News
Vets deserve a piece of jobs bill, VFW says
Feb 26th
By Rick Maze –Military Times–
The nation’s largest organization of combat veterans is demanding changes in the $15 billion jobs bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday because veterans were left out of a package of tax credits and highway projects aimed at increasing employment.
“Despite having more than 1.1 million unemployed veterans, the 60-page package failed to mention ‘veteran’ or ‘veterans’ even once,” said Justin Brown, a legislative associate with the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Brown was referring to HR 2847, the Hiring Incentive to Restore Employment Act, or HIRE Act, that passed the Senate on Wednesday by a 70-28 vote and is pending before the House.
Speaking before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s economic opportunity panel, which is considering legislation that would expand vocational training for veterans, Brown said the VFW “finds it unconscionable that American’s veterans, who have left their families, risked their lives and limbs and left civilian career pursuits behind to answer the nation’s call, do not have the attention of Congress for this important matter.”
The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans is almost 15.8 percent, higher than the average 10.6 percent overall unemployment rate, as well as the 11.8 percent rate for foreign-born U.S. citizens — a sore point among veterans groups such as the VFW.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Nye: $750 a Month is Too Much, Too Fast
Feb 22nd
Washington, DC – Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) is asking the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to
ease the burden on local veterans.
Last week, the VA announced that it will ask veterans who received $3,000 emergency payments under the Post 9/11 GI Bill to begin repaying the money – at a rate of up to $750 per month. The emergency payments were issued last year to veterans whose tuition benefits from the Post 9/11 GI Bill were delayed due to processing backlogs at the VA.
On Monday, Nye sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, asking the VA to reduce the repayment rate from $750 per month to a rate of no more than 20% of each veteran’s monthly living stipend. For veterans receiving the lowest living stipend, this would mean a repayment amount of $132 per month.
“Asking our veterans to repay $750 a month is too much, too fast, especially when many veterans are struggling to get back on their feet after their benefit payments were delayed last fall,” said Congressman Glenn Nye. “The idea of this program is to help our veterans get ahead, not to bury them in debt and paperwork. The VA should implement a realistic repayment plan that eases the burden on our veterans so they can focus on getting a college education.”
When the Post 9/11 GI Bill program went into effect last fall, many veterans found that their tuition and living benefits were delayed for weeks or months due to extended processing backlogs. After students were forced to take out personal loans or run up credit card debt in order to pay bills while waiting for their benefit checks, the VA issued one-time, emergency payments of $3,000 to help veterans make ends meet.
These emergency payments were an advance against future benefits – not an additional bonus – and they must eventually be recouped by the VA. In mid-February, the VA announced on its web site that it would begin deducting $750 from veterans’ monthly benefit payments.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Shinseki: US will fix broken VA disability system
Feb 22nd
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) – Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said he’s making it a top priority this year to tackle the backlog of disability claims that has veterans waiting months — even years — to get financial compensation for their injuries.
Among those waiting for relief are sick Vietnam and Gulf War veterans to whom the former Army commander feels an allegiance and who have long felt ignored.
“I’m a kid out of the Vietnam era, I just have enough firsthand knowledge of folks walking around with lots of issues. If there’s a generation of veterans that have had a tough row to hoe, it’s the Vietnam generation,” said Shinseki, 67, in an interview with The Associated Press as he traveled through snowcapped mountains in Ohio and West Virginia between meetings with veterans.
Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff who had part of a foot blown off when he was a young officer in Vietnam, was unapologetic about a decision he made in October to make it easier for potentially 200,000 sick Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to receive service-connected compensation.
He said it was the right thing to do, even though the claims volume will grow and it will likely take about two years to get the average claim-processing wait time back to where it is today, about five months.
There’s a chance Shinseki could also extend similar benefits to veterans from the 1991 Gulf War. A task force he appointed to look at their health is expected to release a report this week, which could eventually lead to thousands of additional sick Gulf war veterans receiving health care and compensation.
Shinseki said he’s often questioned why 40 years after the Vietnam war and nearly two decades after the Gulf War his agency is still trying to resolve issues related to those veterans’ illnesses.
Vietnam veterans with B-cell leukemias, Parkinson’s diseases and ischemic heart disease no longer have to prove their illness are the result of their military service. Shinseki determined after reviewing a study by the Institute of Medicine that the illnesses should be presumed to have come from the veteran’s war service, making it easier for them to receive financial compensation. The VA currently presumes that twelve other illnesses are linked to Agent Orange are exposure.
Shinseki said he’s looking ahead to make sure Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries don’t have similar problems getting financial compensation.
“I’m also asking the question, how do we ensure that 20 years from now, that future secretary isn’t answering questions about PTSD or TBI, sort of the signature injuries of this war in the same way that I’m having to look back and try to address these issues,” he said.
In recent years, resources have been poured into clearing the backlog, but problems persist. Besides the time it takes to process a claim, there are frequent complaints about lost paperwork and inconsistency in how claims are processed.
To start looking for solutions, Shinseki’s agency instigated pilot projects in Pittsburgh; Little Rock, Ark.; Providence, R.I.; and Baltimore that he says he’s watching closely. His plan is to reduce the backlog by 2015, which means a veteran wouldn’t wait more than four months for a claim to be processed.
The VA and Pentagon are also working together to create a universal electronic system with the goal of solving many of the claims challenges. Some of the collaboration is expected to be rolled out in 2012, although it could take years before the system is fully in place.
Shinseki, who became the Army’s chief of staff in 1999, is no stranger to change. In that role he sought to modernize and better prepare the Army for urban combat. In his current position, he’s highlighted the challenges veterans face, such as unemployment, suicide and homelessness.
In small gatherings in Chillicothe and Charleston, W.Va., he listened to complaints about the red tape veterans face and explained the work he’s doing to fix the claims backlog.
“We’re going to fine-tune each of the pieces and then put that engine back together again and look for better processing by the end of the year,” Shinseki said during a morning meeting with employees at the VA hospital in Chillicothe.
The employees listened quietly, not touching the pastries and juice put out for them, as he told them matter-of-factly that he knew the Agent Orange decision was going to add new claims.
“This backlog I just told you I’m going to knock down, I added to it, I know that,” he said.
Later in the morning, he told veteran advocates he wants vets to see the VA as an ally.
“In time, I’m hopeful this relationship will create a culture of advocacy between VA and veterans so that there is that sense, that trust between veterans that VA is working to their benefit,” he said.
Popularity: 23% [?]
In Marja, it’s war the old-fashioned way
Feb 20th
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran–Washington Post Foreign Service–
MARJA, AFGHANISTAN — They had slogged through knee-deep mud carrying 100 pounds of gear, fingers glued to the triggers of their M-4 carbines, all the while on the lookout for insurgents. Now, after five near-sleepless nights, trying to avoid hypothermia in freezing temperatures, the grunts of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment finally had a moment to relax.
As the sun set Thursday evening over the rubbled market where they set up camp, four of them sat around an overturned blue bucket and began playing cards. A few cracked open dog-eared paperbacks. Some heated their rations-in-a-bag, savoring their first warm dinner in days. Many doffed their helmets and armored vests.
Then — before the game was over, the chapters finished, the meals cooked — the war roared back at them.
The staccato crack of incoming rounds echoed across the market. In an instant, the Marines grabbed their vests and guns. The 50-caliber gunner on the roof thumped back return fire, as did several Marines with clattering, belt-fed machine guns. High-explosive mortar rounds, intended to suppress the insurgent fire, whooshed overhead.
And so went another night in the battle of Marja.
The fight to pacify this Taliban stronghold in Helmand province is grim and grueling. For all the talk of a modern war — of Predator drones and satellite-guided bombs and mine-resistant vehicles — most Marines in this operation have been fighting the old-fashioned way: on foot, with rifle.
They hump their kit on their backs, bed down under the stars in abandoned compounds and defecate in plastic bags.
“This isn’t all that different from the way our fathers and grandfathers fought,” said Cpl. Blake Burkhart, 22, of Oviedo, Fla.
The battlefield privation here is unlike much of the combat in Iraq, which often involved day trips from large, well-appointed forward operating bases. Even when Marines there had to rough it, during the first and second campaigns for Fallujah, they didn’t have to walk as far and they remained closer to logistics vehicles.
In Marja, U.S. military commanders figured, the best way to throw the insurgents off-balance and avoid the hundreds of homemade bombs buried in the roads was to airdrop almost 1,000 Marines and Afghan soldiers. That provided an element of surprise when the operation commenced, and it allowed the forces to punch into the heart of Marja. But it also meant they would have to tough it out.
Because they had to stuff their packs with food, water and ammunition, sleeping bags and tents were left behind. That seemed fine, because summer temperatures in southern Afghanistan often reach 140 degrees. But at this time of year, the mercury can dip — and it did during the first days of the mission, to freezing temperatures at night.
Huddled under thin plastic camouflage poncho liners, the Marines lucky enough to get a few hours of sleep in between shifts of guard duty huddled close together, sometimes spooning one another, to keep warm.
