Benefits
Eric K. Shinseki’s VA budget proposal aimed to transform the VA into a 21st century organization
Feb 5th
(Media-Newswire.com) – WASHINGTON – White House Seeks $125 Billion for Veterans in 2011 to expand health care to a record-number of Veterans, reduce the number of homeless Veterans and process a dramatically increased number of new disability compensation claims, the White House has announced a proposed $125 billion budget next year for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Our budget proposal provides the resources necessary to continue our aggressive pursuit of President Obama’s two over-arching goals for Veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “First, the requested budget will help transform VA into a 21st century organization. And second, it will ensure that we approach Veterans’ care as a lifetime initiative, from the day they take their oaths until the day they are laid to rest.”
The $125 billion budget request, which has to be approved by Congress, includes $60.3 billion for discretionary spending ( mostly health care ) and $64.7 billion in mandatory funding ( mostly for disability compensation and pensions ).
“VA’s 2011 budget request covers many areas but focuses on three central issues that are of critical importance to our Veterans – easier access to benefits and services, faster disability claims decisions, and ending the downward spiral that results in Veterans’ homelessness,” Shinseki said.
Reducing Claims Backlog
The president’s budget proposal includes an increase of $460 million and more than 4,000 additional claims processors for Veterans benefits. This is a 27 percent funding increase over the 2010 level.
The 1,014,000 claims received in 2009 were a 75 percent increase over the 579,000 received in 2000. Shinseki said the Department expects a 30 percent increase in claims – to 1,319,000 – in 2011 from 2009 levels.
One reason for the increase is VA’s expansion of the number of Agent Orange-related illnesses that automatically qualify for disability benefits. Veterans exposed to the Agent Orange herbicides during the Vietnam War are likely to file additional claims that will have a substantial impact upon the processing system for benefits, the secretary said.
“We project significantly increased claims inventories in the near term while we make fundamental improvements to the way we process disability compensation claims,” Shinseki said.
Long-term reduction of the inventory will come from additional manpower, improved business practices, plus an infusion of $145 million in the proposed budget for development of a paperless claims processing system, which plays a significant role in the transformation of VA.
Automating the GI Bill
The budget proposal includes $44 million to complete by December 2010 an automated system for processing applications for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA also plans to start development next year of electronic systems to process claims from other VA-administered educational programs.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill authorizes the most extensive educational assistance opportunity since the passage of the original GI Bill in 1944. Over $1.7 billion in regular Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments have been issued since the implementation of the program on Aug. 1, 2009. In 2011, VA expects the number of all education claims to grow by 32 percent over 2009, going from 1.7 million to 2.25 million.
“To meet this increasing workload and process education claims in a timely manner, VA has established a comprehensive strategy to develop industry-standard technologies to modernize the delivery of these important educational benefits,” Shinseki said.
Eliminating Homelessness
The budget proposal includes $4.2 billion in 2011 to reduce and help prevent homelessness among Veterans. That breaks down into $3.4 billion for core medical services and $799 million for specific homeless programs and expanded medical care, which includes $294 million for expanded homeless initiatives. This increased investment for expanded homeless services is consistent with the VA secretary’s established goal of ultimately eliminating homelessness among Veterans.
On a typical night, about 131,000 Veterans are homeless. They represent every war and generation, from the “Greatest Generation” to the latest generation of Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. To date, VA operates the largest system of homeless treatment and assistance programs in the nation.
Targeting Mental Health, Preventing Suicides
“The 2011 budget proposal continues the department’s keen focus on improving the quality, access and value of mental health care provided to Veterans,” Shinseki said.
The spending request seeks $5.2 billion for mental health, an increase of $410 million ( or 8.5 percent ) over current spending, enabling expansion of inpatient, residential and outpatient mental health services, with emphasis on making mental health services part of primary care and specialty care.
The secretary noted that one-fifth of the patients seen last year in VA’s health care facilities had a mental health diagnosis, and that the department has added more than 6,000 new mental health professionals since 2005, bringing to 19,000 the number of employees dedicated to mental health care.
