Watch: Senate to Discuss Veterans’ Education and Employment Bills

Update: An archived webcast of the hearing is now available by clicking here. 

This morning the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a hearing on pending education and employment legislation. Your VFW submitted comments on each of the bills up for discussion, and VFW staff was on hand to hear from each panelist.

The hearing came to order at 10 a.m. in room 418 of the Senate Russell Office Building. To view a live full list of witnesses and to read their prepared remarks, click here.

The committee discussed 18 pieces of legislation introduced over the last year. In particular, the VFW is interested in three education bills introduced by Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash.; original World War II G.I. Bill recipient Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; and Post-9/11 G.I. Bill champion Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

The VFW supports Murray’s G.I. Bill Consumer Awareness Act (S. 2241), Lautenberg’s G.I. Educational Freedom Act (S. 2206), and Webb’s Military and Veterans Educational Reform Act (S. 2179), which is why the VFW calls on the committee to work quickly to pass an omnibus veterans’ education package, including key provisions from each bill.

The VFW also voiced support for bills that would streamline state licensing procedures for military personnel, and a series of bills designed to strengthen financial and job protections for service members and their loved ones through the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, and the Uniformed Servicemembers Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA.

VFW has been a leader in building consensus among veterans' advocates and higher education to better serve student-veterans. VFW will continue to follow each of these bills closely as they move through committee. Check back regularly for updates.

(Image: The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hears testimony from Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Mark Udall, D-Utah; and Jack Reed, D-R.I., on their bills up for discussion before the committee. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)

Watch Live: Senate Hosts Hearing on Vets' Mental Health Care

UPDATE: The archived webcast from yesterday's hearing is now available on the Senate VA Committee's Web site. To view a full list of witnesses, read their prepared remarks, and view the archived webcast, click here. 

This morning the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee will host a hearing to evaluate the ease-of-access for veterans seeking mental health care at VA facilities. The hearing comes in the wake of an alarming report from the VA's Office of the Inspector General, indicating that VA may have misled Congress and the veterans' community on how it ensured prompt access to care for veterans seeking treatment for mental health conditions.

Your VFW will be on hand when the hearing is scheduled to commence at 9:30 a.m. in Senate Dirksen Office Building room 138. To view a live webcast of the hearing on the committee's home page, click here.

VA policy dictates that veterans who seek treatment for mental health must be seen with 14 days of requesting treatment. However, the report, which can be read here, claims that VA misrepresented how it tracked whether or not veterans received treatment in a timely manner, many times only starting the 14-day clock from the earliest date on which a veteran physically entered a VA facility for treatment.

For example, if a veteran were to contact VA on April 1 to seek treatment, VA could offer an appointment date on April 16. If the veteran accepted the April 16 appointment and was actually treated in a VA clinic on April 16, VA would report that the veteran waited zero days for his or her treatment, as opposed to the actual 15-day waiting period.

As a result, OIG determined that VA's reports on wait times and treatments were neither accurate nor reliable, and called on the VA Undersecretary of Health to revise policies to clarify how patient scheduling and treatment should be tracked and identify staffing shortfalls that may impede timely treatment.

Senate VA Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash.,  and Ranking Member Richard Burr, R-S.C., called for the IG report. The results come less than a week after VA pledged to hire an additional 1,900 mental health care personnel to include marriage and family therapists and licensed professional mental health counselors.

VFW leaders were disturbed at the report that VA may have misled the public and the veterans’ community on how it delivers mental health care. Your VFW will continue to keep its finger on the pulse of this critical issue, putting pressure on VA officials and leaders in Congress to take decisive action. Check back regularly for updates.

Watch Live: VFW to Testify Before House and Senate

*Update: Archived webcasts of Wednesday's hearings are now available. To view Joe Davis' testimony on Stolen Valor, click here. To view Ray Kelley's testimony on the 2013 VA budget, click here. 

