Veterans of Foreign Wars Issues Statement on Pending Legislation
"Chairman Isakson, Ranking Member Tester and members of the Committee, on behalf of the men and women of the
S. 23, Biological Implant Tracking and Veteran Safety Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation that would direct the
"In the past, the
S. 112, Creating a Reliable Environment for Veterans' Dependents Act
"The VFW supports adding per diem reimbursement for those homeless veterans with dependents to the list of services available for veterans in need. The struggle for homeless veterans is enough of a burden as is, and providing some financial support for veterans with dependents while they seek help is something that the VFW sees as an important change. While the VFW supports this bill, we ask that some improvements be made.The language of the bill states that the recipient of the grant "may" receive per diem payments under this subsection. We would like to see this language changed to "shall". This would ensure veterans in the greatest need will receive financial assistance.
S. 324, State Veterans Home Adult Day Health Care Improvement Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation, which would expand adult day health care benefits for veterans who are eligible for long-term inpatient care. Currently, veterans who are at least 70 percent service-connected are eligible to receive cost-free nursing home or domiciliary care at any of the more than 120 state veterans' homes throughout the country. While nursing home care is a necessity for veterans who can no longer live in the comfort of their home, the VFW strongly believes veterans should remain in their homes as long as possible before turning to inpatient and long-term care options. This legislation would ensure veterans have the opportunity to receive adult day care so they can remain in their homes as long as possible.
S. 543, Performance Accountability and Contractor Transparency Act of 2017
"The VFW supports the intent of this bill, but we do not believe this legislation is needed. There are a few sections of this bill that seem redundant with laws or practices already in place. We understand the effort to place
S. 591, Military and Veteran Caregiver Services Improvement Act of 2017
"The VFW strongly supports this legislation, which would greatly enhance the services provided to caregivers of service members and veterans who were severely disabled in the line of duty. Family caregivers choose to put their lives and careers on hold, often accepting great emotional and financial burdens, and the VFW believes that our nation owes them the support they need and deserve. This bill would accomplish this in a number of ways, including extending benefits to caregivers of veterans with service-connected illnesses, offsetting the costs of their child care, providing them with financial advice and legal counseling, expanding their respite care options, and requiring
"This legislation would extend caregiver eligibility to severely injured and ill veterans of all eras. This is a desperately needed change that the VFW has long supported. Severely wounded and ill veterans of all conflicts have made incredible sacrifices, and all family members who care for them are equally deserving of our recognition and support. The fact that caregivers of previous era veterans are currently excluded from the full complement of program benefits implies that their service and sacrifices are not as significant, and we believe this is wrong. We support the five year phase-in plan, which would incrementally grant program eligibility based on the severity of the veteran's conditions, as we believe this would give
"The VFW hears from our member often about eligibility for
"This legislation would require an annual evaluation report to determine how many caregivers are receiving benefits, assess training that
"The VFW commends
"The VFW strongly believes
S. 609, Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation which would provide chiropractic care and services to veterans receiving health care at
S. 681, Deborah Sampson Act
"The VFW supports this legislation to improve
Title I - Peer-to-Peer Assistance
"Peer-to-peer support has proven time and again to be invaluable to veterans and
Title II - Legal and Supportive Services
"Since
Title III - Newborn Care
"Typically, in private sector health care, a new mother has a month to enroll her newborn child into an insurance program. Currently,
Title IV - Eliminating Barriers to Access
"Barriers to health care have not been shunned from the spotlight in regard to access at
Title V - Data Collection and Reporting
"
S. 764, Veterans Education Priority Enrollment Act
"The VFW supports adding legislation that allows veterans using GI Bill benefits to enroll in classes before the standard enrollment date. Veterans have finite time to use their education benefits, and being locked out of required classes due to capacity issues is a real problem for student veterans. Many veterans take longer than the 36 months of GI Bill eligibility to complete their education due to a combination of factors such as the inability to enroll in the necessary classes because of capacity issues; limited offering of classes throughout the academic year; and restrictions on registration due to academic progress or transferal from another school. Therefore, the creation and implementation of a priority enrollment system -- similar to other special college populations such as college athletes -- as well as revised class enrollment and transfer policies, are necessary to ensure that veterans are able to complete their educational goals within the 36 months of benefits allotted by the GI Bill.