It didn’t always work. In those first days, more Marines were evacuated for hypothermia than for gunshot wounds. One grunt in the battalion’s Alpha Company proudly displays the frostbitten tip of his middle finger as his battlefield injury.
Popularity: 27% [?]
War in Iraq will be called ‘Operation New Dawn’ to reflect reduced U.S. role
Feb 19th
By Greg Jaffe–Washington Post–
The Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq a new name — “Operation New Dawn” — to reflect the reduced role U.S. troops will play in securing the country this year as troop levels fall, according to a memo from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Since U.S. forces charged across the Kuwaiti border toward Baghdad in 2003, the war has been known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. The new name is scheduled to take effect in September, when U.S. troop levels are supposed to drop to about 50,000.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Report on Marines’ water omitted cancer chemical
Feb 18th
By KEVIN MAURER–Associated Press–WILMINGTON, N.C. – An environmental contractor dramatically underreported the level of a cancer-causing chemical found in tap water at Camp Lejeune, then omitted it altogether as the Marine base prepared for a federal health review, an Associated Press review has found.
The Marine Corps had been warned nearly a decade earlier about the dangerously high levels of benzene, which was traced to massive leaks from fuel tanks at the base on the North Carolina coast, according to recently disclosed studies.
For years, Marines who served at Camp Lejeune have blamed their families’ cancers and other ailments on tap water tainted by dry cleaning solvents, and many accuse the military of covering it up. The benzene was discovered as part of a broader, ongoing probe into that contamination.
When water was sampled in July 1984, scientists found benzene in a well near the base’s Hadnot Point Fuel Farm at levels of 380 parts per billion, according to a water tests done by a contractor. A year later, in a report summarizing the 1984 sampling, the same contractor pointed out the benzene concentration “far exceeds” the safety limit set by federal regulators at 5 parts per billion.
The Marines were still studying the water contamination in 1991 when another contractor again warned the Navy of the health hazards posed by such levels of benzene.
By 1992, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, showed up at the base to begin a health risk assessment. That’s when a third contractor, the Michael Baker Corp., released a draft report on the feasibility of fixing the overall problem.
In it, the 1984 level on the well of 380 parts per billion had changed to 38 parts per billion. The company’s final report on the well, issued in 1994, made no mention of the benzene.
Not only hasn’t the benzene disappeared from the now-closed wells, it’s gotten much worse over time. One sample from a series of tests conducted from June 2007 to August 2009 registered 3,490 parts per billion, according to a report from a fourth contractor.
Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an enforcement officer for the Environmental Protection Agency before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney, reviewed the different reports and said it was difficult to conclude innocent mistakes were made in the Baker Corp. documents.
“It is weird that it went from 380 to 38 and then it disappeared entirely,” she said. “It does support the contention that they did do it deliberately.”
News of Baker Corp.’s handling of the benzene levels has ex-Lejeune residents questioning anew the honesty of a military they accuse of endangering their lives.
“It is a shame that an institution founded on honor and integrity would resort to open deceit in order to protect their reputation at the cost of the health, safety and welfare of its service men, women and their families,” said Mike Partain, a 42-year-old who lives in Tallahassee, Fla., but was born at Lejeune and diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
Capt. Brian Block, a Marine Corps spokesman, took exception to characterizing the conflicting information in the reports as anything but inadvertent.
“It was probably just a mistake on the part of the contractor, but I can’t tell you for certain why that happened,” he said.
David Higie, a spokesman for Baker Corp., declined to discuss the company’s reports or why its employees might have revised the benzene levels. He referred questions to the military.
Block said Camp Lejeune held a news conference to alert residents of problems with the water system in 1985 and has spent millions of dollars in outreach and studies. “The Marine Corps has never tried to hide any of this information,” he said.
The discrepancies in the reports were tucked inside thousands of documents the Marines released last year to the Agency for Toxic Substances as part of the Marines’ long-running review of water supplied to Camp Lejeune’s main family housing areas. That water was contaminated by fuel and cleaning solvents from the 1950s through the 1980s, and health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to the toxins before the wells that supplied the tainted water were closed two decades ago.
The newly discovered records, first reported Sunday by McClatchy News Service, show that a water well contaminated by leaking fuel was left functioning for at least five months after a sampling discovered it was tainted with benzene in 1984.
Benzene, a carcinogen, is a natural part of crude oil and gasoline. Drinking water containing high levels of it can cause vomiting, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, and death and long-term exposure damages bone marrow, lowers red blood cells and can cause anemia and leukemia, according to the EPA.
Camp Lejeune environmental engineer Robert Alexander was quoted in 1985 as saying no one “had been directly exposed” to contaminants, including benzene. In December, Alexander told the AP he didn’t recall anything about the well contaminated with the benzene or the ensuing studies that failed to account for its toxicity, but said that the methods at the time were still being perfected, and that he and the other base officials did the best they could.
The records indicate the military knew a lot of specifics.
For years the Marine Corps knew the fuel farm, built in 1941, was leaking 1,500 gallons a month and did nothing to stop it, according to a 1988 memo from a Camp Lejeune lawyer to the base’s assistant facilities manager. “It’s an indefensible waste of money and a continuing potential threat to human health and the environment,” wrote Staff Judge Advocate A.P. Tokarz.
Minutes of a 1996 meeting with Moon Township, Pa.-based Baker Corp., the third contractor, indicate the fuel farm had lost 800,000 gallons of fuel, of which 500,000 gallons had been recovered. Benzene was “in the deeper portion of the aquifer” and the “fuel farm is definitely the source,” the minutes quote a Michael Baker employee as saying.
The Coast Guard categorizes any coastal oil spill larger than 100,000 gallons as major.
Former Marines and Camp Lejeune residents continue to fight for a compensation program and to fund a mortality study that would determine if Marines and sailors who were exposed to these contaminants suffer from a higher death rate. The Senate passed legislation in September backed by Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., preventing the military from dismissing claims related to water contamination pending completion of the several studies, including the mortality study.
“These people knowingly exposed us to these high levels of contaminants and now they don’t want to know if their negligence caused harm to the people they say they care so much about?” said Jerry Ensminger, a retired master sergeant who lived at the base and lost his 9-year-old daughter to leukemia. “There is definitely something wrong with this picture.”
___
On the Net:
Camp Lejeune water history: http://tinyurl.com/ybpfsc9
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/SITES/LEJEUNE
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: http://www.tftptf.com
Popularity: 19% [?]
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: 21% [?]
Walcoff: Vets Should Be Prepared For Claims Processing To Take Longer In 2011
Feb 4th
Happy Wednesday to all. Hope everyone is well. Blessings and prayers for our Troops and for their loved
ones everywhere.
Godspeed………….Wayne
—————————————————
VA News for Wednesday, February 3, 2010
1. Walcoff: Vets Should Be Prepared For Claims Processing To Take Longer In 2011. The Army Times (2/3, Maze, 104K) reports, “The 2011 Veterans Affairs Department budget unveiled Monday by the White House includes what VA officials called an ‘unprecedented’ 27 percent funding increase for the Veterans Benefits Administration, some of which will be used to hire 4,000 permanent employees to process benefits claims.” However, in an “admission that comes as no surprise to few who have been watching VA struggle with a backlog of benefits claims, Michael Walcoff, VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits, said veterans should be prepared for the average claims processing time to be longer in fiscal 2011 than it is today.” But the Times did note that in a “statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said there are long-term plans to harness technology to speed claims, such as establishing a paperless processing system and changing procedures to reduce steps as part of promised transformation.”
2. Shinseki Part Of Winter Olympics Delegation. The AP (2/3) reports that Vice President Joe Biden, “along with his wife, Jill, and members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet,” including Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, “are heading to Vancouver next week” for the Winter Olympics, where they will “represent the United States at the opening and closing ceremonies, meetings” with US “athletes and other events.” The fourth item in “Digest” for the Washington Post (2/3) also covers this story.
3. White House Interested In Colorado Program For Transitioning Combat Vets. On its website, KOAA-TV Colorado Springs, CO (2/2) said the Obama Administration “is taking a closer look at a Southern Colorado pilot program for combat soldiers transitioning to home life. A group from Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group just returned” from the White House, “where they were invited to tell President Obama’s Director of Veterans Affairs and Wounded Warrior Policy about the local Wounded Warrior Peer Support Program.”
4. Shinseki’s Involvement In Effort To Update War Memorial At Duke Noted. The Chronicle (2/3, Koh), a daily student newspaper at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, profiles Duke graduate student Jeremy Block, “one of three finalists for graduate Young Trustee.” Block “said one of the most meaningful experiences he has had at Duke was his effort to update the war memorial next to the Chapel. The Chronicle notes that in October, US Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki, “Grad ‘76, came to rededicate the war memorial.”
