  
• At the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, officials said they had received gifts from Mr. Walker, but not in the last decade. The group’s records showed that Mr. Walker had donated $860 in 2005 and Renaissance Man Food Services gave another $1,000 in 2006.
  
• But the group could find only one donation since then that might have come from Mr. Walker’s company: a gift of $25 from “RMFS” in 2009.
  
• In addition to those promises, Mr. Walker made at least three other public promises to donate revenue.
  
• In 2014, he organized two talent shows in rural Georgia called “Herschel’s Raw Talent” — intended to bring “American Idol”-style glamour to rural Georgia communities like the one where he grew up. “A portion of the proceeds from each on-site competition will be donated to the local county,” Mr. Walker promised at the time. In some interviews, he said up to 80 percent would be donated.
  
• In the end, Mr. Walker staged “Herschel’s Raw Talent” events in just two counties. One of those, Stephens County, said it never received any donations from the talent show. The other, Laurens County, said its records did not go back that far.
  
• But Mr. Walker has filed financial disclosures that detail a financial flow in the opposite direction — from charities to him. Just since March, the disclosures show, three charities paid him a combined $115,000 to give speeches. One of the biggest paychecks came from a Pennsylvania retirement-home system, which paid Mr. Walker $35,000 to speak and presented him with an award honoring those who exhibit “benevolence, patriotism and service to others.”

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