"Priority enrollment for student veterans was an issue championed by a recent
S. 784, Veterans Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation which would increase
"Disabled veterans, along with their surviving spouses and children, depend on their disability compensation, plus dependency and indemnity compensation, to bridge the gap of lost earnings caused by the veteran's disability. Each year veterans wait anxiously to find out if they will receive a COLA. There is no automatic trigger that increases these forms of compensation for veterans and their dependents. Annually, veterans wait for a separate act of
S. 804, Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation, which would improve health care for women veterans using
"When the VFW conducted its survey of nearly 2,000 female veterans in 2016, one of the most overwhelming open ended responses on how to improve women's health care in
This legislation would also greatly improve the quality of care available to women veterans by increasing the number of providers who specialize in gynecology, as well as thoroughly examining other areas of gender-specific need, such as women veteran wait times, health outcomes based on gender, and availability of gender-specific equipment.
S. 899,
"The VFW supports the Veteran Transition Improvement Act, which would authorize service-connected disabled veterans to access care for their service-connected injury during their first year of employment with
S. 1024, Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017
"The VFW supports this legislation to reform and modernize the
"The goal of this legislation is to once again build a veteran-centric process that is easy to navigate and protects a veteran's rights every step of the way. Last year, the VFW was one of more than a dozen veteran community stakeholders that convened to discuss the way forward in modernizing the
"Through this legislation,
"As accredited representatives, one of our top responsibilities is explaining rating decisions to veterans and deciphering which evidence was used to render a decision and how
"Coupled with improved notifications, this legislation codifies three specific paths through which veterans can arrive at a fair and understandable rating decision, while preserving the earliest possible effective date. Two of these paths -- higher level review and supplemental claims readjudication -- offer recourse for the veteran without filing a formal appeal, offering the veteran and
"Currently, when a veteran receives a rating decision, they must choose whether or not to formally file a notice of disagreement, kicking off a potential years-long process to arrive at a new decision, sometimes when only small matters of evidence or interpretation of the law need to be addressed. By redesigning appeal options, the process remains non-adversarial as long as possible, and also encourages
"Critics have called these two new paths at the regional office an "erosion" of veterans' due process rights. This is an inaccurate assessment that fails to acknowledge that the
"Though the VFW always encourages veterans to seek professional assistance from an accredited representative whenever possible, a perfect system would be one where veterans do not need professional assistance, and certainly do not need to retain a lawyer, simply to claim an earned benefit. The VFW believes this proposed framework, if properly implemented, moves veterans closer to such a system.
"The most critical new protection for veterans is the lane in which veterans can continually submit new and relevant evidence to
"First, lowering the evidentiary threshold to receive a new rating decision to only new and relevant is an improvement for veterans. The old standard was new and material. While the VFW would prefer that
Key to the success of this lane is communication among
"To the VFW, this is the best possible outcome. According to
"The VFW also supports the maintenance of two separate dockets at BVA to adjudicate new appeals, though we have persistent concerns about the timeliness of decisions in each docket and the potential disincentive for veterans to pursue an appeal with a hearing. That being said, the VFW supports docket flexibility so that BVA can properly manage its workload and provide veterans with timely decisions. However, in testimony earlier this year, VFW Commander-in-Chief
"When the Committee first started discussing the concept of appeals reform for the 115th
"To the VFW, this is a benefit to affected veterans and to
"The VFW understands that
Since the first discussions on appeals reform with
"The VFW must stress the importance of properly resourcing BVA and VBA to adjudicate the legacy appeals backlog and the potential influx of supplemental claims and higher level review requests at the VA Regional Office. The VFW's former National Veterans Service Director,
"The VFW was also happy to see that the Committee is asking for extensive reporting from
"A modernized appeals system must be responsive to future needs of veterans. Veterans benefits date from the beginning of
"At the same time, the modernized appeals system also needs the oversight of
"The VFW is encouraged by the legislation you are considering today and strongly supports efforts to reform the claims and appeals system to build a more veteran-centric appeals process. For years, we have been stuck in the same place, afraid to take action out of fear we will make the wrong decision. The problem is that if we stay put, the situation will never improve. That is unacceptable for the veterans who deserve timely access to their earned benefits. The VFW believes it is time to improve this process. We encourage the Committee to include the VFW's recommendations when marking up this legislation, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Committee to advance these critical reforms.
S. 1094,
"The VFW believes that
"This important bill includes strong accountability reform for
"The VFW salutes Chairman Isakson, Ranking Member Tester,
"The VFW believes whistleblower protection is an essential addition to the accountability legislation. A federal survey shows that less than 50 percent of
"The VFW also believes
"We fear that
Draft bill, Serving our Rural Veterans Act (Sullivan, Tester)
"This legislation would allow for
Draft bill,
"The VFW supports this legislation, which would require
"The VFW is glad to see this legislation would require each medical center that participates in the pilot program to consider the gender-specific needs of women veterans when carrying out the pilot program. In our survey of women veterans, survey participants identified the lack of gender-specific services as the greatest need in
"
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