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“Finish Strong:” Highlights from Connecticut Delegation Meetings

VFW National Legislative Committee members Bob Hunter from Connecticut and Christian Kulikoski from Massachusetts met with Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., as part of last week’s Capitol Hill visits, telling the 112th Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.”

Hunter and Kulikoski spent the day highlighting the VFW's priorities and outstanding issues to members of the Connecticut congressional delegation. Kulikoski, who also serves as a Massachusetts VFW Department Service Officer, was well-versed in health care and benefits delivery, and highlighted the hot-button issues such as stopping DoD efforts to increase TRICARE fees and copays, ensuring the successful implementation of the Veterans Benefit Management System, or VBMS, and providing more resources to deliver educational benefits.

Hunter, who serves as the VFW Legislative Chairman for Connecticut, punctuated the issues by highlighting DoD's reallocation of nearly three billion dollars over the past three years from TRICARE to fund other DoD programs. He also encouraged his members on Congress to seriously consider giving VA the tools to continuously improve their business processes, while dealing with the disability claims backlog. Both committee members discussed the alarming 18-percent rise in veteran suicides over the past year, and all members of the Connecticut delegation agreed more effort must be directed to curbing the losses of our comrades when they return home.

Hunter also discussed VFW’s progress locally, seeking to shut down predatory non-profit organizations claiming to serve veterans. The VFW in Connecticut learned that one such organization was doing little more than raising money for their benefit, while only disbursing meager amounts of aide to veterans in need.

Blumenthal, who is working closely with the VFW Department of Connecticut to spearhead this fight, let Hunter know that VA has begun to aggressively reassess those organizations listed as “trusted entities” providing additional help and services to veterans. He went on to say that the organization in question has since been removed from VA's list of trusted organizations.

Last week, VFW advocates were out in force on Capitol Hill, meeting with nearly every Congressional office, highlighting VFW’s outstanding issues for the 112th Congress. To learn more about the VFW’s priorities from last week’s legislative visits, click here, and check back regularly for highlights of how our advocates told Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.”

(Image: Top: VFW Legislative Committee members Bob Hunter, left, and Christian Kulikoski, right, meet with Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., during last week's legislative conference. Bottom: Hunter and his wife, Lynn, meet with Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. Photos courtesy of Bob Hunter.)

VFW Joins House Democrats for Veterans Roundtable

*UPDATE: The Office of Management and Budget announced this afternoon that all VA accounts and military personnel accounts would be exempt from budget sequestration. 

Yesterday the VFW joined House Democratic leadership and some of the nation’s other leading veterans’ advocates for a roundtable discussion on veterans’ issues. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has routinely hosted quarterly roundtables with the veterans’ community for the last few years, offering veterans’ advocates an opportunity to candidly discuss ways in which Congress could work to better serve our veterans.

 VFW Deputy Director Ryan Gallucci joined in the discussion, expressing the VFW’s frustration over looming sequestration cuts to the defense budget and administrative accounts for Veterans Affairs. Gallucci pointed out that while the Obama Administration had clarified that VA health care accounts were exempt from sequestration, experts had indicated that VA’s administrative accounts could be subject to cuts.

The veterans’ community has asked for clarification from Congress and the Administration as to what kinds of administrative accounts could be affected, pointing out that the timely delivery of other VA benefits, like disability compensation or the G.I. Bill, could be affected if the administrators of those benefits are forced to scale back their operations.

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., tackled the issue by explaining that the Administration was scheduled to deliver their analysis of how sequestration would affect each agency, but that he and his fellow committee members were still searching for ways to avoid the looming 2013 deadline when across-the-board cuts would have to take place.

Other issues raised during the roundtable were the absence of advance appropriations in the VA budget continuing resolution currently before Congress, daunting unemployment numbers among Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, and the persistent lack of mental health resources for veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war.

Your VFW advocates have been working hard all week, asking the 112th Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.” In addition to the Democratic roundtable, VFW participated in a Republican veterans affairs roundtable on Tuesday, and members of the VFW National Legislative Committee hit the halls of Congress all week, pushing for solutions to issue related to the VA budget, employment and education, health care, and benefits delivery.

