What Do You Think? Senate Seeks Commission on Retiree Benefits

As part of the VFW's ongoing work protecting the Department of Defense from sequestration and other budget cuts affecting those who volunteer to serve today or may volunteer to serve in the future, we watch and listen very closely for clues about changes to military pay, military quality-of-life programs, and the military retirement system.

As the full Senate prepares to debate the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the VFW must highlight a controversial provision in the committee-passed version of the bill that we believe would jeopardize the military retirement benefit. Title XVI of the bill (S. 3254) would establish an advisory committee known as the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. The stated purpose of the Commission is to achieve fiscal sustainability for the military compensation and retirement systems, and the Commission's recommendations would then be accepted by strictly an up or down vote, without the opportunity to debate or amend.

This stated purpose not only implies that the current system is unsustainable, but it also assumes that the cost is not worth the expense. As you have read before on this blog, the VFW vehemently disagrees. As we read the fine print of the language establishing this Commission, we were disturbed to find that the provisions would prevent anyone who works for a Veteran or Military Service Organization to sit on the Commission, and would further prevent anyone from serving on the Commission who had worked for a VSO or MSO within the last year. In other words, the VFW and other groups who advocate for you have no voice – meaning the voices of our more than two million members and advocates would be effectively silenced.

As if this wasn't bad enough, the Commission's final recommendations on changing the retirement system would then be put strictly to an up-or-down vote in Congress, meaning the VFW and other advocates would never have an opportunity to evaluate the Commission's report or make recommendations that represent the best interest of our veterans.

We believe that stacking the deck against service members and shutting veterans out of a discussion on the future of the military compensation and retirement system is totally unconscionable, and that this Commission must be stopped before it’s too late. The provisions establishing this Commission are not in the House-passed version of the NDAA, and there’s still time for you to contact your Senators to express your opposition to establishing this Commission before the bill comes to the floor.

Over the last few months, thousands of VFW members and advocates, like retired Petty Officer Hal Cleveland, mobilized to fight TRICARE premium increases, increases that Congress ultimately eliminated from the NDAA. Congress listened to our voice before; we can make them listen again. To learn how you can contact your representatives and tell them to oppose the Commission, click here.

Finally, let us know what you think about the potential establishment of this Commission by taking our short poll, and don't forget to leave your comments below.

Do you think this Commission would have the best interest of service members and retirees in mind?

Yes No

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If this Commission drastically changed military retirement benefits, would you continue to serve or encourage others to serve a full career?

Yes No

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Would your Senator's stance on this issue weigh into your decision on election day?

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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.)

We Were Supposed to do a Webinar Today…

This afternoon, the interagency committee tasked with implementing the president’s recent executive order on veterans’ education planned to host a webinar for veterans’ advocates and higher education stakeholders to outline how VA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education planned to implement the new directive.

The VFW has played a lead role in building consensus among leaders in higher education and the veterans’ community, sparking decisive action from Congress and the White House on the issue. Unfortunately, when it came time to log on to the webinar, the VFW was locked out.

Military OneSource, the DoD service tasked with hosting the webinar, said in an email that they overbooked the system, locking out groups like the VFW who had registered to participate last week. The email went on to explain that a subsequent webinar would be hosted next Friday and the presentation would be available to the public in two weeks online.

“To the VFW, this course of action is unacceptable,” said VFW Executive Director Bob Wallace. “We’ve been persistent advocates on this issue and we deserve to know how VA, the Pentagon and higher education intend to implement the executive order in order to best represent our veterans’ needs. It’s highly unprofessional and completely unacceptable to ask the VFW and our partner organizations to wait another week to learn about this program.”

The VFW was one of the few veterans’ organizations invited to testify on the president’s executive order, Executive Order #13607, before the House VA Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity two weeks ago. To learn more about the hearing and the executive order, click here.

(Image: Screengrab of the VFW's lock-out screen from today's webinar on Executive Order #13607.)

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.)

An Advocate’s Point of View by Retired Navy Petty Officer Hal Cleveland

Earlier this spring, we introduced several VFW members who shared their stories of advocacy leading up to the spring legislative conference in Washington, D.C. As we continue to hear how VFW members advocate on behalf of their fellow veterans, we want to continue sharing their stories. This week, retired Navy Petty Officer Hal Cleveland tells us why he advocates for veterans and how he recently mobilized his fellow VFW members to tell Congress to protect military retirees and their earned health care benefits.

I have been advocating for veterans since I retired from the U.S. Navy in 1993. From my first involvement with the various veterans’ service organizations I belong to, I have been promoting and communicating legislative actions and news about veterans to anyone that will listen.

I have used the internet to scout for veterans who are willing to use the CapWiz prewritten emails to write our elected members in Washington. However, I realized that a letter here or there was not getting the message across, so I decided to concentrate on my local VFW post, VFW district commander, as well as all veterans who were willing to sign up with me in the congressional district where I live. My reasoning for this was that the more letters a representative or senators receives, the better chance that he or she would take notice of our issues – the squeaky wheel gets the grease theory. Everyone knows that not all the letters get read, but they do get counted and are categorized by subject, so if there was someone in every congressional district in the country that was a VFW legislative advocate, we could make our voices heard!