5. VA, DOD Ask For $2.8 Billion In Health Technology Funding. In continuing coverage, NextGov (2/3) reports, “The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have asked for $2.8 billion for health information technology for fiscal 2011, nearly 4 percent of the federal government’s entire IT budget. The spending reflects the scale of the health care systems the two departments operate and the importance that Defense and VA,” which “asked for $1.3 billion in fiscal 2011,” place “on relying on health IT to manage the care for the 15.5 million soldiers and veterans it serves.” Meanwhile, in an information box accompanying a story on negative congressional reaction to President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal, USA Today (2/2, Wolf, 2.11M) reports, “Working with the Defense Department, the VA is planning to develop a lifetime electronic medical record for all troops and veterans.”
6. OPM Launching Veterans Employment Website. The second item in the “Sgt. Shaft” column for the Washington Times (2/3, Fales, 77K) says the US Office of Personnel Management “is launching FedsHireVets.gov, a critical component of President Obama’s veterans employment initiative.” The website “will become the main source for veterans employment information and resources for both veterans and hiring officials. This launch represents phase one of an ongoing effort to help the men and women who have served our country in the military and their families find employment in the federal civil service.”
7. VA To Ask For Repayment Of Emergency GI Bill Checks. In continuing coverage, the Army Times (2/3, Maze, 104K) reports, “The Veterans Affairs Department is seeking to recoup $3,000 emergency payments sent last year to about 80,000 people whose Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits were delayed — including some active-duty members who were not supposed to get the checks.” The Times adds, “People who got the payments, considered by VA to be advance pay of benefits, will be contacted about repayment options, officials said.”
8. Center VA Doctor Helped Create Spreads Awareness About Repetitive Head Injuries. The Boston Globe (2/2, Lazar, 325K) said the turnout of “200 parents, coaches, and students” at a forum in Wayland, Massachusetts, to hear Dr. Anna McKee speak “was a sign of the success of the nation’s first center to study chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Created by McKee,” who “has studied thousands of brains at the New England Veterans Administration brain bank she directs in Bedford,” and “three partners 17 months ago at Boston University Medical School, the center has quickly spread awareness about the dangers of repetitive head injuries, largely by targeting the National Football League.” But according to the Globe, McKee “and her colleagues think” CTE may be silently damaging the brains of athletes in other sports.
9. VA Rapidly Expanding Its Medical Foster-Home Program. The St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press (1/31, Olson) said pairings between veterans and host families “are forming across the country” as the Department of Veterans Affairs “rapidly expands its medical foster-home program for veterans who need daily assistance but can still do plenty for themselves. The VA hospital at Fort Snelling has one of 24 active foster-home programs” in the US, and another “48 VA hospitals are creating them.” And, while the “foster-home program started as a solution for aging veterans,” homes are “also being readied for younger veterans in need of long-term care.”
10. Iraq Vet Stresses Importance Of Clinic For Women At Lebanon VAMC. In continuing coverage, the Lebanon (PA) Daily News (2/3, Gillhoolley, 19K) reports, “As both a veteran of Iraq” and a Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center “employee, Cleona resident Danielle Klinger understands the need for the new $2.5 million Women Veterans’ Health Clinic and renovated primary-care facility at the South Lebanon Township medical center. ‘I think it’s important for female veterans to have that place to come to where they feel that it’s their special area dedicated to them,’” Klinger “said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.”
11. Through Nonprofit, Family Hopes To Assist Troubled Veterans. The State (2/3, Crumbo), a paper based in Columbia, South Carolina, reports, “In hopes they can prevent another veteran’s suicide” like the one that took their loved one, the family of deceased Iraq veteran Mills Bigham “recently founded Hidden Wounds, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Columbia.” Through “Hidden Wounds, the Bighams aim to provide temporary counseling and support to sufferers” of post-traumatic stress disorder, “depression and traumatic brain injury until they can enter the Veterans Affairs health care system. Temporary help is needed because the VA reports it has a six-month backlog in processing claims, the Bighams said.”
12. Virginia Reaching Out To Vets With Behavioral-Health Problems. In continuing coverage, the AP (2/2) reported, “The Virginia Wounded Warrior Program is using a tiny budget to reach a big problem — veterans with behavioral-health problems, ranging from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to traumatic brain injuries.” Veterans “don’t have to have endured combat experience to get help from the program, which is part of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services.” The AP noted, “More than 813,000 military veterans live in Virginia, including more than 38,000 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.”
13. Space Leased In Oregon For VBA. The Portland (OR) Business Journal (2/3, Culverwell) reports, “The federal government said Tuesday it will lease more than 70 percent of First & Main, a 16-story office tower under construction near the Hawthorne Bridge.” The General Services Administration (GSA) “confirmed Tuesday it signed four leases covering 250,000 square feet at First & Main, 100 S.W. Main St., from developer and owner Shorenstein Realty Services LP.” According to the Business Journal, the GSA “leased…85,785 square feet for the Veterans Benefits Administration for 10 years, with a five year renewal option.”
14. Suicides Down “Dramatically” At Spokane VAMC. The Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review (2/2, Graman) reported, “The number of suicides among veterans in the Spokane region dropped dramatically last year, according to newly released records” from the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Sharon Helman, the “former director of the Spokane VA, reported the drop” to US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), “who had requested information on veteran suicides and what was being done at Spokane VA to fill critical mental health care positions.” Helman “told Murray last month that Spokane VA had taken steps to fill vacancies.”
15. Mobile Vet Center To Visit Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press (2/3, South) notes that on Friday, a “mobile vet center — one of two in Tennessee — will be in Chattanooga. This is the first visit for one of the units to Chattanooga, said Michael Bearden, team leader at the Chattanooga Vet Center.” The mobile vet center “is stationed in Johnson City, Tenn.”
16. VA Using Technology To Give Veterans Active Role In Their Health Care. Military Medical Technology (2/3, Prawdzik) reports, “As an indication of how broadly the Department of Veterans Affairs seeks to share information,” the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System “recently had a homeless veteran on ‘national call’ so he could share with others how he uses My HealtheVet. The myhealth.va.gov Website is available to active-duty military personnel and veterans, their families and caregivers as a repository of health information and an electronic personal health record that allows veterans an active role in their health care.” Similar innovations in use or being considered by VA, including technology from TeleHealth Services, GetWellNetwork, and CliniComp, “also provide an abundance of information to patients and caregivers from a slightly different angle.”
17. Stimulus Funds Renovation Work At VA Hospital. On its website, WBFO-FM Buffalo, NY (2/3, Kryszak) said the fifth floor surgical ward and the ninth floor inpatient ward at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Buffalo “are getting a makeover thanks to $7 million of federal stimulus funds.” The “two wards will be completed by April. Work on two additional wards is planned to begin this summer.”
18. Atlanta VAMC Coordinating Arrival Of Patients From Haiti. The AP (2/3, Walker) reports, “Military officials say a group of injured patients from earthquake-ravaged Haiti will be flown into Dobbins Air Force Base on the way to Atlanta-area hospitals Tuesday night.” Jim Weslowski, a Dobbins spokesman, “says details are still sketchy on the last-minute fly in, which he says is being coordinated” by the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/3, 292K) also covers this story.
19. Canandaigua VAMC Honoring Hospitalized Vets. The Canandaigua (NY) Daily Messenger (2/2, Sherwood) reported, “The annual National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans marks a week of special events Feb. 8 through Feb. 14″ at the Canandaigua Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Daily Messenger noted that events scheduled for the week include a “Valentine distribution by local students” this Friday.
20. VA Hospital Hosting Arts Festival. On its website, KREX-TV Grand Junction, CO (2/2, Dzenitis) said the Veterans Affairs hospital in Grand Junction “is hosting its 13th annual Veterans Creative Arts Festival.” The “festival is part of a large nationwide event, and winners will go on to compete against other veterans across the country.” The KKTV-TV Grand Junction, CO (2/2) website also covered this story.
21. Volunteer Inspires Newspaper Project At VA Clinic. The lead item in “Around Town” for the Canton (OH) Repository (2/3, Sautters) says the “giving spirit” of Jean Boylan, a deceased Veterans Affairs volunteer, inspired her friend, Kay Duplin “to provide three daily complimentary copies of The Repository in her friend’s memory” at the Canton VA Clinic. The “idea was supported by Legion Cmdr. Gene Saeger”, and at a Veterans Day dinner “in November, she asked for financial support from the audience,” which, according to Duplin, gave “enough money…to begin a one year subscription of three daily copies delivered to the VA.”
22. Memorial A Birthday Wish For Last Living WWI Vet. In continuing coverage, the AP (2/3) reports Fran Buckles, “America’s last surviving World War I veteran,” marked his 109th birthday “Monday with family and close friends, noting that he has much to be thankful for.” Buckles “has a birthday wish that he’s waiting for Congress to do something about — he wants to see the dedication of a World War I memorial” in Washington, DC.
23. Improve Quality Of Life To Reduce Army Suicides. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).
24. Praise For Volunteers. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).
25. Troops Underappreciated. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).
26. College District Seeks Disabled Vet Business Groups. The KPBS-FM San Diego, CA (2/2, Joyce) website.
Popularity: 16% [?]