As Congress wraps up business leading into the election, check back regularly for updates.

“Finish Strong:” Florida VFW Discusses Sequestration During Hill Visits

Over the last two days, VFW National Legislative Committee members from Florida met with their congressional delegation to discussing VFW’s outstanding legislative issues, and asking the 112th Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.” Here are some highlights from their visits:

VFW Department of Florida Past Commanders Mike White and Bob Shepard, and National Legislative Committee Chairman Lee F. Kichen discussed sequestration on the national defense budget with Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. West shared the VFW’s concerns about the impact of force reductions, cuts to quality-of-life programs, and how they would affect military personnel and their families. The Florida Legislative Team agreed that the Army would not be robust enough to effectively challenge future adversaries, if deep defense cuts were allowed to take effect.

The VFW Florida Legislative Team also discussed the implications of sequestration budget cuts on active duty service members and their families with Drew Wyatt Shoemaker, legislative assistant to Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla.

Shepard and Kichen then discussed the VFW's goal to extend tax credits for businesses to employ veterans with Jeff Fatora, military legislative associate for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. VFW advocates have been storming the halls of Congress over the last two days as part of the VFW’s fall legislative conference.

The conference draws to a close tomorrow, at which time VFW advocates will have met with every Congressional office on Capitol Hill. To learn more about the VFW’s priorities for our fall legislative visits, click here, and check back regularly for updates, as our advocates tell Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.”

(Images: Top: The Florida Legislative Team meets with Rep. Allen West to discuss sequestration. Bottom: The team also met with staff for Rep. Tom Rooney to discuss concerns over potential defense cuts. Photos courtesy of Lee F. Kichen.)

VFW Veterans’ Education Bill Passes House

Yesterday afternoon the House passed H.R. 4057, a bill designed to improve consumer protections for student-veterans who seek to utilize their Post-9/11 G.I. Bill benefits.

VFW leaders applauded the passage of the bill and will call on the Senate to take up its education package during this week’s fall legislative conference, where VFW advocates are asking Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.”

H.R. 4057 was amended while in committee to include several other VFW-supported provisions to improve veterans’ benefits such as the bill that the VFW and the American Legion worked together to draft and amend, the HIRE at HOME Act (H.R. 4115), introduced by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, which ensures that states consider military training for professional licenses in a variety of technical fields.

The committee also added language from other bills ensuring safe housing standards for homeless veterans, limiting bonuses for VA employees, and commissioning an Open Air Burn Pit exposure registry with VA.

H.R. 4057 was inspired by VFW action earlier this year, when VFW authored a letter signed by a broad coalition of veterans' advocates and education experts, calling for improved consumer information and consumer protections for veterans. To learn more about the bill, click here.

The bill’s author, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., spoke on the House floor, touting the merits of his bill, which made it to the floor with overwhelming bipartisan support through the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Ranking Member Bob Filner, D-Calif., a cosponsor of the bill, also discussed the merits of the bill’s other provisions, like ensuring VA keeps track of health care conditions for veterans exposed to toxins resulting from open air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Your VFW will continue to advocate for the Senate to pass a comprehensive education package before the end of the current Congress. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

VFW Joins House VA Committee Republican Roundtable

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., hosted a roundtable discussion this morning with Republican committee leadership and leading veterans’ advocates in the committee’s chambers of the Cannon House Office Building. VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci was on hand to discuss a series of persistent veterans’ issues like mental health care, employment, and looming budget concerns.

Miller decided to host the roundtable as a way to evaluate progress over the 112th Congress, identify shortfalls in meeting the needs of veterans, and candidly discussing potential new ideas to ensure veterans receive the care and benefits to which they are entitled.

The morning’s discussion took place just as the VFW National Legislative Committee converged on Washington, asking Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans,” by enacting meaningful legislation, providing oversight, and applying pressure on federal agencies to better serve the veterans’ community. This week, VFW advocates will visit every Congressional office discuss VFW’s outstanding issues for the 112th Congress relating to benefits delivery, health care, budget concerns, and education and employment. To learn more about these issues, click here.