There is a thin line between advocating for veterans benefits and being political, and many veterans do not know where that line is. I have lived by an old saying of “all politics are local.”

I developed email groups of the various service organizations I belong to, and I am the service officer for my local VFW post. It is a small post and most, if not all, of the members do not require my services as a service officer. This is why I tend to embrace the legislative aspect. I find that there are more non-members who approach me about benefits than members. However, I do enlist the membership’s help in getting Congress to keep or improve what benefits that other veterans have earned.

Last month, the post purchased envelopes, labels and stamps, and I printed out more than 60 letters addressing our congressional representative and senators to stop the unfair increases in TRICARE [premiums]. I can’t say for certain that it worked, but the VFW [Washington] Weekly newsletter I received today states that the Senate Armed Service Committee voted to not allow the increases to TRICARE premiums. At the same time, we sent letters to the House Armed Services Committee and they also chose to not accept the premium increases.

There is a good saying that says, “If you don’t tell Congress otherwise, they will think everything is ok.”

The biggest obstacle that I have to overcome is that to me, it appears that most veterans are usually their own worst enemy. When something is hot and moving in Washington, I will ask a veteran to write in support of a given subject and their answer is always, “that does not affect me; why should I write?” Or, they will try and tie a political party to it. Regardless, you should hear them scream when they have an iron in the fire that they are interested in. Bottom line, if everyone would participate and if everyone sent one letter per week, we would speak with one loud and consistent voice.

I canvas all the legislative updates that I get from the various email subscriptions including the VFW and monthly I will post a legislative newsletter with a summarized version of what I have read. Not everyone responds by sending letters to their representative or their senators, but if they read it, they are more knowledgeable than the average person. Knowledge is a powerful tool, if they use it.

Twice a year we host a community service safety project, which I am chairman of this year, that serves free coffee and lemonade to the traveling public over the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. This gives me an opportunity to meet with comrades from other posts and also traveling veterans where I offer [our] newsletters to help educate them.

So there you have it. This is my input for suggestions on how I advocate for veterans. Thanks for the opportunity to share it with you.

Hal Cleveland retired from the U.S. Navy as a petty officer first class in 1993. During his time in the Navy, he deployed as an aviation maintenance administrationman in support of operations in Lebanon, Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. Today, Hal continues to serve his fellow veterans as post service officer for Tri-Cities VFW Post 6872 in Crowley, Texas. To learn more about his post, click here. Photo courtesy of Hal Cleveland.  

To submit an Advocate's Point of View or a Field Report for consideration on the VFW’s Capitol Hill blog, simply fill out our online form here, or send photos and stories directly to vfwac@vfw.org.  

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:

ICYMI: VA and Labor Officials Update Congress on VOW Act

In case you missed it:  Yesterday the House Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a hearing to discuss the implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act. Your VFW was on hand to hear VA and Department of Labor officials discuss progress in implementing provisions of the comprehensive veterans’ employment law, which the VFW helped Congress to pass late last year.

VA Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans Employment and Training Services Junior Ortiz appeared before the committee to explain how their agencies have collaborated to implement new programs established by the VOW Act.

To view a full list of yesterday's witnesses and to read their prepared remarks, click here. To view an archived webcast of the hearing, click here.

One of the VOW Act’s key provisions was the establishment of the Veterans Retraining Assistance, or VRAP, program, which offers one year of Montgomery G.I. Bill-style education benefits to unemployed veterans between the ages of 35-60 who are ineligible for other VA education benefit programs. In April, VA commissioned a web site to highlight programs like VRAP, and started accepting applications for the program on May 15 – two weeks ahead of the scheduled May 30 due date.

Hickey said that to date VA has received more than 12,000 applications to participate in the program, crediting the initial results to extensive outreach through the VFW and more than 200 nonprofit community organizations, as well as in military publications and local public service airtime.

House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Ga., expressed concerns about VA and VETS outreach to veterans’ employment representatives at DOL employment one-stop centers across the country.

Ortiz admitted that VETS did not conduct early outreach because policies were not in place until early May. However, the department was able to quickly deliver accurate information to each one-stop, and hosted a successful webinar for workforce development staff prior to VRAP implementation on May 15.

During the hearing Hickey addressed concerns on over-enrollment in the initial roll-out of VRAP, explaining that if 45,001 veterans registered for the 45,000 available slots, the extra veteran would still be verified through the program and informed that he or she would be eligible to receive compensation for training starting Oct. 1, when an additional 54,000 slots become available.

Hickey also explained that to date, only 23 percent of veteran applicants have been turned away from the program, but that of this 23 percent, applicants were either not veterans or were eligible to use another VA education program. She then explained that VA was providing veterans with their notice-of-eligibility for those other VA education programs “in the same breath” as their denial for VRAP, allowing veterans to enroll in a program and receive their VA education benefits in a timely manner.

Since it was signed into law, veterans’ advocates have been skeptical about the one-year cap on benefits. Ortiz explained that veterans who enroll in the program will receive extensive follow-up from VETS to help find jobs once they exhaust their benefits, complete a career training program, or simply terminate enrollment.

The VFW will continue to monitor implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, and we encourage veterans to log on to benefits.va.gov/VOW to learn if you are eligible to participate in any new programs. Check back regularly for updates.

(Image: Yesterday's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Department of Labor and VA implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)