With Proposed Funding Increase, VA Officials Outline “Ambitious” Plan
Feb 3rd
Wayne’s Daily Veteran Update–
Greetings all. I would complain about the continuing snow here in the DC area but my friend Ric Davidge up in Alaska asked me last time I complained, “have you seen the Sun lately?” Given the climate and 24 hour darkness in his locale, I suppose I should not complain. 
Hope you and your loved ones are well. Let’s keep those prayers and blessings going out for our Troops and their loved ones everywhere.
Best……………….Wayne
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VA News for Tuesday, February 2, 2010
1. With Proposed Funding Increase, VA Officials Outline “Ambitious” Plan. Stars And Stripes <http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67712> (2/2, Shane) reports, “Veterans Affairs officials outlined an ambitious slate of homeless services, benefits backlog fixes and improved services for women veterans under the…funding increase proposed in the fiscal 2011 budget plan unveiled Monday.” In a “statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki called the budget proposal a promise that the agency will respond to the need of every veteran.”
CQ <http://www.cq.com/document/display.do;jsessionid=5E76420DDEE1DC620B854A39822A202C?matchId=94065895> (2/2, Mulero) says the Obama Administration is “proposing a large spending hike in fiscal 2011 for the Veterans Affairs Department that is in line with Congress’ desire to expand benefits for former and wounded troops. The requested $125 billion budget for fiscal 2011 would be a 20 percent increase over the current $109.6 billion budget. CQ notes that Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka “praised the overall request,” while House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner “signaled his support.”
According to the Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020102068.html?wprss=rss_nation> (2/2, O’Keefe, 684K), the VA “would receive $57 billion in additional spending” under President Obama’s proposed 2011 budget. That is a “20 percent jump from 2009 and one of the largest increases for any federal agency. The request includes $50.6 billion in advance appropriations for the VA’s medical care program through 2012 to provide continuous medical care not threatened by potential budget delays.”
At the end of a story focused on the “Pentagon’s proposed $708.3 billion spending package for the fiscal year 2011,” the New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/us/politics/02pentagon.html?scp=1&sq=%2b%22Veterans+Affairs%22&st=nyt> (2/2, A16, Drew, Shanker, 1.09M) reports, “With a record number of veterans projected to use its health care system,” the VA “has requested a $125 billion budget for 2011, a 10 percent increase. The department proposed creating more than 4,000 new permanent positions to help process a backlog of disability claims.”
Near the end of an “agency-by-agency glance” at President Obama’s proposed budget, the AP <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_budget_agency_highlights_6> (2/2) says the “budget proposal would invest nearly $800 million in services targeting veterans who are homeless, in part, through partnerships with private and government groups. It would” also “allocate funds for counseling and medical care for female veterans” and “invest $5.2 billion in specialized care for mental health conditions.” In addition, the “budget…would allow for an increase in enrollment of more than 500,000 moderate-income veterans in the VA system by 2013.”
The FOX News <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/01/federal-budget-factsheet-fiscal-year> (2/2) website, USA Today <http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2010-02-02-budgetglance02_ST_U.htm?csp=34> (2/2, 2.11M), and the Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020103491.html> (2/2, 684K) take a similar, agency-by-agency approach to covering the budget proposal. A separate Washington Post <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/02/2011_budget_cost-cutting_ideas_1.html> (2/2, O’Keefe, 684K) article notes that “Obama’s 2011 Budget includes 20 cost-savings ideas submitted by federal employees,” including three that would impact the VA.
In its coverage of Obama’s budget plan, the CNN <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/01/budget.congress/> (2/2, Keck) website reports, “Obama has also proposed a partial three-year freeze on non-discretionary spending” that would “would not apply to the budgets of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.” But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “suggested that national security spending shouldn’t be exempt from the freeze,” although she did stress, “We will continue to fully support our veterans.” Politico <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32293.html> (2/2, Rogers, 25K) also notes the proposed three-year spending freeze, pointing out, like CNN, that the VA would not be subject to it.
Meanwhile, the Oxford (OH) Press <http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/nation-world-news/f-35-alternate-engine-program-c-17-purchases-out-in-obama-budget-523815.html> (2/2, Nolan, Torry) says, “Obama’s new federal budget proposal increases the defense budget,” and cuts the VA portion. The Press adds, “The Defense Department’s budget is set at $768.2 billion, up by 2.2 percent increase from the current fiscal year, and the VA’s budget is at $121.7 billion, down by 2.6 percent from the current allocation, according to The Associated Press. Congress, however, has yet to have its say about the budget.”
In an early evening broadcast, KKCO-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1243648283%7C57%7C2%5E1243649180%7C0%7C45%5E’,350,320)> Colorado Springs, CO (2/1, 5:48 p.m. CT) showed Paul Sweeney with the Grand Junction VA Medical Center saying that the budget is going to “not just be a benefit to the veterans that live in the urban environment but our rural veterans as well.”
IT Budget Matches Record Amount. In his “What’s Brewin’” blog for NextGov <http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/02/vas_66_billion_man.php?oref=latest_posts> (2/2), Bob Brewin notes that Obama “has proposed a $3.3 billion information technology budget” for the VA “in fiscal 2011, the same as the record VA IT budget in fiscal 2010. This must make Roger Baker, the department’s chief information officer, the most sought after canasta partner in all of Washington. Not to be cranky, but when, I wonder, will Congress get around to passing the 2010 VA bill.”
2. At 109, Last Surviving American WWI Vet Continues To Advocate For Memorial. The CBS Evening News <javascript:mediaPopup(‘http://media.bulletinnews.com/playclip.aspx?clipid=8cc719b23dc8ff0&pub=va’)> (2/1, story 8, 0:20, Couric, 6.1M) broadcast that the “last surviving American veteran of World War I celebrated a milestone” Monday, turning 109: Frank Buckles “continues to be an outspoken advocate for a national memorial to the Great War.” This story was also covered in reports aired by CNN <javascript:mediaPopup(‘http://media.bulletinnews.com/playclip.aspx?clipid=8cc71abeed3848c&pub=va’)> (2/1, 4:42 p.m. ET) and WDAF-TV Kansas City, MO (2/1, 9:49 p.m. CT), as well as stories in appearing in the Martinsburg (WV) Journal <http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/531249.html?nav=5006> (2/2, Henry, 17K) and the Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail <http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=239022&format=html> (2/2, McMillion, 31K).
3. American College of Surgeons Adapting Risk Program Developed By VHA. In “The Informed Patient,” the Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703422904575039110166900210.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird> (2/2, Landro, 2.08M) notes that the American College of Surgeons is developing risk calculators, which have been used by heart surgeons for a number of years, for other types of surgery. According to the Journal, this effort was adapted from a Veterans Health Administration program that was shown to decrease deaths from surgery at Veterans Affairs hospitals by 27% and complications at those same facilities by 45%. The Journal goes on to say that a recent study of the American College of Surgeons’ program found that it also helped reduce complications at participating non-VA hospitals.
4. Dougherty: VA Allocating Record Amount For Homeless Veterans Programs. The Belleville (IL) News-Democrat <http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/1112727.html> (2/2, Fitzgerald, 51K) reports, “More than 130,000 military veterans are living on America’s streets at any given time — or roughly one third of the nation’s homeless population, according” to survey from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Peter Dougherty, director of the VA’s homeless veterans program, discussed the issue, noting that his agency “has allocated a record $3.2 billion for homeless veterans programs, with a goal of providing services for 30,000 veterans — a 50 percent increase over the 20,000 who are now being served.”
VA Grant Helps Fund Shelter For Homeless Veterans. The Belleville (IL) News-Democrat <http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/1112726.html> (2/2, Fitzgerald, 51K) reports the Joseph Center, a shelter for homeless veterans that “opened late last year with the help of $2 million in state and federal grants and loans. The largest grants came from” the US VA and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The News-Democrat adds, “In less than two months, the shelter has become home to 19 residents, who were referred to the program through VA hospitals in St. Louis and around Illinois.”
5. Hospice Receives Grant Funding For Veterans Programs. The Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press <http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/feb/01/hospice-receives-federal-grant-veterans-programs/?breakingnews> (2/2) reports, “For the second year in a row, Hospice of Chattanooga has received $30,000 in grant funding for veterans programs from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.” The money “is designed for programs that give homeless and rural veterans better access to health care. Hospice’s toll-free, Veterans Affairs Hotline is one Chattanooga project that will continue to be sustained as a result of the grant.”
