Sen. Bernie Sanders on Benefits for Disabled Veterans

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Senator Bernie Sanders to GOP: Don’t Cut Benefits for Disabled Veterans

December 5 - In an address today at the National Press Club, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said a proposal floated by congressional Republicans would slash benefits for disabled veterans.

A member of the Senate Budget Committee and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Sanders said deficits must be reined in, but not by taking benefits away from more than 3 million disabled veterans, many of them injured fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sanders’ criticism was aimed at a proposal offered on Monday by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). He would combine massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with new tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. The Boehner plan calls for a new method to calculate inflation by using a so-called chained CPI that would reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients and, Sanders stressed, for disabled veterans. read more>>>

Native Veterans Able to Access Care Closer to Home

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VA and Indian Health Service Announce National Reimbursement Agreement

WASHINGTON -- December 6, 2012 -- American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans will soon have increased access to health care services closer to home following a recent Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service (IHS) joint national agreement.

"There is a long, distinguished tradition of military service among tribes," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "VA is committed to expanding access to native Veterans with the full range of VA programs, as earned by their service to our Nation."

"The President has called on all Cabinet Secretaries to find better ways to provide our military families with the support they deserve, and that is exactly what we are doing today," said Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans benefit from this agreement, which provides increased options for health care services."

As a result of the national agreement, VA is now able to reimburse the IHS for direct care services provided to eligible American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans. While the national agreement applies only to VA and IHS, it will inform agreements negotiated between the VA and tribal health programs. VA copayments do not apply to direct care services provided by IHS to eligible American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans under this agreement. read more>>>

VA Sec. Shinseki & DoD Sec. Panetta Joint Press Briefing

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Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of Defense Joint Briefing

12.6.2012 - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki and Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta hold a joint press briefing about how their departments are working closely to streamline processes for service members and veterans.

Revamped Program Aids Separating Service Members

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012 – Major changes announced today to the Transition Assistance Program will revolutionize the way the military prepares people leaving the services, with mandatory participation in programs throughout their military careers to help set them up for a successful transition.

The redesigned program, called Transition Goals Planning Success or Transition GPS, was unveiled by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. It is a multi-agency response to President Barack Obama’s call to improve career readiness for separating service members, explained Susan S. Kelly, principal director of the Defense Department’s Transition to Veterans Program Office.

The president hinted at the most-sweeping change to the Transition Assistance Program in two decades during a speech this summer to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Obama called it the centerpiece to a broader federal effort to help service members transition to civilian life and to reduce veterans unemployment. read more>>>

Special Report: Veterans Employment

Natural Disasters: VA’s Mobile App Aids Responders

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VA Offers Mobile App to Hurricane Sandy Responders

The Department of Veterans Affairs is offering a mobile app to mental health personnel — including VA providers — who are helping Hurricane Sandy’s victims.

“This is one example of how innovation and technology within the federal government can have a broader reach than ever before,” said Kathleen Frisbee, Director of Web and Mobile Solutions in the Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Informatics and Analytics.

Shortly before the storm, VA sent a notice to a national list of emergency responders or their organizations about the Psychological First Aid (PFA Mobile) app for disaster responders. read more>>>

VA Seeks to Expand TBI Benefits

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Proposes Adding 5 Diagnosable Illnesses Secondary to Service-Connected TBI

WASHINGTON– December 7, 2012 - The Department of Veterans Affairs is publishing a proposed regulation in the Federal Register that would change its rules to add five diagnosable illnesses which are secondary to service-connected Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

“We must always decide Veterans’ disability claims based on the best science available, and we will,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said. “Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence that ensure they receive benefits earned through their service to the country.”

VA proposes to add a new subsection to its adjudication regulation by revising 38 CFR 3.310 to state that if a Veteran who has a service-connected TBI also has one of the five illnesses, then the illness will be considered service connected as secondary to the TBI.

Service connection under the proposed rule depends in part upon the severity of the TBI (mild, moderate, or severe) and the period of time between the injury and onset of the secondary illness. However, the proposed rule also clarifies that it does not preclude a Veteran from establishing direct service connection even if those time and severity standards are not met. It also defines the terms mild, moderate, and severe, consistent with Department of Defense (DoD) guidelines. read more>>>

The Country Owes 'Big Time' to These Veterans

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The country had already abandoned the Veterans of the previous decades and our wars since WWII and the many issues ignored, PTS, Agent Orange, Desert Storms Gulf War Syndrome and so many more while under funding the VA and really so in the past decade plus. Many many of the brothers and sisters of have passed on because of and now many of these recent Vets have also. These brothers and sisters shouldn't have to continue the same battles on their home turf.

National Guard soldiers and airmen face unemployment crisis

No longer 'weekend warriors,' an estimated 20% of returning Guard members in the U.S. are jobless. Some employers are reluctant to hire them because, unlike other veterans, they can be called up again.

November 23, 2012 - For 1st Lt. Ernest Rodriguez, weekly chats with his young daughter via phone or Skype are the highlight of duty in Afghanistan.

The father from Sacramento desperately wants to come home to 7-year-old Samantha. But instead, he has signed up for another year in the war zone. He needs the money and he knows that returning National Guard troops face high unemployment.

More than half of those in his unit had no work when they got back to California in August. Across the country, an estimated 20% of returning National Guard soldiers and airmen are without jobs, former National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Craig R. McKinley told Congress earlier this year. That is twice the rate for all military veterans who have served since September 2001.

The Obama administration has helped reduce the unemployment rate for all recent veterans, from 15% nearly two years ago to 10% last month, by developing online tools to help returning troops find jobs, working with employers to increase recruitment and retention, and signing into law tax credits for hiring veterans.

But the rate remains stubbornly high for National Guard members and military reservists. Some employers are reluctant to hire them because, unlike other veterans joining the civilian workforce, they can be called up again. read more>>>

This Executive Branch their Cabinet and this Veterans Administration have combined to do what they can under their limited government abilities, some in Congress, where the abilities as representatives of the people are held, have helped others not so same in the States. Way past time the Country stood up, way past!

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs: 28 November 2012

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This one is right up the controlling political parties, tepublicans, alley. The ability to Attack the VA personal and underfunded VA, trying to build the VA that should always have been, finally, and getting everyone involved in that. Underfunded because of their decades long obstruction, especially with these two present wars and related to veterans affairs, while they quickly rubber stamp defense, and especially war, costs and without looking at their own mirror reflections as to how they waste our money for similar and more!

VA Conference Spending AccountabilityHouse Committee on Veterans' Affairs | 334 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC | Nov 28, 2012 10:15am

Witnesses

Panel 1

The Honorable W. Scott Gould, Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Accompanied by:
Mr. W. Todd Grams, Executive in Charge, Office of Management Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Ms. Phillipa Anderson, Assistant General Counsel, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Visit House home page for possible live stream at time of hearing, above. Visit site page for statements.