The budget request will enable the department to continue expanding its programs for post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) and traumatic brain injury ( TBI ), along with the diagnosis and treatment of depression, substance abuse and other mental health problems. Shinseki called PSTD treatment “central to VA’s mission.”
The proposed spending will continue VA’s suicide prevention program. Since July 2007, the department’s suicide prevention hotline has received nearly 225,000 calls from Veterans, active-duty personnel and family members. The hotline is credited with saving the lives of nearly 7,000 people.
Reaching Rural Veterans
For 2011, VA is seeking $250 million to strengthen access to health care for 3.2 million Veterans enrolled in VA’s medical system who live in rural areas. Rural outreach includes expanded use of home-based primary care and mental health.
A key portion of rural outreach – which shows promise for use with Veterans across the country – is VA’s innovative “telehealth” program. It links patients and health care providers by telephones and includes telephone-based data transmission, enabling daily monitoring of patients with chronic problems.
The budget provides an increase of $42 million for VA’s home telehealth program. The effort already cares for 35,000 patients and is the largest program of its kind in the world.
Serving Women Veterans
The 2011 budget provides $217.6 million to meet the gender-specific health care needs of women Veterans, an increase of $18.6 million ( or 9.4 percent ) over the 2010 level. Enhanced primary care for women Veterans remains one of the Department’s top priorities. The number of women Veterans is growing rapidly and women are increasingly using VA for their health care.
Shinseki said the expansion of health care programs for women Veterans will lead to higher quality care, increased coordination of care, enhanced privacy and dignity, and a greater sense of security among women patients.
Among the initiatives for women in the 2011 budget proposal are expanded health care services in Vet Centers, increased training for health care providers to advance their knowledge and understanding of women’s health issues, and implementing a peer call center and social networking site for women combat Veterans. This call center will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Delivering World-Class Health Care
During 2011, VA expects to treat 6.1 million patients, who will account for more than 800,000 hospitalizations and 83 million outpatient visits.
The total includes 439,000 Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, for whom $2.6 billion is included in the budget proposal. That’s an increase of $597 million – or 30 percent – from the current budget.
The proposed budget for health care includes:
- $6.8 billion for long-term care, an increase of $859 million ( or 14 percent ) over 2010. This amount includes $1.5 billion for non-institutional long-term care;
- Expanding access to VA health care system for more than 99,000 Veterans who were previously denied care because of their incomes;
- $590 million for medical and prosthetic research; and
- Continuing development of a “virtual lifetime electronic record,” a digital health record that will accompany Veterans throughout their lives.
VA is requesting $54.3 billion in advance appropriations for 2012 for health care, an increase of $2.8 billion over the 2011 enacted amount. Planned initiatives in 2012 include better leveraging acquisitions and contracting, enhancing the use of referral agreements, strengthening VA’s relationship with the Defense Department, and expanding the use of medical technology.
Preserving National Shrines
“VA remains steadfastly committed to providing access to a dignified and respectful burial for Veterans choosing to be buried in a VA national cemetery,” Shinseki said. “This promise requires that we maintain national cemeteries as shrines dedicated to the memory of those who served this nation in uniform.”
The requested $251 million for cemetery operations and maintenance will support more than 114,000 interments in 2011, a 3.8 percent increase over 2010. In 2011, the department will maintain 8,441 acres with 3.1 million gravesites. The budget request includes $37 million to clean and realign an estimated 668,000 headstones and repair 100,000 sunken graves.
Building for the Future
$1.15 billion requested for major construction for 2011 includes funding for medical facilities in New Orleans; Denver; Palo Alto, Calif.; Alameda, Calif.; and Omaha, Neb. Also budgeted for 2011 are major expansions and improvements to the national cemeteries in Indiantown Gap, Pa.; Los Angeles; and Tahoma, Wash., and new burial access policies that will provide a burial option to an additional 500,000 Veterans and enhance service in urban areas.
A requested budget of $468 million for minor construction in 2011 would fund a wide variety of improvements at VA facilities.
Popularity: 45% [?]