6. Transferability Seen As Generating Interest In New GI Bill. In continuing coverage, the Augusta (GA) Chronicle <http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/2010-01-30/enrollment-surges-flexible-gi-bill> (1/30, Sparks) noted, “Unlike the previous Montgomery GI Bill,” the Post-9/11 GI Bill “allows veterans to transfer remaining college-education benefits to a spouse or child. The more generous allowance, some say, should swell the ranks of those attending college on GI bill assistance as the bill gains in popularity,” a “trend that has already been seen at Augusta State University.” The Chronicle quoted Jan Northstar, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, who said, “There is a whole lot of interest” in the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
7. Workout Helps Iraq Vet Regain Strength. The Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703837004575013350262520066.html.html> (2/2, Wagner, 2.08M) notes that veteran Hector Delgado, who was badly injured in Iraq, has been following a cross-training routine known as CrossFit, which military special forces often use. According to the Journal, the vigorous routine has helped Delgado — an outreach worker at the Queens Vet Center in New York — gain the strength to walk short distances unassisted.
8. VA Website Offers Detail On IT Projects. The “Tech Insider” blog for NextGov <http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2010/02/va_launches_it_project_policing_site.php?oref=latest_posts> (2/2, Sternstein) reports, “The Veterans Affairs Department has test-launched” a website “that details the performance of information technology projects summarized on the federal IT Dashboard site, which tracks the progress of IT investments governmentwide. The ‘Veterans Affairs IT Product Delivery Dashboard’ went live about a month ago but has not been publicized yet, said Roger Baker, the VA chief information officer, at a Monday briefing on the fiscal 2011 budget.” NextGov notes that the VA “plans to upgrade the site with more user-friendly navigation in the coming months.”
9. Some Housing Complex Residents Unhappy With Move From VA Hospital. The Salt Lake Tribune <http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14312176?source=rss> (2/2, LaPlante, 120K) notes that some residents who were moved from a transitional housing complex on the campus of the George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center to Freedom Landing, a complex run by the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, are dissatisfied with their new accommodations. VA spokeswoman Jill Atwood “said the VA’s homeless program manager is aware that some residents are not happy. Nonetheless, she stressed, ‘we’re just happy to have someplace for them that is off the streets.’”
10. Lebanon VA To Cut Ribbon On Women Health Clinics, Renovated Areas. The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News <http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/02/new_womens_health_clinic_open.html> (2/2, Miller) reports the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center “is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new women veterans’ health clinics and renovated primary care areas at 11 a.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of Building 17. The Lebanon VA saw an increase of 27 percent in its female veteran population last year, and this $2.9 million project is designed to meet their needs, said Robert Callahan Jr.,” the facility’s director. The Patriot-News adds, “Also renovated in the past year were primary care areas where all veterans received care.”
11. VA Clinic Scheduled To Open This Fall In Florida. According to the St. Augustine (FL) Record <http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-02-01/palatka-get-new-va-medical-facility> (2/1, 18K), a new Veterans Affairs “medical facility is scheduled to open this fall in Putnam County.” The Record noted that US Rep. Jon Mica (R-FL) made the announcement about the clinic, and Palatka Mayor Karl Flagg commented on it, calling it “very important and significant for all of us.”
12. Hospital “Still Reeling” From Loss Of VA Clinic. In continuing coverage, the News10Now-TV <http://news10now.com/cny-news-1013-content/top_stories/494936/watertown-va-clinic-opens–carthage-still-feeling-the-loss> Syracuse, NY (2/1, Dwyer) website reported,. “Instead of going to Carthage, the staple for years, veterans seeking medical care now have to go to the CANI building in Watertown,” where a Veterans Affairs clinic “opened Monday. Officials at Carthage Area Hospital are still reeling from the loss” to Valor Health Care, “which moved the clinic to Watertown.” Carthage’s administrator said his facility is “fighting” the VA’s decision to go with Valor, but the hospital “is still recommending all veterans go to the new Watertown clinic and make sure they get the care they need.”
13. Green Building Initiative Recognizes Work Done By Overton Brooks VAMC. On its website, KTAL-TV <http://arklatexhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=92921> Shreveport, LA (2/1, Zibton) noted that the Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs Medical Center “has been given three green globes by the Green Building Initiative. To qualify,” the facility “had to keep detailed records of every way it was going green.” Overton Brooks “is the only hospital,” as “well as the only facility in Louisiana,” to “receive this designation.”
14. CTVHCS Agrees To Help Attract Entrepreneurs To Bioscience Accelerator. On its website, KXXV-TV <http://www.kxxv.com/global/story.asp?s=11916057> Waco, TX (2/1, Chen) reported, “The Temple Bioscience Accelerator is meant to turn ideas into products and will sit on 300 acres of land next” to Scott and White Healthcare’s West Campus. Several organizations, including the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, “signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, agreeing to work together to make the Accelerator a magnet for entrepreneurship.”
15. VA Hospital To Host Veterans Forum. The lead item for “Briefly” in the Omaha (NE) World-Herald <http://www.omaha.com/article/20100201/NEWS02/702019897> (2/2) reports, “A new program offers veterans who receive health care services” at the Veterans Affairs hospital “in Omaha a chance to learn about a health topic and to offer feedback to facility leadership. The veterans forum will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Education Conference Room on the first floor” of the hospital. The World-Herald adds, “The veterans health promotion coordinator of the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System will present a program called ‘Celebrating American Heart Month: Take Care of Your Heart.’”
16. Church Offers Assistance To VA Hospital. WDAF-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1243809000%7C46%7C13%5E1243809837%7C0%7C59%5E1243810632%7C0%7C59%5E1243811578%7C0%7C36%5E’,350,320)> Kansas City, MO (2/1, 9:50 p.m. CT) broadcast, “The Friendship Baptist Church opens its parking lot when” the nearby Veterans Affairs “medical center lot is full.” But the VA “says that’s not all they do to honor their vets.” According to WDAF, the church “also lets the veterans use their multi-purpose room for meetings.” And during a “flu-shot clinic recently, hundreds of veterans drove through” the church’s “parking lot for their drive-thru immunization.”
17. HUD Asking For $41.6B For 2011 Budget. The AP <http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/01/business/AP-US-Budget-Housing.html?scp=3&sq=%2b%22Veterans+Affairs%22&st=nyt> (2/2) reports the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) “said Monday it will ask for less money from Uncle Sam this year because it expects income from two of its agencies to more than double. HUD operates” the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae, and both “agencies recently raised fees for borrowers and should reap an extra $6.9 billion this year. The FHA insures nearly one third of all home mortgages, while Ginnie Mae sells securities made up of loans backed by the FHA and the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
18. A Hidden Danger Of ‘An Aspirin A Day.’ In continuing coverage, the “Consults” blog for the New York Times <http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/a-hidden-danger-of-an-aspirin-a-day/> (2/2, 1.09M) notes that Dr. Neena S. Abraham, a gastroenterologist at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, warns reader that “even small doses of daily aspirin – including ‘baby aspirin,’ at a dose of 81 milligrams daily – can increase” the “risk of ulcers and bleeding.”
19. Oregon Man Joins Delegation Back To Vietnam. The AP <http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-103/1265040286274520.xml&storylist=orlocal> (2/1, Sullivan).
20. Shooting With Purpose: N.H. Man Aims For One Million Free Throws. The WBUR-FM Boston, MA <http://www.wbur.org/2010/02/01/free-throw-shooter> (2/1, Tribou) website.
21. War Mother Lobbies US For National Monument. The Cherry Hill (NJ, 21K) Courier Post <http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20100201/NEWS01/2010323/1001/rss> (2/2, Comegno).
From: Kevin Secor, USMC Ret at VA
Sent: Tue 2/2/2010 4:23 AM
Subject: HAVE YOU HEARD?
Charleston, SC, VA Medical Center’s Nicole Coxe recently received a Golden Lamp award from the 2009 graduating class of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) nursing program. Each graduating class votes for one faculty member and one clinical faculty member they would most like to emulate. “I’m very humbled to have received this award. I feel honored and privileged that a VA Nurse Academy instructor was chosen,” said Coxe. “I love being with the students. They taught me to emphasize more on the essence of nursing and not just the clinical skills. It is also exciting to see their transformation from not being sure about VA to loving it.” VA’s Nursing Academy program was designed to address VA nursing shortages as well as ensuring the continued world-class care of veterans. The Nursing Academy program funds additional staffing positions at schools, allowing more students to attend while providing qualified VA nurses an opportunity to teach on the school’s faculty. The class of 2009 was the first to graduate since VA academy partnership was formed with the school in 2008. Four graduates decided to join the VA workforce due to their exposure to VA through the program. For more information about VA’s nursing academy program, visit www.va.gov/oaa.
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Godspeed,
Wayne
Wayne M. Gatewood, Jr., USMC (Ret)
President/CEO
Quality Support, Inc.
A Service Disabled Veteran and Minority Owned-Small Business
8201 Corporate Drive, Suite 220,
Landover, MD 20785
301-459-3777 Ext 101 - FAX 301-459-6961
www.qualitysupport.com <http://www.qualitysupport.com/>
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation.” – George Washington
“Give me Liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to my conscious, above all other liberties.” – Milton
Popularity: 19% [?]