The VFW will testify at two hearings this morning. VFW Legislative Director Ray Kelley will testify before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee alongside the Independent Budget partners to discuss the fiscal year 2013 VA budget. VFW Public Affairs Director Joe Davis will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations to discuss Stolen Valor and military record-keeping.

Kelley’s hearing will take place in room 418 of the Russell Senate Office Building. Davis’ hearing will take place in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Both hearings commence at 10 a.m. Live video from Kelley’s hearing will be available on the committee’s home page by clicking here, and Davis’ hearing can be viewed live by clicking here.

Stolen Valor:

The VFW has been a vocal proponent of preserving Stolen Valor legislation, the law that prohibits the false display of military awards and decorations that is currently under review by the Supreme Court. During his remarks, Davis will not only discuss why preserving Stolen Valor laws are critical to the veterans’ community, but also how the Department of Defense must also play a role in ensuring that military records are accurate and properly maintained. Testifying alongside Davis will be award and decorations experts from the military services, National Personnel Records Center Director Scott Levins, and Military Times Hall of Valor curator Doug Sterner. Sterner, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, is considered the nation’s most prominent expert on military award record-keeping and maintains the most accurate database of valor awards for U.S. military personnel.

Subcommittee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, decided to call the hearing after his own experiences in his district where constituents had made false claims of military awards.

VA Budget:

Similar to last week’s hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Kelley will focus his remarks on potential shortfalls in construction and infrastructure investment in the VA’s 2013 budget proposal.

The Independent Budget is a roadmap drafted by some of the nation’s leading veterans’ advocates, which Congress has used for more than a quarter century to help determine how to best fund VA. The Independent Budget partner organizations include AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the VFW. The document also has the support of more than 50 other veterans’ organizations which have endorsed the Independent Budget recommendations. To learn more about the Independent Budget and to read this year’s specific budget proposal, click here.

Your VFW will bring you highlights and updates from both of today’s hearings. Check back later for updates.

VFW Joins VA Nurses for Legislative Roundtable

On Friday VFW joined the Nurses Organization of Veterans Affairs, or NOVA, for their annual legislative roundtable at the Washington, D.C., office of the Disabled American Veterans, or DAV.

VFW Action Corps Manager Teresa Morris, who recently served on the NOVA foundation board, joined representatives from both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees, the American Nurses Association, Association of Veterans Affairs Nurse Anesthetists, National Association of Veterans Research and Education Foundations, and veterans advocates from the American Legion, DAV, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Vietnam Veterans of America to discuss NOVA’s legislative priority goals for 2012.

The afternoon’s discussion centered around the fiscal year 2013 VA budget and the potential shortfalls in construction and research funding – particularly funding and availability of proper laboratory space. In addition to budget considerations, NOVA provided a handout of their legislative agenda for 2012 and discussed many areas of concern for nurses within the VA system, such as investment in proper IT infrastructure and programs to recruit and retain quality staff.

Morris discussed VFW’s role within the Independent Budget for VA, focusing on how inadequate funding for VA construction and infrastructure improvement could negatively affect veterans who rely on VA health care. The VFW testified on the VA’s budget proposal before the House Veterans Affairs Committee last week, expressing the same concerns.

Morris also focused on broader veterans’ health care issues outlined in the VFW’s 2012 Legislative Priority Goals including mental health, invisible wounds like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and proper training for all who serve in a patient care role to identify signs and symptoms related to these conditions.

House and Senate representatives talked about their committees’ priorities for the second session of the 112th Congress, stressing proper oversight of VA mental health programs and efficiencies within the department.

Next Wednesday, the VFW will appear before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to once again discuss the FY2013 VA budget, continuing to advocate for proper VA funding and voicing similar concerns over proper infrastructure funding. As the 2013 budget process moves forward, check back regularly with this blog for updates.

VFW Builds Coalition to Support Student-Veteran Success

VFW staff in Washington have been busy over the last month, building a robust coalition, pushing for student-veteran success in higher education. The coalition, comprised of 10 organizations vested in supporting student-veterans, recently sent a series of letters to leaders in the House, Senate, and the Obama Administration, calling for improved consumer education for potential student-veterans and a streamlined method of recourse for veterans who feel they were victims of fraud, waste or abuse while using their benefits.

