Veterans' Benefits Bill Passes House; Awaits President's Signature

Last night the House passed a comprehensive veterans' benefits bill that now awaits the president's signature. VFW leaders applauded the bill's passage as a major victory for veterans.

"The VFW has waited nearly two years for a comprehensive veterans’ benefits bill to make it through Congress, and we commend legislators on both sides of the aisle for demonstrating their continued support to our nation's veterans," said VFW Executive Director Bob Wallace. "The issues addressed in this bill demanded critical attention and difficult decision-making from our legislators, which is why we applaud the leaders in both the House and Senate who refused to let these ideas die in committee."

The bill was packaged as H.R. 1627, the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act, and includes more than 54 provisions designed to improve or streamline veterans' benefit programs that have moved through the House and Senate over the last two years. The bill also offers VA healthcare to veterans, employees and military family members exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune between Jan. 1, 1957 and Dec. 31, 1987, finally resolving a years-long dispute over how to best care for victims of the exposure.

Language for the omnibus bill was agreed upon in late June by legislators in both the House and Senate. The Senate passed its version of the bill on Wednesday, July 18, shortly before the VFW convened for the 113th national convention in Reno.

Among the bill's key provisions supported by the VFW are enhancements to VA's ability to deliver telehealth consultations to remote-located veterans; expanding services for victims of traumatic brain injury, or TBI; protecting veterans against sexual assault at VA facilities; and reauthorizing and expanding certain homeless veterans' programs.

To read more about the bill and the VFW's work advancing the bill though the Senate and ways to become involved in the legislative process, click here.

As this blog explained two weeks ago, the omnibus bill also includes provisions designed to streamline disability claims processing by adapting VA's duty to assist veterans in obtaining private medical evidence to support their disability claims.

The VFW voiced concerns over these two provisions before the House VA Committee last year, offering specific recommendations on how to best implement changes. Though the original legislation contained suitable language, the final version reverted to language that the VFW believes could prevent some veterans from receiving the maximum disability benefits to which they may be entitled.

To read VFW's original testimony on proposed duty-to-assist changes, click here.

However, VFW advocates in Washington believed that the omnibus bill contained too many critical provisions to help veterans, and encouraged the House to pass it, despite minor concerns over duty-to-assist. Instead, the VFW has already reached out to key staff on Capitol Hill to ensure discrepancies in the duty-to-assist process will be addressed quickly in the next Congressional term.

Your VFW will continue to fight to preserve and improve veterans' benefits programs, and the VFW urges the president to sign the veterans' omnibus bill in short order. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

Senate Passes Camp Lejeune Treatment Resolution as Part of Veterans' Omnibus

This week the Senate moved forward on a veterans' benefits omnibus bill, the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act, which will finally offer care to veterans and family members exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

The bill clarifies that veterans and family members stationed or working at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between Jan. 1, 1957 and Dec. 31, 1987 who developed health conditions consistent with exposure to toxic water will be eligible to receive VA health care for the resultant conditions.

Before the Fourth of July recess, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., placed a hold on the bill when the Senate sought to hotline it for passage, voicing concerns about potential fraud within the system that could divert resources away from other veterans who need them.

The VFW Action Corps and National Legislative Committee quickly sprang into action, with advocates in South Carolina reaching out directly to DeMint to explain the VFW's stance on the bill.

After speaking to the Action Corps, DeMint recognized why the bill was a responsible solution for affected veterans and family members, and this morning, he praised it on the Senate floor.

Language for the omnibus bill was agreed upon in late June by legislators in both the House and Senate. With this afternoon’s passage in the Senate, the House will now be able to vote on a final package.

The compromise language on Camp Lejeune was packaged with H.R. 1627, a 2011 veterans' benefits omnibus bill that already passed in the House and includes more than 50 provisions to better serve veterans; many of which the VFW has testified in support of over the last two years.