VFW Head Lauds Shinseki, Sees Improvements In Veterans’ Health Care
Feb 2nd
Wayne’s Daily Veteran Update–
Greetings all! Increased Corporate “duty” has called and thus I have been getting to the VA News quite late these days.
Hoping you and yours are well. Prayers and blessings to our Troops and their loved ones everywhere.
Godspeed……………Wayne
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VA News for Monday, February 1, 2010
1. VFW Head Lauds Shinseki, Sees Improvements In Veterans’ Health Care. The Alexandria (LA) Town Talk <http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20100130/NEWS01/1300317/1002/news01/VFW-head–Health-care-for-veterans-improving> (1/30, Donica, 30K) reports, “Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chief Thomas J. Tradewell Sr. said Friday that the quality of health care for veterans is improving, but still more needs to be done.” In Alexandria Friday for a VFW conference, Tradewell “said he is pleased with the variety of programs that Veterans Affairs has in place to help veterans,” noting that the VA “has hired additional staff and has established ‘benefits-due-at-discharge’ sites in response to the influx of current servicemen and women being discharged from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He also praised the Obama administration’s increased support for veterans’ health, and said conversations with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki “show there is a plan to make a smooth transition from the time a service member goes into the military and the time the person complete his or her service and enters the VA system.”
2. New York Governor Proposes Keeping Aid To Local Veterans’ Agencies At Current Level. A ReadMedia <http://readme.readmedia.com/State-Funding-for-Local-Veterans-Service-Agencies/1086913> release from the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs (1/30) announces that Gov. David Paterson proposed to maintain funding for the state’s local veterans’ service agencies at last year’s level of $1,177,000, which was 42% higher than the previous year’s funding.
3. Vets Cemetery In Kentucky On Track For Fall Opening. The AP <http://www.whas11.com/news/local/83200202.html> (2/1) reports, “Kentucky officials say the state’s fourth veterans cemetery remains on track to open this fall with 1,100 in-ground crypts that will allow former military personnel to be buried near their spouses.” The “78-acre Veterans Cemetery North East will eventually house 25,000 graves, although the second phase of the project won’t be completed for about 20 years.”
4. Acute Psychiatric Unit Proposed For Vermont VAMC. The Rutland (VT) Herald <http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100130/NEWS02/1300337/1003/NEWS02> (1/30, Gregg) reports, “Officials with the state of Vermont, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center are discussing the possibility of building a secure 16-bed acute-care psychiatric unit at the VA’s 64-acre campus that would serve Vermont residents and veterans needing intensive mental health care. Although the proposal is still in its conceptual stage, the state-owned facility, if built, might be staffed by Dartmouth physicians and would be part of an evolving plan to replace the problem-plagued Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury. Dartmouth already has an affiliation with the VA for a variety of medical services, and also provides mental-health care services for the states of New Hampshire and Maine.” The director of the VA hospital said that the agency has surplus land that it might donate, sell or lend to the state, and was interested in providing services to a new facility in order to obtain more convenient psychiatric care for veterans.
5. Ohio County Hard Hit By Veteran Suicides. The Warren (OH) Tribune Chronicle <http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/532964.html> 91/31, Rodgers) reports, “An average of seven veterans take their lives each year in Trumbull County, according to a study of county coroner records. Through that study the Tribune Chronicle has identified at least two veterans of the recent war in Iraq.” While veterans nationally account for about 20% of all suicides, in the eastern Ohio county, they accounted for 37% of suicides.
6. Old Soldier Battles Suicide Epidemic. McClatchy <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/83334.html> (1/31, Abdullah) reports that retired Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Rhodes, a three-tour Iraq veteran “is among a small cadre of senior non-commissioned officers and officers who’re opening up about their journeys back from the brink of suicide — efforts that top military commanders applaud as they battle a suicide epidemic. The open support from the military’s uppermost ranks for openly discussing a topic long considered taboo is a revolution triggered largely by both greater awareness and pressure to curb record-high suicide rates.” Now Rhodes “receives hundreds of e-mails every week from soldiers who pour out their hearts with secrets they don’t feel they can tell their spouses or their commanding officers. He encourages them to get help, and every once in a while they do.”
7. Suicide Prevention Said To Be A Focus Of US Army. The Illinois State University Daily Vidette <http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31342:veterans-suicide-rate-rises-in-young-soldiers&catid=37:newsnationalglobal&Itemid=53> (2/1, Curry) reports, “The suicide rate among veterans ages 18 to 25 has risen to 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to preliminary data from the Veterans Affairs Department.” However, Lt. Col. Ray Hart “explained the Army is very conscious there is a suicide issue and they have been trying to promote suicide awareness as well as find a common thread that can help explain the cause of the suicides.” The Vidette adds, “Battlemind, a program developed by the Department of Defense, focuses on typical reactions when returning from war, and risk factors and early symptoms of anxiety, depression and suicide risk and a buddy program…pairs a returning soldier with a buddy who checks up on him/her weekly.”
VA Reverses Benefits Decision For Afghanistan Vet Suffering From PTSD. The Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance <http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/lynchburg_soldier_struggles_to_get_va_to_treat_combat_trauma/23651/> (1/30, Dumond) reported, “For longer now than” 24-year-old Afghanistan veteran Robert Blanchard “served in the Army, his family has fought” the US VA for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “benefits related to his combat experience.” In September, the VA denied Blanchard’s request for increased disability payments, but three “months into an investigation by The News & Advance into Blanchard’s case, a new letter came from the VA, backdating PTSD and other mental health benefits to 2007.” VA spokesman Bruce Sprecher “said he believes the Veterans Benefits Administration does a good job, but said in some cases, compensation decisions such as Blanchard’s aren’t always right the first time.”
Program Reaches Out To Combat Vets In Virginia. The Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance <http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/new_state_program_reaches_out_to_combat_veterans_who_need_help/23652/> (1/30, Dumond) reported, “A new program created by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services to prevent the overwhelming number of soldiers returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan from falling through the cracks is finding its feet here in Central Virginia. The Wounded Warrior program was created” by the Virginia General Assembly “in 2008 to help Virginia’s combat veterans not currently in federal service and their families, either by direct service or by referring them to another agency.” The News & Advance spoke about veterans’ needs with Dr. Dell Short, the chief of mental heath service at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salem, Virginia, who “said one of the greatest challenges for therapists is in getting veterans to accept help.”
Iraq Vet Speaks About Overcoming PTSD. According to the Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel And Enterprise <http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_14306042?source=rss> (1/31, Magazu, 15K), Iraq veteran Sam Rhodes “travels the country speaking to audiences of 600 to 700 people about PTSD,” and on Saturday, he gave a presentation at the Leominster Veterans Center in Leominster, Virginia. Rhodes “has created a 10-step process to overcoming” PTSD. Steps “include making connections with family members and friends, avoiding seeing crises as insurmountable, accepting change as part of life and moving toward established goals.”
8. Obama To Propose 20 Percent Spending Increase For VA. McClatchy <http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/83227242.html> (2/1, Thomma) reports, “President Obama will propose a 2011 federal budget today that would spend $1.3 trillion more than the government takes in.” The proposal reportedly includes a “20 percent increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
According to Politico <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32272.html> (2/1, Rogers, 25K), “both Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, two of the fastest areas of recent spending, are exempted” from a three-year domestic spending freeze Obama recently proposed. Instead, the VA is “slated to get significant new money to speed the processing of claims, and billions more will be requested this year to resolve old disputes related to soldiers and airmen exposed to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.”
9. GAO Criticizes Office Running Joint EHR Project For VA, DOD. Government Health IT <http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=73068> (2/1, Mosquera) notes that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has “criticized the group directing the project to tie together the electronic health record systems operated by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments. GAO said the VA-DOD Interagency Program Office (IPO) needed to improve its planning and scheduling — and specifically its ability to create a master plan for the project — if the project is to succeed.” Government Health IT adds, “VA and DOD plan to develop a virtual lifetime electronic record (VLER), which will give military service members access to all their electronic records as they transition form active duty to veteran status and throughout their lives.”
10. America’s Last Living WWI Vet Turns 109. The Kansas City (MO) Star <http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1719516.html> (2/1, Campbell) reports, “Missouri native Frank Buckles, the nation’s last living veteran of World War I, will celebrate his 109th birthday” on Monday. After noting that Buckles’ daughter said the veteran is “doing very well,” the Star adds, “Buckles, who was a guest at Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial in 2008, supports efforts to designate the World War I Memorial in Washington as the national memorial to the war, but he does not oppose the Liberty Memorial gaining that status.” CNN <http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/31/world.war.one.vet.memorial/index.html?section=cnn_latest> (2/1, Courson) publishes a similar story on its website.
11. Museum Recognizing Accomplishments Of African Americans Veterans. The AP <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-blackvets,0,6796189.story> (2/1) reports, “The Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum is recognizing the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans who served in the military.” The AP also takes note of an event called Veterans Recognition Night, which, according to the Muskegon (MI) Chronicle <http://www.mlive.com/living/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/01/naval_museum_plans_black-histo.html> (1/31, Williams), takes place on February 19th. During the event, a “local honoree will…be given the Dr. Robert Garrison Jr. Award, named for the late community leader who had served as a fighter pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.”
