WASHINGTON—The country faces “an array of hard choices” in how to best uphold its promise to the veterans and military community, a recently released report suggested.

“Now that President Obama has been re-elected, his new administration will need to tackle crisis issues like military suicides, and longer-term challenges such as maintaining public support for veterans programs after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over. These choices will be made more difficult by significant downward pressure on spending, requiring the administration to make hard choices with profound implications for the men and women who serve us in uniform, and those who came before them, as well as for our national security,” the report stated.

The report, released by the Center for a New American Security, states that in order for the Administration to better serve troops and veterans it should prioritize three areas.

The first area includes military suicides, combat stress, veteran homelessness and veteran unemployment. The second area is reversing the VA claims backlog and improving access to DoD and VA benefits and services. Thirdly, the report states that the administration must do these things “in a different political and operational environment, with the wars receding from public consciousness.”

“Admiral Michael Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has spoken frequently and eloquently about the civilian “sea of goodwill” towards the veterans and military community. However, as the wars fade, the potential exists for this sea to become an ocean of apathy,” the report states.

In order to maintain attention on issues facing the veterans and military community, the report states that the president “must continue to exercise personal leadership on these issues, emphasizing the nation’s obligation to serve its veterans as well as they have served us. And the second Obama administration must build an enduring policy community and infrastructure to support the veterans and military community over the next four years and beyond.”

The report, Uphold the Promise: Supporting Veterans and Military Personnel in the Next Four Years, was authored by Philip Carter, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and the chief operating officer and General Counsel for Caerus Associates.