The VFW first scored a major victory for student-veterans in 2008, pushing for the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which now offers unprecedented educational opportunities to veterans of the current conflicts and the dependents of career service members. Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that some of today’s newest student-veterans may lose their benefits by enrolling in schools that fail to confer relevant educational credentials.

While some continue to point fingers at certain sectors of higher education, the VFW has chosen to look at the root causes of the problem – a potentially uninformed consumer inundated with bad information and no process for recovery. Over the last few months, the VFW has learned that enough quality information is available for veterans to make informed decisions about how to best use their education benefits, and both the Department of Education and VA have already taken steps to collect more. Unfortunately, most of this information never reaches student-veterans. Plus, if veterans feel they have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse, conflicts are resolved on an ad-hoc basis, with little knowledge or interaction from VA.

Under Chapter 36 of the G.I. Bill, VA is obligated to make educational and vocational counseling available to service members, potential student-veterans, and dependents eligible for any chapter of the G.I. Bill. Unfortunately, very few student-veterans are aware that this benefit exists, and even fewer choose to take advantage of it. In its current form, veterans must first discover that such counseling is available, fill out the requisite paperwork, mail it to their nearest VA regional office and wait for a response. This labor-intensive “opt-in” process resulted in only 6,400 veterans receiving counseling in 2011, compared to more than 800,000 veterans utilizing G.I. Bill benefits.

With so much at stake for these future leaders, the coalition has asked for an overhaul to VA’s educational counseling procedures, mandating VA to actively contact veterans eligible for such counseling, asking those who wish to waive the benefit to “opt-out.” On the back end, the coalition has asked that VA leverage its resources to create a formal complaint process to address student-veteran issues, allowing VA and other agencies responsible for student-veteran programs to take action.

In addition to the VFW, the coalition includes some of the nation’s leading veterans’ advocates, including the American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Student Veterans of America; as well as a diverse group of advocates in non-profit and for-profit education including American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers, American Council of Education, Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, National Association for College Admission Counseling, National Association of State Approving Agencies, and the University of Phoenix.

The VFW believes that by ensuring veterans understand their benefits and can take action when a school breaks the rules, student-veterans will be able to use their G.I. Bill effectively, molding the next generation of American leaders, as we intended. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

(Image: Coalition letter recently sent to House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Ranking Member Bob Filner, D-Calif., asking for improved consumer education and recourse for student-veterans.)

Watch Live: House Subcommittee Discusses VA Fiduciaries

*Update 1:45 p.m.: The archived webcast is now available here. 
*Update 11:05 a.m.: The hearing has reconvened. Tune in live now. 
*Update 10:13 a.m.: The hearing is in recess for votes in the House. We will keep you posted once the hearing reconvenes. 

This morning the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will host a hearing on the VA’s fiduciary system, which has come under scrutiny in recent years over concerns for severely disabled veterans’ financial interests.

The hearing commences at 10:00 a.m. in the committee’s chambers, room 334 of the Cannon House Office Building. To view the live webcast of the hearing, click here.

VA assigns fiduciaries to oversee VA benefits paid to severely disabled and incapacitated veterans incapable of managing the funds. However, a 2010 report from the VA’s Office of the Inspector General indicated that loopholes persist in the program that keep VA from properly auditing fiduciary accountings and prohibit VA from balancing delinquent accounts.

The VFW most recently testified on these inequities during last spring’s legislative hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, calling for improvements to the program, and VFW advocates in Washington will be watching this morning’s proceedings closely in the House.

This morning’s panelists include Dave McLenachen, VA’s director of pension and fiduciary service, alongside fiduciaries who have been tasked to represent veterans’ financial interests. To view a full list of panelists, click here.

Prepared remarks for each panelist should be available later this week. VFW will keep you posted through this blog on this morning’s hearing. Check back for updates.