12. Program Offers Wounded Vets A Chance To Rescue Artifacts. The Augusta (GA) Chronicle <http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2010-01-31/touch-state-history?v=1264981928> (1/31, Pavey) said decades after Cemochechobee, an archaeological site in Georgia, “was flooded to form Lake Walter F. George, artifacts rescued from the rising waters are yielding new secrets through a program that offers wounded veterans an opportunity to study the past.” The Chronicle goes on to say that though the program, 10 wounded combat veterans are currently “helping the Army Corps of Engineers curate material gathered from federal lands.”
13. New GI Bill A “Mixed Blessing” For Some. In continuing coverage, the Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance <http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/some_veterans_struggle_with_school_bills_while_waiting_for_late_gi_bill_pay/23660/> (1/31, Barry) reported, “This past fall, hundreds of local military veterans returned to college thanks to the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, which expanded the number of people who qualify for benefits. For some veterans,” however, the new “GI Bill brought a mixed blessing, as late payments” from the US Department of Veterans Affairs “put a strain on student pocketbooks. Financial aid officers at five of Lynchburg’s colleges and universities reported slow processing times and late payments from the VA in the fall, while noting a faster turn-around time for spring semester.”
14. National Cemetery Dedicated In California. In continuing coverage, KTLA-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1242465102%7C27%7C32%5E1242465987%7C0%7C50%5E’,350,320)> Los Angeles, LA (1/31, 6:16 p.m. PT) broadcast, “Dozens of military veterans and state and Federal officials celebrated a major milestone this weekend. They dedicated a new national cemetery in San Diego.” The facility “opens in September.” KCRA-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1241982969%7C29%7C30%5E1241984158%7C0%7C47%5E’,350,320)> Sacramento, CA (1/31, 9:07 a.m. PT) and KABC-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1241889684%7C30%7C29%5E1241890584%7C0%7C59%5E’,350,320)> Los Angeles, CA (1/31, 7:19 a.m. PT) aired similar reports, as did WJW-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1242320147%7C58%7C1%5E1242320971%7C0%7C18%5E’,350,320)> Cleveland, OH (1/31, 6:32 p.m. ET) and KDAF-TV <javascript:videoPopup(‘http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1242333549%7C30%7C19%5E’,350,320)> Dallas, TX (1/31, 5:47 p.m. CT).
15. Official: VA Committed To Helping Set Up Veterans’ Courts In Pennsylvania. The AP <http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Focus-on-vets-in-Pa-court-system-picks-up-steam-344965.php> (1/31, Scolforo) noted that “next week” in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a “statewide task force will hold its first meeting with the goal of expanding” an effort to bring veterans’ courts to more parts of Pennsylvania. After stating that the “veterans’ court approach brings in the medical resources” of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the AP added, “Michael E. Moreland, regional director for VA hospitals that include eight in Pennsylvania, said the agency is committed to helping any county that wants to establish a veterans’ court.”
16. VA Researcher’s Study Studies Links Between High-Risk Drinking And Social, Financial Factors. MedIndia <http://www.medindia.net/news/Alcohol-Misuse-Among-Older-Drinkers-can-be-Predicted-and-Sustained-by-Social-Factors-64374-1.htm> (1/30) reports that a study by a senior VA researcher finds that older drinkers who have more money, engage in more social activities, and whose friends approve more of drinking are more likely to engage in excessive or high-risk drinking.” The study of linkages between high-risk adult drinking and social and financial factors was authored by VA Health Care System Palo Alto senior research scientist Rudolf H. Moos, and will be published in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
17. Fayetteville VAMC To Focus On Female Vets’ Health Needs. In the fourth item for its “In Step Calendar,” the Fayetteville (NC) Observer <http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/01/31/971559> (1/31, 61K) said, “Wear Red Day for female veterans” is scheduled to be held on February 5th at the Fayetteville Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The event “includes booths by the American Heart Association, Cumberland County Health Department, and the center’s smoking cessation program.”
18. New Orleans VA Hospital Still Seen Facing “Potential Complications.” In continuing coverage, the New Orleans Times-Picayune <http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/money_for_charity_damage_in_ha.html> (1/31, Devlin, 169K) said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal “and Louisiana State University officials were all smiles Tuesday after a federal arbitration panel awarded the state almost $475 million for Hurricane Katrina damage to Charity Hospital.” It “was a major victory in the quest to build a $1.2 billion Charity successor in lower Mid-City alongside” a US Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, but “both projects still face potential complications.” For example, “city
and federal officials confirm” that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding between his agency and the city.
VA Hospital Seen As Key To New Orleans’ Recovery. In a related editorial, the New Orleans Times-Picayune <http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/01/charity_hospital_ruling_is_ano.html> (1/31, 169K) said a “state-of-the-art teaching hospital in lower Mid-City,” along with a VA hospital, “are the key components of a biomedical corridor that could serve as an economic engine for this recovering city.”
19. Marines Will Scrutinize Tattoos. In the Craig (CO) Daily Press <http://www2.craigdailypress.com/news/2010/jan/30/ed-wilkinson-potential-marines-tattoos-eyed/> (1/30, 3K) military columnist Ed, Wilkinson reports that the Marine Corps “has announced that anyone who wants to join the Marines and has more than four tattoos is subject to review.”
20. Price Of Freedom Has Never Been Free. Billie Shelton’s column in the Webster City (IA) Daily Freeman-Journal <http://www.webstercitynews.com/page/content.detail/id/505349.html?nav=5002> (2/1).
21. Veterans Need Rides To VA Centers. A letter to the editor of the Tomah (WI) Journal <http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2010/01/31/opinion/03andersonletter.txt> (1/31, 4K).
22. Support Veterans. A letter to the editor of USA Today <http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/letters-support-veterans-.html#more> (2/1, 2.11M).
23. Freeland Man Earns Honors In Vets’ Contest. The Hazleton (PA) Standard Speaker <http://standardspeaker.com/news/freeland-man-earns-honors-in-vets-contest-1.582764> (1/30, Whalen).
24. Voluteers Make Valentines For Veterans At Southwestern Michigan College. The South Bend (IN) Tribune <http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100131/News01/1310366/1130> (1/31, Van Arsdall).
25. On the Hill for the Week of February 1 – 5, 2010:
President Obama is scheduled Monday to release his budget proposal for fiscal 2011. Administration officials will testify about the budget at various hearings on Tuesday.
The Senate holds a procedural vote on a Labor Department nomination on Monday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee holds its first hearing on repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Later in the week, the House is expected to pass a bill to boost cybersecurity research and clear a measure to increase the federal debt limit.
House:
Monday: Not in session.
Tuesday: Convenes 2 p.m. for legislative business.
Under suspension of the rules:
HR 4495 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HR4495&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Post office naming
H Res 957 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES957&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — NASCAR champion
H Res 1014 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES1014&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Inclusion Month
H Res 1043 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES1043&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Brescia University
H Res 901 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES901&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — New Orleans school integration
H Res 1022 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES1022&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Medgar Evers
H Res 960 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HRES960&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Stalking Awareness Month
S 2950 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S2950&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Background checks for volunteer groups
Wednesday: Convenes 10 a.m.
Thursday: Convenes 10 a.m.
Under suspension of the rules:
HR 2843 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HR2843&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Architect of the Capitol appointment
HR 4532 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HR4532&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Access to attorneys for Social Security disability applicants
Subject to a rule:
HR 4061 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HR4061&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Cybersecurity research
H J Res 45 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HJRES45&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> — Debt limit increase
Friday: Convenes 9 a.m. for a pro forma session.
Senate
Monday: Convenes 2 p.m.
Roll call votes expected.