Highlights of the bill include:

• Extending hospital care and medical services coverage for certain illnesses and conditions to eligible veterans and family members who served on active duty or lived at Camp Lejeune.
• Authorizing VA to waive co-payments for telehealth and enhancing VA’s teleconsultation and telemedicine capabilities
• Protecting veterans from sexual assault at VA facilities
• Expanding services for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury, or TBI
• Allowing veterans with service dogs access to all VA facilities
• Expanding travel reimbursement for veterans in highly rural areas and improving reimbursement for state veterans homes 
• Enhancing specially adapted housing programs for disabled veterans
• Commissioning annual reports to Congress on the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill 
• Reauthorizing certain homeless veterans programs and expanding eligibility for shelter services, allowing homeless veterans who are not mentally ill to take advantage of the services

The bill also includes provisions designed to streamline disability claims processing by clarifying VA's duty to assist veterans in obtaining private medical records and allowing VA to contact veterans electronically to adjudicate claims. 

The VFW voiced concerns over these two provisions before the House VA Committee last year, offering specific recommendations on how to best implement changes. VFW National Veterans Service staff are reviewing the specific language in the new veterans' omnibus to ensure duty-to-assist and electronic notification provisions meet our organization's standards. VFW staff will then make recommendations to the House on how to proceed with these specific provisions.

Check back regularly with this blog for updates as the 2012 veterans benefits omnibus package moves through Congress.

To learn how you can make a difference with your legislators, receive the Washington Weekly eNewsletter and other legislative priority alerts, sign up to be a member of the VFW Action Corps by clicking here. 

Watch: VFW Testifies on Veterans’ Assistance Bills

*Update: The archived webcast of yesterday's hearing is now available online by clicking here. 

Yesterday afternoon the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs hosted a hearing on pending legislation, and VFW Legislative Director Ray Kelley shared VFW’s thoughts with the subcommittee on each bill under consideration.

The hearing came to order at 2 p.m. in the committee’s chambers, room 334 of the Cannon House Office building on Capitol Hill. To view a full list of the bills under consideration, a full list of witnesses, and to read their prepared remarks, click here.

During his remarks, Kelley voiced the VFW’s support for bills ranging from properly honoring fragmented remains of our nation’s fallen heroes to extending critical benefit-delivery programs for veterans, such as the authority of VA to contract with non-VA doctors to perform examinations and the authority of VA to offer adaptive housing accommodations for veterans under the care of family members.

Kelley also expressed cautious support to a proposal that would allow congressional staffers and local government officials to access veteran-specific information on pending VA disability claims, calling for provisions in the bill to ensure information privacy and proper oversight on access.

Texas VFW District 4 Senior Vice Commander Jay Sanders also testified on the Houston VA Cemetery controversy and proposed legislation designed to clarify veterans’ burial rights. Sanders was on hand to offer his local perspective on the issue.

(Images: Top: House VA Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Chairman John Runyan, R-N.J., delivers his opening remarks during yesterday's legislative hearing. Bottom: VFW National Legislative Director Ray Kelley, left, shares the VFW's thoughts on each bill under consideration during yesterday's hearing. Photos by Chase Collram.)

House Passes VFW-supported Bill to Protect TSA's Guard and Reserve Employees

This week, your VFW is one step closer to better protecting the reemployment rights of Guard and Reservists who are employed at the Transportation Security Administration, which was exempt from complying with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act when it was created in the aftermath of 9/11.

On Wednesday evening, retired Army National Guard sergeant major and now Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., spoke passionately on the House floor in favor of his bill, H.R. 3670, which would close the USERRA loophole at TSA, and bring the agency into compliance with every other public and private employer that employs America's citizen-soldiers. His bill quickly passed, which now means that moving its companion bill, S. 1990, through the Senate floor is the final step. S. 1990 was introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

"VFW became aware of a little-known loophole last September that allowed TSA to be exempt from USERRA," said VFW legislative associate Daniel Elkins, who helped to introduce and muster support for the bill.

After considerable research, the VFW approached Walz to introduce a bill to close the loophole, and after months of work pushing others to support it, “we can all stand proud knowing that we're now just one step away in the Senate from accomplishing our goal,” said Elkins, who currently serves in the Army National Guard. "I encourage all VFW members and advocates to urge their senators to support S. 1990. We are within an arm's reach of changing the face of TSA for the better, to ensure all service members receive fair treatment in the workplace."

To contact your senators to support S. 1990, click here.

Your VFW will keep you posted on the progress on our efforts to closer TSA's USERRA loophole. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

Below is Walz's floor speech on H.R. 3670, broadcast on C-SPAN: