Originally published in The Hill.
…”Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), who represents the district Canley calls home, said in an interview that several men who served with Canley in Vietnam brought his case to her office in 2014.
Her office secured testimonials and eyewitness descriptions of Canley’s actions, and presented those to the Department of Defense. The department determined in 2017 that Canley merited the award.
Brownley then crafted a bill to waive the statute of limitations in Canley’s case, and the legislation was signed into law earlier this year.
“I think we were quite pleased that we were — certainly in these sort of hyper-partisan times — we came together and really quickly passed a bill, and I think it was mainly Sgt. Major Canley and his heroism that really brought Congress together,” Brownley said.
The congresswoman, who hosted Canley at this year’s State of the Union and attended Wednesday’s ceremony, called it an “overdue but important recognition,” and praised the retired Marine for his humility.
“If you read through all of these testimonials, which I have done, the men in his company just respected him so very, very much,” Brownley said. “He led by example.””
Issues: 115th Congress, Veterans' Affairs