Taking the Bullet: Student Veterans’ BAH Payments
Jan 15th
By: Joshua Lawton-Belous
As student veterans head back to college many are feeling a financial pinch. The promises made by the Veterans Administration and many politicians have not come to pass. The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill BAH payments are still a mess, leaving many student veterans scrambling to find jobs, in a recession, in order to get by. How close is the Veterans Administration to fixing this mess? They processed today 7,344 applications. But how many more applications are left to process? The Veterans Administration has not released those numbers, nor do they provide them on their website.
Yet the problem with the current V.A. system is that the number of applications processed has not risen significantly enough to relieve the deluge of applications which have come in the Spring semester. While the verification process should be shorter for those who have already been processed for the Fall semester, the same two step process for both paying BAH payments and tuition is the same. Failing the introduction of a fail safe automated verification system, or the massive hiring and training of verifying officials, it is not foreseeable that student veterans will be able to rely on receiving their BAH checks.
Unfortunately many student veterans may be left in an academic purgatory by the lack of action on the part of the Veterans Administration. Schools with some of the largest student veteran populations in Virginia have not yet received tuition payments. Fortunately for student veterans attending George Mason University a policy has been set in place, allowing student veterans to register and graduate even if payment has not been made by the V.A. for their tuition. Yet only several miles away from George Mason University, student veterans at Northern Virginia Community College, are being prevented from registering due to absent V.A. tuition payments. This prevention by Northern Virginia Community College does not only prevent student veterans from enrolling in the Spring semester, but also from receiving BAH payments from the V.A. for the Spring semester.
While the focus of the V.A. and student veterans has been on BAH payments, the V.A. also needs to consider how much debt a college can take on before it becomes financially infeasible for the college to accept the current tuition payment situation. Like most institutions, colleges are facing budget cuts. These budget cuts are made worse by debt accrued on behalf of taking care of student veterans. The inability of the V.A. to pay tuition in a timely manner, may result in those universities which have generous tuition matchups under the Yellow Ribbon Program to either decrease the matchup amount or pull out of the Yellow Ribbon Program altogether.
If both the BAH and the tuition payment debacle can not be fixed at the same time, the Veterans Administration needs to concentrate on fixing one problem at a time. As cruel as it may sound to student veterans, the Veterans Administration needs to concentrate on fixing their tuition payment system. While this will take money out of the pockets of student veterans initially, the majority of student veterans would pay more in tuition payments than they would receive in BAH payments.
What should happen is not necessarily will happen. Unfortunately in either scenario student veterans are taking the bullet. But by fixing first the tuition payments and then the BAH payments, rather than trying to fix both at the same time, student veterans’ dreams of going to college will have a fighting chance.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Coburn named as senator holding up vets bill
Nov 4th
By Rick Maze – Military Times
Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator — Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill.
Coburn has been identified by Senate aides as the lawmaker preventing consideration of S 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009, by using an informal but legal practice of putting a hold on a bill.
Coburn’s staff did not respond to questions, but Senate aides said the first-term senator has expressed concern about creating new and unfunded benefits and wants the opportunity to amend the measure.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Surf camp for disabled veterans
Aug 4th
Although he just received detailed instructions on how to surf, Robbie Hall had trouble remembering the specifics as he waited for the waves.
Hall’s forgetfulness had nothing to do with the excitement of surfing or a shot of adrenaline from paddling into chest-high waves at Croatan. The Army veteran survived injuries that at times can make learning new tasks difficult.
During a parachute jumping exercise with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, a static line got caught around Hall’s neck leaving him temporarily paralyzed and connected to a breathing machine. The brain trauma left him with short term memory loss.
But thanks to the Wounded Warrior Project and surf clothing company Billabong, Hall was treated to a day he said he’ll never forget.
The organizations came together on July 24 to host a one-day surf camp for disabled veterans from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Fort Bragg, N.C., and Naval Medical Center Portsmouth at the south end of Croatan. “It’s pretty awesome when you catch the first wave,” said Hall of Chattanooga, Tenn. “This is the first opportunity I’ve ever had to surf, so it’s pretty exhilarating.”
The Wounded Warrior Project, which runs its sports programming through the Maryland-based Disabled Sports USA, provided surfing as a form of therapeutic recreation. The nearly dozen participants were either brain trauma victims or amputees.
