Abercrombie’s Refusal to Help Veteran’s Secure Home Loans Makes National News

News Release from Rep Bob McDermott

Honolulu, HI – Sept. 1, 2013 – A story invoking Governor Abercrombie’s war-protester past, has surfaced on Breitbart.com, a conservative online news service.  The story details the problems created by the Abercrombie administration regarding Hawaii’s veterans unable to obtain VA loans or refi’s on homes that use catchment systems.  This affects over 60,000 homes, mostly on the Big Island, and directly impacts about 4,500 Island veterans.

Representative Bob McDermott has been attempting to rectify this situation for months, working with the Administration and Veterans Administration.

Despite repeated pleas, letters, emails and phone calls by State Representative Bob McDermott (Ewa Beach),  Abercrombie has declined to give the Veterans any relief or even meet with the Marine Officer Veteran McDermott to discuss the issue.  McDermott said, “the Governors lack of action leads me to believe that he is either incompetent or does not care about our Veterans.”

With the return of Neil Abercrombie to power, the long-time campus anti-military activist, Hawaii’s veterans seem to be once again getting deliberately shoddy treatment.  While the governor may no longer be hanging returning vets in effigy, he is quite definitely hanging up their ability to get their VA loans.

State Representative Bob McDermott said, “The Abercrombie administration has refused to fix this situation after nearly two and a half years of inaction.  I personally delivered the Regional Director of the VA to the Governor’s office with a proposed solution, yet no movement.   All it takes is action by our Governor, yet he is AWOL on the issue.  Not a surprise as a book can change its cover, but not its contents.”

McDermott further stated, “Gov. Abercrombie’s Administration created this problem, now he REFUSES to fix it.  Just like during the Vietnam War, he is once again sticking it to the Veterans.  It is my hope that this reminder of the past will spur him to action to help the veterans, those who have sacrificed so much for us all, including him.  I have tried to work with him for 5 months, yet to no avail.  This deliberate lack of performance by the Governor, considering his past as a rabid war protester, is breathtakingly sad.   I urge the Governor to pick up the phone and get this fixed with the same fervor he used to pick up protest signs.”

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HAWAII GOVERNOR WON'T FIX HOME LOAN OBSTACLE FOR VETERANS

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, who once participated in a 1960s anti-Vietnam War rally where a U.S. soldier was hung in effigy, has dropped the ball on getting Veterans Administration mortgages in Hawaii.

This is happening because water coming from catchment water systems was deemed non-potable by a state bureaucrat in 2011, and veterans whose homes have such a system or who want to buy a home with such a system cannot get VA loans. Abercrombie has had the power to change this since 2011 but has refused to do so.

Hawaii representative Bob McDermott has sought a resolution for this issue, providing Abercrombie's Chief of Staff with a letter containing new language that could be substituted for the old and which would re-open VA loans to Hawaii's veterans—but Abercrombie has yet to make the change.

"Veterans are in a bad spot because a mid-level bureaucrat cherry-picked a statement on the potability of catchment water from a report on catchment water systems," McDermott told Breitbart News on Saturday. "Because of this, the Veterans Administration will not even conduct an appraisal if there's a water catchment system involved."

McDermott said the problems veterans face could be quickly remedied if Abercrombie would but change the language the bureaucrat used in the pronouncement against catchment water. However, Abercrombie refuses to do so.

According to the representative, "The Governor is not doing this out of malice. Rather, he is simply incompetent and can't get out of the way."

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins