Sen. Cruz Measure Granting Purple Heart Eligibility to Fort Hood Victims Heads to President’s Desk

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today announced that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2015 includes legislation he sponsored to allow the victims of the 2009 terrorist attack at Fort Hood to receive the Purple Heart.
 
The legislation, supported by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, will expand eligibility for the Purple Heart to include members of the Armed Forces who have been killed or wounded in an attack inspired or motivated by a foreign terrorist organization.
 
“It’s long past time to call the Fort Hood attack what it was: radical Islamic terrorism,” said Sen. Cruz. “And, this recognition for Fort Hood terrorist victims is overdue. The victims and their families deserve our prayers and support, and this legislation rightly honors them for defending our nation in the face of a heinous act of terror.”
 
On Friday the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed written by Dorothy Rabinowitz recognizing the importance of this legislation. Rabinowitz wrote:

“There has finally been a significant upturn in the case of the 2009 Fort Hood terror attack in Texas that took the lives of 13 Americans—a saga drenched, since its inception, in official lies and evasions. Not to mention the Defense Department’s studious indifference to the fate of the more than two-dozen survivors, many suffering serious wounds, but who discovered themselves ineligible for the Purple Heart and medical benefits given to military personnel injured in combat. Thanks to strong bipartisan support, the House agreed last week to an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2015 that would provide such benefits for Fort Hood’s and other military victims of terror attacks on American soil.”

This legislation was sponsored in the House by Reps. John Carter, R-Texas, and Roger Williams, R-Texas. The NDAA passed the House on December 4.

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