Camp director Jason Borte said he learned of the Wounded Warrior Project and the partnership with Billabong to provide camps in California last year, and decided he wanted to host similar clinics on the East Coast.
The first event was held in Camp Lejune, N.C. last summer before moving this year to a more central location in Virginia Beach.
“I run surf schools all summer, and you kind of get jaded teaching hundreds of people to surf. But to do that just made my summer because those guys appreciate it so much,” said Borte, an Oceanfront resident. “Compared to what these guys do, I have a pretty charmed life. So to give back to them just in this small way is special.”
Borte, along with several local Billabong employees and volunteers from the surfing community, helped teach the veterans on the beach before paddling out in the powerful surf.
Normally, smaller waves are preferred for instructing novices. It didn’t seem to matter to the veterans. The crowd gathered along the beach cheered each time a veteran caught a wave. Hall said the experience was indescribable.
“I appreciate all these guys hooking us up with the boards, T-shirts and everything, letting us come out here and surf for a couple of hours,” Hall said. “I think it’s pretty amazing of Billabong to do that for us.”
John Streit, 639-4805
vb.beaconsports@yahoo.com
Popularity: 24% [?]
Army Using Extreme Sports to Help War Veterans
Jul 28th
Army Using Extreme Sports to Help War Veterans 
FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — Sgt. Sylvia Portillo went first.
Secured with elastic cords to a railroad bridge more than 200 feet over a gorge south of Mount St. Helens, Portillo’s mission was to dive over the edge. She pretended to throw up, getting a nervous laugh out of the troops behind her. Then, keeping her own anxiety in check, she bungee-jumped into the lush green below.
Dozens of soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment and the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team took the plunge that day last fall. Most had been recently deployed in Iraq. Few had bungee-jumped before.
As he stood at the edge, Sgt. Steve Damron felt a mix of trepidation and adrenaline that he likened to patrols through Baghdad. ”It’s a chance to calm our brothers down,” he said, ”to push that adrenaline out.”
That’s the idea.
More than 323,000 Army soldiers have served more than one deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Defense Department statistics entering June, and the Army had the highest rate of suicides on record last year. Researchers reported this month that 37 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking care at Veterans Affairs clinics for the first time are being diagnosed with mental health disorders.
The situation has the military searching for ways to supplement and redefine its counseling and self-awareness evaluation programs, and now, for ways to bring the thrilling terror of war home through safe outlets.
The battle-weary 4th Stryker Brigade based at Fort Lewis, outside Tacoma, was picked for the third and final trial of a new Army program called Warrior Adventure Quest. It sends soldiers just back from war on outings of paintball, mountain biking, scuba diving, sky diving, whitewater rafting, alpine skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing.
Army officials say they’ve learned that soldiers who are used to life in a war zone suddenly find life at home to be moving at a glacial pace. The theory is that extreme experiences such as thrill sports can help troops overcome what one soldier in the 4th Stryker Brigade called ”the Rambo syndrome” — the emotional need for some of the tension and fear-tinged excitement of combat.
”If they want adrenaline, let’s give them adrenaline. Let’s give it to them in a manner in which they are going to survive,” said John O’Sullivan, the Army’s program manager for outdoor recreation and the Warrior Adventure Quest.
Damron said bungee jumping worked on an emotional level.
”It’s like your first time going in a house” in Iraq, he said. ”You have no clue what’s on the other side. You hit one room, awesome sweep. Now, OK, you’ve got to hit another room. You’re walking in the middle of the night. You have no clue what’s out there — like bungee jumping.”
Warrior Adventure Quest is really a post-deployment extension of an emotion-based battlefield assessment the military has developed for small-unit leaders. It goes beyond the traditional review of tactics to include immediate assessments of soldiers’ reactions and the acknowledgment of the need for ‘’self and buddy aid.”
The team that began developing Warrior Adventure Quest recommended debriefings after each activity. The sessions are aimed at helping soldiers realize the connection between the extreme sport experience and challenges of reconnecting to their daily lives back home.