Nomination — M. Patricia Smith to be Labor Department solicitor
Markups
House Rules considers rules for floor debate for a bill to boost cybersecurity research and development ( HR 4061 ). 5 p.m. Tuesday, H-313 Capitol
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions votes on nominations. 10 a.m. Thursday, 430 Dirksen
Senate Judiciary marks up bills on medical bankruptcy ( S 1624 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S1624&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ), hate crimes against the homeless ( S 1765 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S1765&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ), maltreated infants ( S 1554 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S1554&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ), cocaine sentencing disparities ( S1789 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S1789&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ), witness protection grants ( HR1741 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=HR1741&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ) and law enforcement officers carrying concealed weapons ( S 1132 <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/displaybillcard.do?billNumber=S1132&congress=111′,’billCard’,680,430);> ); also votes on nominations. 10 a.m. Thursday, 226 Dirksen
Hearing Highlights
Senate Armed Services hearing on the fiscal 2011 budget request for the Department of Defense, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 9 a.m. Tuesday, G-50 Dirksen
Senate Budget hearing on the president’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget, with White House budget director Peter R. Orszag . 10 a.m. Tuesday, 608 Dirksen
Senate Finance hearing on the president’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget, with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner . 10 a.m. Tuesday, 215 Dirksen
Senate Rules and Administration hearing on the Supreme Court’s ruling on corporate spending in elections. 10 a.m. Tuesday, 301 Russell
Senate Armed Services hearing on the military policy regarding gay and lesbian servicemembers, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Noon Tuesday, G-50 Dirksen
House Foreign Affairs hearing on U.S. policy toward Yemen. 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, 2172 Rayburn
House Armed Services hearing on the fiscal 2011 budget request for the Department of Defense, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 10 a.m. Wednesday, 2118 Rayburn
House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on proposed fiscal 2011 spending, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/find.do?dataSource=memberchild&queryFragment=(H1181)%3cIN%3ememcodes%3cAND%3e(summary)%3cIN%3ememberreports&print=true&sortSpec=displaydate+desc’,'membercard’,680,430);> . 10 a.m. Wednesday, 2359 Rayburn
House Education and Labor hearing on the Obama administration’s labor agenda, with Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis <javascript:simplePopup(‘http://www.cq.com/find.do?dataSource=memberchild&queryFragment=(H0462)%3cIN%3ememcodes%3cAND%3e(summary)%3cIN%3ememberreports&print=true&sortSpec=displaydate+desc’,'membercard’,680,430);> . 10 a.m. Wednesday, 2175 Rayburn
House Ways and Means hearing on the president’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget, with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner . 10 a.m. Wednesday, 1100 Longworth
Senate Finance hearing on administration health care proposals, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius . 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, 215 Dirksen
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the proposed fiscal 2011 budget for the Energy Department. 10 a.m. Thursday, 366 Dirksen
House Armed Services hearing on the 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review. 10 a.m. Thursday, 2118 Rayburn
House Veterans’ Affairs hearing on the proposed fiscal 2011-12 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs. 10 a.m. Thursday, 334 Cannon
26. Today in History:
* 1327 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1327> – Teenaged Edward III <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England> is crowned <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation> King <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_monarchs> of England <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> , but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_France> and her lover Roger Mortimer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mortimer,_1st_Earl_of_March> .
* 1662 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1662> – The Chinese <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China> general Koxinga <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koxinga> seizes the island of Taiwan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan> after a nine-month siege <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Zeelandia> .
* 1713 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1713> – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_at_Bender> results from the Ottoman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire> sultan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan> ’s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XII_of_Sweden> , be seized.
* 1790 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790> – In New York City <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City> , the Supreme Court of the United States <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States> attempts to convene for the first time.
* 1793 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793> – French Revolutionary Wars <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars> : France <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France> declares war on the United Kingdom <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom> and the Netherlands <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands> .
* 1861 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1861> – American Civil War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War> : Texas <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas> secedes from the United States <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States> .
* 1865 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1865> – President Abraham Lincoln <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln> signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution> .
* 1884 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884> – Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary> is published.
* 1893 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1893> – Thomas A. Edison <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Edison> finishes construction of the first motion picture <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film> studio, the Black Maria <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Black_Maria> in West Orange, New Jersey <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Orange,_New_Jersey> .
* 1908 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908> – King Carlos I of Portugal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_I_of_Portugal> and his son, Prince <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince> Luis Filipe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Filipe,_Duke_of_Braganza> are killed in Terreiro do Paco <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terreiro_do_Paco> , Lisbon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon> .
* 1920 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920> – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police> begins operations.
* 1942 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942> – World War II <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II> : Vidkun Quisling <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling> is appointed Premier of Norway <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Norway> by the Nazi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism> occupiers.
* 1943 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943> – The German 6th Army <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_6th_Army> surrenders at Stalingrad <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalingrad> .
* 1946 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946> – Trygve Lie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trygve_Lie> of Norway <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway> is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Secretary_General> .
* 1958 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958> – Egypt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt> and Syria <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria> merge to form the United Arab Republic <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic> , which lasted until 1961 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961> .
* 1958 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958> – The United States Army <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army> launches Explorer 1 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1> .
* 1960 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960> – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins> at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro,_North_Carolina> .
* 1968 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968> – Vietnam War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War> : The execution of Viet Cong <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong> officer Nguyen Van Lem <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Van_Lem> by South Vietnamese <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam> National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Ngoc_Loan> is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Adams_(photographer)> . This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_the_Vietnam_War> .
* 1968 – Canada <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada> ’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Navy> , the Canadian Army <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Army> and the Royal Canadian Air Force <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force> , are unified into the Canadian Forces <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Forces> .
* 1974 – Kuala Lumpur <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur> is declared a Federal Territory <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Territory_(Malaysia)> .
* 1978 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978> – Director Roman Polanski <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski> skips bail <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bail> and flees the United States <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States> to France <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France> after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
* 1979 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979> – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Hearst> is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States> Jimmy Carter <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter> .
* 1979 – The Ayatollah Khomeini <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatollah_Khomeini> is welcomed back into Tehran <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran> , Iran <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran> after nearly 15 years of exile.
* 1982 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982> – Senegal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal> and the Gambia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia> form a loose confederation known as Senegambia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9n%C3%A9gambia_Confederation> .
* 1992 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992> – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal> court declares Warren Anderson <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(chairman)> , ex-CEO <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEO> of Union Carbide <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Carbide> , a fugitive under Indian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India> law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_Disaster> case.
* 1993 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993> – Gary Bettman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Bettman> becomes the NHL’s first commissioner <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner>
* 1996 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996> – The Communications Decency Act <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act> is passed by the U.S. Congress <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_United_States> .
* 1998 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998> – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_E._Fishburne> became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
* 2003 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003> – Space Shuttle Columbia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster> disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
* 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004> – 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_during_the_Hajj#Failures_in_crowd_control> in a stampede at the Hajj <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj> pilgrimage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage> in Saudi Arabia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia> .
* 2004 – Janet Jackson <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Jackson> ’s breast is exposed <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy> during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII> , resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC> censorship guidelines.
* 2005 – Canada <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada> introduces the Civil Marriage Act <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Marriage_Act> , making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage> .
* 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009> – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3hanna_Sigur%C3%B0ard%C3%B3ttir> is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Iceland> , becoming the first openly gay <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay> head of state <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_state> in the modern world.
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From: Kevin Secor at VA
Sent: Mon 2/1/2010 4:19 AM
Subject: HAVE YOU HEARD?
The 2010 U.S. Decennial Census is underway. In fact, it began last year between April and July when census workers canvassed the country to update addresses and maps from the 2000 census. They looked for new buildings to record and those no longer existing to remove from census tract lists. This March more than 130 million addresses throughout the nation will receive a census form either by mail or in person from a census worker. Households should complete and return the forms upon receipt. Census Day is April 1. Responses to the census form should include everyone living at your address. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share an individual’s personal information with anyone including other federal agencies and law enforcement entities. Addresses that have not responded by April 1 are will be visited by a census worker from late April through July. Census workers can be identified by a census badge and bag. The Census Bureau will provide the 2010 apportionment counts to the President by Dec. 31. This will include the total population counts and the number of representatives for each state. Data collected during the 2010 census will provide the basis for population estimates and other information provide by the Census Bureau for the coming decade.
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From: VA Media Relations
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 3:15 PM
Subj: News Release: White House Seeks $125 Billion for Veterans in 2011
Homelessness, Claims Increases and Access – Priorities for VA Budget
WASHINGTON – 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.
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Following provided by our very good Friend at SBA Advocacy, Major Clark. Thanks Major!
From: Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration
[mailto:advocacy@SBA.GOV]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 2:05 PM
To: ADVOCACYCOMMUNICATIONS@newganges.sba.gov
Subject: Advocacy Applaud SBA Rulemaking and Asks SBA to Re-Publish Proposed 8(a) Regulations
On January 28, 2010, the Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) filed a comment letter with the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), discussing small entity concerns with SBA’s proposed rulemaking to regulate the 8(a) business development program.
A copy of Advocacy’s letter can be found at
http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/comments/sba10_0128.html and a fact sheet
summarizing this letter at
http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/comments/factssba10_0128.pdf.
If you have any questions regarding Advocacy’s position on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact Major Clark 202-205-6533.
For more information about the Office of Advocacy, please visit our website at
http://www.sba.gov/advo/ or telephone 202-205-6533.
** To sign up for Advocacy updates via RSS feed, visit http://feeds.feedburner.com/sba/rAIO **
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Best to all,
Wayne
Wayne M. Gatewood, Jr., USMC (Ret)
President/CEO
Quality Support, Inc.
A Service Disabled Veteran and Minority Owned-Small Business
8201 Corporate Drive, Suite 220,
Landover, MD 20785
301-459-3777 Ext 101 - FAX 301-459-6961
www.qualitysupport.com <http://www.qualitysupport.com/>
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation.” – George Washington
“Give me Liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to my conscious, above all other liberties.” – Milton
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