Gallucci reiterated the VFW’s “Finish Strong For Veterans” message, encouraging Congress to pass bills like the H.R. 4057 to improve consumer information for student-veterans; provide oversight to ensure the military’s new transition assistance program, or TAP, provides relevant resources to transitioning service members; ensure VA can meet its mental health staffing requirements; and apply pressure to VA and the Administration to define “administrative accounts” potentially affected by mandatory sequestration budget cuts.

Chairman Miller also took the opportunity to candidly discuss a controversial proposal from Republican leaders designed to help veterans receive timely mental health care from TRICARE providers, paid for by VA. The idea comes on the heels of ongoing military and veteran suicide concerns, and reports that VA cannot meet the demand to deliver mental health care in a timely manner.

Veterans’ advocates expressed concern about how the proposal could not only increase care costs for VA, but could create more bureaucratic problems for veterans seeking care outside the VA system.

Gallucci explained that many times veterans cannot receive timely mental health care from VA because they never actively enrolled in the VA health care system before reaching out for help. If veterans sought out emergency care from TRICARE providers on the economy, Gallucci explained that they could be left with a hefty bill for services, and face additional bureaucratic hurdles when they seek reimbursement from VA.

Chairman Miller explained that the concept was designed to ensure veterans who need mental health care can find somewhere to go as a stop-gap measure, and ensured the veterans’ community that his committee would flesh out exactly how such a system could efficiently deliver care.

Other discussion topics this morning included alternative treatments for traumatic brain injury like hypobaric oxygen therapy, persistent processing delays for Post-9/11 G.I. Bill recipients, the effectiveness of peer-to-peer counseling for mental health issues, and empowering employers to find potential veteran employees.

(Image: VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci discusses VFW's call for Congress to "Finish Strong For Veterans" in the 112th Congress. Photo courtesy of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.)

"Finish Strong:" VFW Leaders Converge on Washington to Advocate for Veterans

This morning the VFW kicked off its fall legislative conference, telling the 112th Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans.”

VFW National Legislative Director Ray Kelley briefed all 70 members of the VFW’s National Legislative Committee this morning at the Hilton Crystal City in Arlington, Va., outlining the VFW’s expectations for Congress and outstanding issues from the last two years.

Armed with the VFW’s “Finish Strong For Veterans” brochure, explaining each outstanding issue, VFW National Legislative Committee members are now scheduled to meet with every Congressional and Senate office over the next three days, calling on Congress to act before the end of the current term.

To learn more about the fall conference and VFW’s outstanding legislative issues, click here.

The VFW Capitol Hill blog will follow legislative committee members around to their meetings, posting photos and highlights as they are available. Check back regularly over the next three days for updates.

(Image: VFW National Legislative Director Ray Kelley briefs VFW National Legislative Committee members as this week's conference kicked off. Photo by Bob Hunter.)

VFW at the DNC: Vets' Tribute and Final Thoughts

President Obama accepting his party's nomination for a second term capped off the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last night.

Your VFW was encouraged to see that the Democrats focused on our military service members and veterans every day of the convention, culminating with an arena-wide tribute to the troops that included some 20,000 attendees waving signs with the simple message, "Thank You."

In stark contrast to what the VFW witnessed at last week's RNC in Tampa, many of the DNC speakers took the opportunity to thank those who serve, to include the president in his acceptance speech.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry went so far as to criticize Republican candidate Mitt Romney for failing to mention veterans or service members in his acceptance speech, calling the oversight "unacceptable" in a time of war.

The VFW was happy to see the DNC focus so much on thanking veterans, and highlighting initiatives to improve benefits. Unfortunately, many of the week's speakers failed to outline any specific plans to address issues like unemployment, suicide or the disability claims backlog.

The VFW believes that despite certain improvements in recent years, much work remains to ensure our service members can transition successfully into civilian life, and that we can provide the timely care and benefits our veterans have earned.