”It’s a final reset” before returning to society, said Lt. Col. Ed Busher, the deputy director of the behavioral health department in the Army’s Office of the Surgeon General, who traveled to Fort Lewis for the program’s final test.
”It’s been unanimously well received,” he said. ”Every iteration, there’s been this experience of, ‘Oh, this reminded me of Iraq.”’
The Army began implementing Warrior Adventure Quest into platoon-sized units of 30 to 40 soldiers in January, at Grafenwoehr and Ansbach in Germany, and then at Fort Drum, N.Y., Fort Stewart, Ga., Fort Campbell, Ky., Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Fort Bragg, N.C.
By this fall, the Army will have started Warrior Adventure Quest at 26 posts worldwide.
Dr. Dan Blazer is intrigued by the program but cautions not to put too much faith in its effects for the long term. A professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center who works with World War II veterans still struggling with their experiences, Blazer said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that ”the premise is both interesting and in some ways sound (just as vigorous exercise can in theory relieve anxiety).”
However, Blazer — who served on a military mental health task force in 2007 — cautioned that, ”I do have one opinion about such approaches: The stress of war is unlike anything else that we can imagine or imitate. I suspect that as long as we have war, especially war such as in the two theaters currently, we are going to see PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.
The program is being funded through September by the Army’s Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. The cost is estimated to be a minimum of $7 million for every 80,000 soldiers who participate. The Army is still exploring how to pay for it beyond this fiscal year. It is also collecting data from these early months of the program to see if it works.
The half-dozen Fort Lewis soldiers who joined Damron to discuss how bungee jumping related to their missions in Iraq think it does.
For them, the aggression of war remains fresh. Sounds of the urban night they used to sleep through — sirens, squealing tires — keep them on full alert. Garbage-strewn alleys in Tacoma and Seattle bring flashbacks to Baghdad.
Most at the bungee-jumping site had been home for less than four months. Some had done multiple tours in Iraq, completing nightly missions in Black Hawk helicopters and sleeping through days back as bases such as Camp Speicher, near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. Others’ missions were more sporadic, causing as little as two hours of uninterrupted sleep a night.
Now home, some go on runs at midnight because they can’t wind down to sleep.
”I just had to keep telling myself to slow down,” Damron said. ”I wanted to be active at all times of the day.”
Popularity: 23% [?]
Report Sees Agent Orange Link to More Illnesses
Jul 24th
By JANIE LORBER
New York Times
An expert panel reported on Friday that two more diseases may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War.
People exposed to the chemical appear, at least tentatively, to be more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, according to the report. The report was written by a 14-member committee charged by the Institute of Medicine with determining whether certain medical conditions were caused by exposure to herbicides used to clear stretches of jungle.
The results, though not conclusive, are an important first step for veterans groups working to get the government to help pay for treatment of illnesses they believe have roots on the battlefield. Some other conditions linked to Agent Orange already qualify.
Claud Tillman, a 61-year-old veteran from Knoxville, Tenn., who lost his job repairing guns after he received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, said those benefits could help dig him out of tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Mr. Tillman has not worked since March 2007 and now lives on loans from relatives, including his son. “It sure has messed my life up,” said Mr. Tillman, who said he was sure he became ill after exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. “I don’t know how to explain it. It won’t be long till I’m living under a bridge. I am confident that that’s where it came from, but there’s no way to prove it.”
Since 1994 the Institute of Medicine committee has found 17 conditions associated with exposure to the chemical, 13 of which qualify veterans for service-connected disability benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In its latest report, the committee found “limited or suggestive evidence” linking the herbicide to Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease. In the past, that has been enough evidence of a link to prompt benefits for some conditions but not for others.
The group Vietnam Veterans of America plans to write a letter to the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, asking for extended benefits, said Bernard Edelman, the organization’s deputy director for policy and government affairs.
The report notes that its conclusions about ischemic heart disease, a condition that restricts blood flow to the heart, causing irregular heartbeats and deterioration of the heart muscle, are still tentative because it is difficult to separate confounding risk factors like age, weight and the effects of smoking. The link between Parkinson’s disease and Agent Orange is also uncertain because, while new studies have strengthened the connection between the condition and certain chemicals, there is still no data on veterans and the condition.
Alan Oates, a member of a group called U.S. Military Veterans with Parkinson’s Disease, said it could be years before the department made a final rule on benefits. A bill providing benefits has been introduced by Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
In 1991, amid growing concern about serious health consequences from Agent Orange, Congress ordered the National Academy of Sciences to provide independent scientific reviews. Every two years the Institute of Medicine, a private research affiliate of the academy, submits to the department a report updated with conclusions from new studies.
Past reports published by the group have found substantial evidence that soldiers exposed to Agent Orange are more likely to develop cancers including soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease, as well as chloracne, a severe form of acne. The department has extended benefits for all of these conditions.
The 2003 report showed a slightly increased risk of leukemia, prompting the Veterans Affairs Department to extend benefits to veterans with the disease.
Popularity: 52% [?]
House panel passes new GI Bill changes
Jul 23rd
By Rick Maze – Staff writer
Military Times
A federal student aid bill was amended Tuesday by a House committee to increase Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for veterans in states that heavily subsidize tuition at public colleges, and to expand student loan forgiveness for National Guard and reserve members when they’re mobilized.
The GI Bill change, sponsored by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., comes less than two weeks before the new veterans education benefits program will launch, and is unlikely to become law in time to influence benefits payments, which are set to begin as early as Aug. 3.
McKeon’s amendment, approved by the House Education and Labor Committee by voice vote, would help students attending institutions of higher learning in California, Massachusetts and other states where the tuition cap on benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill will be low because of how they are calculated.
Caps for each state are based on the highest tuition and highest fees charged at the in-state tuition rate for undergraduate education for a four-year public college or university. The cap is then used to determine the maximum payment for people attending private schools, or who are attending public schools but are either paying nonresident tuition or attending graduate school.
McKeon’s plan would create a special supplemental grant for veterans in states with low public-school tuition costs that would combine the cost of tuition and fees into a potentially larger single payment.
For example, if the cap for a state was $100 in tuition and $500 in fees, but a student attended a private college where tuition was $800 and fees were $100, current law would provide a payment of just $200 — the $100 in fees plus the maximum of $100 for tuition. In this case, McKeon’s amendment would allow a payment of $600, the combination of the tuition and fee caps for that state.
In California, McKeon’s plan would allow up to $13,000 a year in tuition and fees for someone attending private school, rather than the current $1,000 maximum.
There is a way around the cap for some students attending colleges and universities taking part in the Yellow Ribbon Program, under which the Veterans Affairs Department will match, dollar-for-dollar, any reduction in tuition made by a school for a qualified student using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
McKeon called the problem he is trying to correct a “technical issue” that “has been poorly interpreted against the intent of Congress.” That points the blame at VA for how rates are calculated. But VA officials have said the fault — if there is one — lies with lawmakers who wrote the law governing GI Bill payments.
The fate of the McKeon grant is tied to the fate of the bill to which it is attached, HR 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, a measure that changes private lending for college loans to nonveterans. Because it could lead to the loss of up to 35,000 jobs for private lenders, the measure is controversial and no sure thing.
Along with McKeon’s provision, the committee approved an amendment by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., that requires forgiveness on student loans in cases where a Guard or reserve member is called to active duty while attending college.
Davis said relief is needed because someone who mobilizes in the middle of a quarter or semester gets no credit for the course work they have done to that point and must retake the same courses when they return from military duties.
People called to service “have enough to think about without also worrying about whether they will have to pay additional student loans on the courses they have not completed,” said Davis, chairwoman of the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel.
Her amendment, also passed by voice vote, would direct the federal government to assume responsibility for any loans incurred by students who are activated.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Al Franken’s first order of Senate business: more service dogs for veterans
Jul 23rd
Not Specific to Virginia but who would have thought?
While many thought that Al Franken’s bid for Senate was something of a joke, the former 
Saturday Night Live comedian is starting his freshman term with a very sobering bill: a program designed to give service dogs to wounded veterans.