After attending both the RNC and DNC over the past two weeks, the VFW has reached the following conclusions:

• The DNC succeeded in thanking America's heroes, whereas the RNC missed a major opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with the men and women who protect our nation.

• Both Democrats and Republicans have a lot of work to do to make the case for how they intend to better serve our veterans, service members and their loved ones over the next four years.

Your VFW will continue to push both the Romney and Obama campaigns to outline how they plan to serve our veterans, if elected. Check back for updates as the candidates hit the campaign trail.

(Images: Top: Attendees at the DNC say "Thank You" to our veterans. Bottom: President Obama and his family greet the DNC after accepting the party's nomination. Photos by Ryan Gallucci.)

VFW at the DNC: Veterans' Council Meeting and Secretary Shinseki

Yesterday the Democratic National Committee hosted a Veterans and Military Families Council meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center as part of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Your VFW was on hand to listen to speakers about the party's platform to better serve veterans, service members and their loved ones.

The council, chaired by retired Army Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, brought together leaders in the Democratic party like Dr. Jill Biden, co-founder of the "Joining Forces" program; Beau Biden, Delaware Attorney General and National Guardsman; Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and Sen. Daniel Inoue, World War II veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, to discuss how the current administration and the Democratic party hope to address the ongoing concerns of the veterans' community, like education and employment.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki also made an appearance at the council meeting before addressing delegates on the convention floor last night. In his remarks before the convention, Shinseki touted the successes of the Obama Administration expanding access to VA healthcare for 800,000 veterans and improving access to mental health care for veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war.

While the VFW appreciates the DNC's focus on veterans' issues over the last two days, we noticed that most of the discussion centered on past successes. We were hoping to hear more about how the party plans to address persistent issues moving forward, such as veterans' unemployment, suicide, military downsizing, and the daunting VA disability claims backlog.

Last night, President Obama was officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate by President Bill Clinton, who touted the president's record of pragmatic leadership. Tonight, the president will officially accept the nomination and your VFW will be on hand at the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte.

Your VFW will be looking for the president to discuss veterans' issues and his plans to address the ongoing concerns of our nation's heroes; particularly while we are at war. Check back tomorrow for highlights and check in on Monday, as we compare our experiences at both the RNC and the DNC over the last two weeks.

(Image: Dr. Jill Biden addresses the Veterans and Military Families Council yesterday at the DNC. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)

VFW at DNC: Opening Night Dems Focus on Veterans

Last night, VFW legislative advocates made their way into Charlotte for the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Though most of the evening's discussions focused on social issues, the Democrats also took the time to focus on issues critical to military families and veterans.

The night kicked off with the introduction of Marine Corps Iraq veteran Nate Davis discussing how the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill allowed him to pursue a quality education after leaving the military. Next, noteworthy veterans' advocate and wounded warrior Tammy Duckworth, who is currently running for Congress in Illinois, took to the stage to make the case for how the current administration has made caring for veterans and military families a priority.

The theme of honoring America's military families and veterans continued on during the night, when Blue Star Mother Elaine Brye introduced First Lady Michelle Obama, whose program "Joining Forces" has made a difference in the lives of thousands of military families, like Brye's.

While the first lady made an impassioned speech as to why she believes her husband deserves four more years in the White House, Mrs. Obama also took the time to discuss why family values are so important to her and how she sought to make the lives of military families easier, as their loved ones continue to sacrifice for our nation overseas.

The VFW was happy to see the DNC focus on veterans' issues early on in the convention. This afternoon, VFW will join in a Veterans and Military Families Caucus as part of the convention in an effort to ensure Democrats understand the issues critical to the military and veterans' communities.

The VFW hopes this dialogue on veterans and military quality-of-life continues throughout the convention, and that the president takes the time to outline his plans to care for our nation's heroes when he formally accepts his party's nomination Thursday night. Check back for updates.

(Images: Top: First Lady Michelle Obama greets the delegates before making her speech before the DNC last night. Bottom: Tammy Duckworth explains how she believes the Obama administration has made an effort to serve veterans. Photos by Ryan Gallucci.)