“As someone who’s spent time with our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on USO tours and met wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda, I feel a deep obligation to the men and women who have risked life and limb on our behalf,” Franken explained in an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Star-Tribune.
But after meeting Iraq war veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan, Franken was impressed with Tuesday, Montalvan’s golden retriever. According to Montalvan, a 36-year-old ex-intelligence officer who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, attending the event and meeting Franken would have been impossible for him without the help of Tuesday, who assists not only with his physical needs but with his emotional comfort as well. “Tuesday is just extraordinarily empathetic,” Montalvan told the Wall Street Journal. “In bad moments, he’ll lay his head on my leg, and it’ll be like he’s saying, ‘You’re OK. You’re not alone.’ ”
According to Franken, most veterans cannot afford service dogs; the cost to train each one and place it with the proper soldier is about $25,000. “Luis got Tuesday from one of the nonprofit agencies around the country that trains service dogs,” Franken wrote. “I visited one of them, Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota, and saw dogs opening doors and answering phones. I saw a German shepherd named Pepsi pick a nickel off a tile floor and give it to a young woman in a wheelchair.”
Franken’s plan is to start a pilot program that will “help train a statistically significant number of dogs to measure the benefits to veterans with physical and emotional wounds. The program would be monitored and refined over a three-year period to optimize its effectiveness.”
– Tony Pierce
Popularity: 21% [?]
Perriello Bill Expanding Health Benefits for Veterans’ Caregivers Builds Momentum
Jul 21st
Legislation Approved by Veterans’ Affairs Committee; Perriello Urges Passage at Press Conference with Wounded Warrior Project
Washington, DC—Congressman Tom Perriello’s Health Care for Family Caregivers Act of 2009 was included in legislation that passed the House Veterans Affairs Committee last week with bipartisan support and will now be considered by the entire U.S. House of Representatives. The bill extends medical care for family members who serve as caregivers to severely disabled veterans.
Today, Rep. Perriello joined Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and the Wounded Warrior Project in urging passage of the legislation to support veterans’ caregivers. Watch video of Rep. Perriello at the press conference here:“While family caregivers provide their care out of love, compassion, and devotion, it often shifts into a full-time commitment sometimes requiring the caregiver to leave their job, and thus, their health coverage,” said Perriello. “As a nation, we have an obligation to care for those who have stood in the defense of freedom. We also have an equal obligation to their families who fully share in this awesome sacrifice.”
Perriello’s legislation was included in H.R. 3155, the Caregiver Assistance and Resource Enhancement Act. As a result of the bill, a family caregiver will not be subject to deductibles, premiums, copayments, cost-sharing, or other fees for their own personal medical care. It expands the definition of those eligible for benefits beyond spouses and children to include any nuclear, extended, or step-family members.
Popularity: 18% [?]
House Panel Approves Omnibus Veterans Benefits Legislation
Jul 15th
July 15, 2009
House Panel Approves Omnibus Veterans Benefits Legislation
By Matthew M. Johnson, CQ Staff
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved four bills Wednesday, including an omnibus draft bill that aims to improve the insurance and medical benefits made available to vets.
The draft legislation, sponsored by Bob Filner, D-Calif., combines language from nine bills that were previously approved by two subcommittees: Health and Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
The omnibus draft bill was amended to include language from a measure (HR 2270) by Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the panel, that would make $1,000 monthly payments to members of 28 groups that fought on behalf of the United States during World War II, including the Flying Tigers and the Women Airforce Service Pilots. The language would cost $855 million over five years, Buyer said.
The amendment was adopted by voice vote.
Language was pulled from eight other measures, including:
• HR 2379, a bill by Buyer that would allow veterans younger than 60 to increase the amount of Veterans’ Group Life Insurance they carry by as much as $25,000 once every five years, until they reach the maximum coverage amount of $400,000.
• HR 1197, a bill by Harry E. Mitchell, D-Ariz., that would give certain recipients of the Medal of Honor higher priority when seeking veterans hospital care and medical services.
• HR 1302, a bill by Phil Hare, D-Ill., that would establish a new director of physician assistant services position in the department, which would be responsible for the education and training, employment, appropriate utilization, and optimal participation of physician assistants.
• HR 1546, a bill by Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., that would establish the “Committee on Care of Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury,” which would be responsible for assessing and making recommendations about the Veterans Health Administration’s ability to treat and rehabilitate veterans with traumatic brain injury.
The measure was approved by voice vote.
The committee also approved by voice vote a measure (HR 3155), by Michael H. Michaud, D-Maine, that would authorize more training, support and medical care to professional and family caregivers who treat veterans.
Michaud offered a substitute amendment that added language to create a monthly stipend payment to cover lodging and subsistence expenses incurred by primary caregivers attending to veterans. The substitute amendment was adopted by voice vote.
The panel also approved by voice vote legislation (HR 2770), sponsored by Filner, that would update the law applicable to Veteran Affairs Department-affiliated nonprofit research and education corporations.
One key provision would authorize a single corporation to facilitate the conduct of department-approved research and education at more than one veterans medical center.
The committee adopted by voice vote an amendment by Michaud that changed the bill language to require that corporations with annual revenue between $100,000 and $500,000 to receive an audit at least once every three years. The bill previously required companies with as little as $10,000 in revenue to get the audits.
The committee also approved by voice vote legislation (HR 1293), by Buyer, that would increase the amount veterans receive for improvements and structural alterations furnished as part of home health services. Veterans with service-connected disabilities would be entitled to $6,800 and those with non-service connected disabilities would receive $2,000.
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July 15, 2009 – 2:23 p.m.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved four bills Wednesday, including an omnibus draft bill that aims to improve the insurance and medical benefits made available to vets.
The draft legislation, sponsored by Bob Filner, D-Calif., combines language from nine bills that were previously approved by two subcommittees: Health and Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
The omnibus draft bill was amended to include language from a measure (HR 2270) by Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the panel, that would make $1,000 monthly payments to members of 28 groups that fought on behalf of the United States during World War II, including the Flying Tigers and the Women Airforce Service Pilots. The language would cost $855 million over five years, Buyer said.
The amendment was adopted by voice vote.
Language was pulled from eight other measures, including:
• HR 2379, a bill by Buyer that would allow veterans younger than 60 to increase the amount of Veterans’ Group Life Insurance they carry by as much as $25,000 once every five years, until they reach the maximum coverage amount of $400,000.
• HR 1197, a bill by Harry E. Mitchell, D-Ariz., that would give certain recipients of the Medal of Honor higher priority when seeking veterans hospital care and medical services.
• HR 1302, a bill by Phil Hare, D-Ill., that would establish a new director of physician assistant services position in the department, which would be responsible for the education and training, employment, appropriate utilization, and optimal participation of physician assistants.
• HR 1546, a bill by Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., that would establish the “Committee on Care of Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury,” which would be responsible for assessing and making recommendations about the Veterans Health Administration’s ability to treat and rehabilitate veterans with traumatic brain injury.
The measure was approved by voice vote.
The committee also approved by voice vote a measure (HR 3155), by Michael H. Michaud, D-Maine, that would authorize more training, support and medical care to professional and family caregivers who treat veterans.
Michaud offered a substitute amendment that added language to create a monthly stipend payment to cover lodging and subsistence expenses incurred by primary caregivers attending to veterans. The substitute amendment was adopted by voice vote.
The panel also approved by voice vote legislation (HR 2770), sponsored by Filner, that would update the law applicable to Veteran Affairs Department-affiliated nonprofit research and education corporations.
One key provision would authorize a single corporation to facilitate the conduct of department-approved research and education at more than one veterans medical center.
The committee adopted by voice vote an amendment by Michaud that changed the bill language to require that corporations with annual revenue between $100,000 and $500,000 to receive an audit at least once every three years. The bill previously required companies with as little as $10,000 in revenue to get the audits.
The committee also approved by voice vote legislation (HR 1293), by Buyer, that would increase the amount veterans receive for improvements and structural alterations furnished as part of home health services. Veterans with service-connected disabilities would be entitled to $6,800 and those with non-service connected disabilities would receive $2,000.
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