Veterans Committee Goals
Legislative Goals for 2018
The primary focus of these goals is Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits authorized under Title 38 of the U.S. Code.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR VETERANS' HEALTH CARE AND BENEFITS
HEALTH CARE
Health Care System Reform. Support and invest in modernizing VHA technology, financial, infrastructure, electronic health records, and human resource systems, including reforming VA Community Care and Choice Programs. Establish robust leadership and management plans to meet transformational goals and evolving veteran and health system requirements. Critical elements to VHA reform should include:
VHA Health Care Workforce. Continue to pursue workforce improvements to VA health system by:
Rural Veterans. Increase funding for the VA Office of Rural Health and ensure mandated outreach efforts in rural and remote areas are implemented as required by the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-461).
Caregivers. Ensure full implementation of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-163) provisions. Extend the Act to include full-time caregivers of catastrophically disabled veterans of conflicts before Sept. 11, 2001. Align the DoD and VA definitions for caregiver support and services, to include qualifying “illnesses.”
Deployment-Related Illnesses and Toxic Exposures Research. Support research on the impact of service members exposed to occupational or environmental toxins or hazardous substances, and/or deployment illnesses resulting from their military service (e.g., burn pit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan, Camp Lejeune contaminated water, Gulf War Illness). Specifically:
CHAMPVA Young Adult. Expand CHAMPVA to adult children of eligible veterans, family members and survivors until age 26 to align eligibility with TRICARE Young Adult and private sector health insurance.
VHA Access and Fees. Oppose enrollment or access fees for current and future veterans enrolled in VA health care in all priority group categories. Preserve integrity and access to both VA and DoD health systems for dually eligible members.
CLAIMS PROCESSING AND APPEALS SYSTEMS
Integrated Disability Evaluation Benefit Systems. Improve legacy and integrate disability evaluation systems and Benefits Delivery at Discharge efficiency and effectiveness. Continue to press DoD and VA to achieve true interoperability of electronic medical, personnel and benefit records to improve medical outcomes and delivery of benefits.
Claims and Appeals Backlog. Monitor and engage with VA in the implementation of the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-55) to improve the claims to appeals process. Support needed investment in software and hardware upgrades for claims management. Preclude ‘unlicensed’ individuals from taking fees for representing veterans’ claims.
Presumptive Service Connection. Promote dissemination of ‘brown’ and ‘blue’ water Navy ship logs as they become available for veterans to apply for Agent Orange-related diseases. Support legislation to establish eligibility for presumptive service-connection for ‘blue water’ Navy Vietnam War service members. Ensure fair and consistent application of standards and procedures for adjudicating Agent Orange claims. Encourage expansion of Camp Lejeune water contamination conditions to include all those recognized by DoD in 2012 and provide fair effective dates. Promote the inclusion of affected family members.
Mental Health Discharge Board of Review. Support creation of a Mental Health Discharge Board of Review to redress ‘low-ball’ service member ratings for PTSD, TBI, and MST, including Vietnam War and Gulf War I periods. Support efforts to ensure review boards take circumstances of in-service trauma into consideration.
VA Schedule of Rating for Disabilities (VASRD). Support the continual review and modernization of the VASRD based on current medical science.
PTSD, TBI and MST Compensation and Pension (C & P) Exams. Promote VA’s release of Disability Benefits Questionnaires for PTSD and TBI to allow veterans to obtain C & P exams outside the VA-contract examiners (e.g., from DoD doctors if member is still on active duty or from VA treating physicians).
EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Veterans Employment. Support initiatives for employers to recruit, hire and retain veterans, including returning veterans of the Guard and Reserve.
Veterans Hiring Incentives. Re-enact employer tax incentives under the Vow to Hire Heroes Act.
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VRE) Benefits. Establish a cost-of-living stipend for VRE participants.
Veteran-Owned and Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses. Ensure veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses achieve parity with other federal contracting categories and ensure all federal departments at least meet established veteran contracting and hiring goals.
Basic Reserve GI Bill Benefits. Urge proportional upgrades to the Title 10 Montgomery GI Bill program (Chap. 1606, 10 USC) to keep pace with the cost of education.
GI Bill Integration for 21st Century Force. Urge hearings for a unified architecture for all GI Bill programs for active duty, Guard and Reserve service members under the principle of awarding benefits according to the length and type of duty performed.
Student Veterans Protections. Support measures to foster positive student-veteran outcomes including:
SPECIAL INTEREST ISSUES
Veteran Family Members and Caregivers. Require VA funding and collaboration with DoD, to adopt, implement, and grow family, survivor and caregiver support programs. Such collaboration would aim to deliver seamless access to financial, employment, family support, non-medical counseling, health and wellness, and other services military, veterans, and their families may be eligible for at the local, state, or federal level.
Homeless Veterans. Support and expand VA initiatives to reduce and eliminate veteran homelessness.
Veterans’ Preference. Authorize veterans’ preference appeal rights for veterans employed by VA or other federal, state, and local government agencies. Oppose legislation restricting preference currently in law.
Financial and Legal Protections. Support continuous review and upgrades of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act, including elimination of “forced arbitration” clauses in contracts that nullify the Act’s protections. Strengthen re-employment rights for Operational Reservists who support military missions on Title 10 orders. Allow military families to break a lease without penalty when on-post housing becomes available. Make mortgage protection coverage permanent.
Veterans Treatment Courts. Support further expansion of these courts to jurisdictions across the country. Support scaling of services for incarcerated veterans.
The primary focus of these goals is Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits authorized under Title 38 of the U.S. Code.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR VETERANS' HEALTH CARE AND BENEFITS
- Promote national recognition that veterans’ benefits are earned through service and sacrifice in defense of the Nation and are qualitatively different from those normally described as “entitlement” or “social welfare” programs.
- Oppose deficit-driven or political decisions that would erode foundational services and benefits delivered through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Administration (VHA), Benefits Administration (VBA), and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) or decisions which would align earned veterans’ medical or benefits with unrelated federal or civilian benefit programs.
- Oppose proposals that would eliminate or diminish veterans’ health care and benefits to overcome national economic woes.
HEALTH CARE
Health Care System Reform. Support and invest in modernizing VHA technology, financial, infrastructure, electronic health records, and human resource systems, including reforming VA Community Care and Choice Programs. Establish robust leadership and management plans to meet transformational goals and evolving veteran and health system requirements. Critical elements to VHA reform should include:
- Overall health care coordination and navigation support for veterans.
- Investment in foundational and special-emphasis resources and specialty care services paramount to VA such as spinal cord injury, blind rehabilitation, mental health, prosthetics, and similar foundational services.
- Delivery of core mission functions such as clinical, education, research, and national emergency response to advance the health and well-being of veterans and population health.
- High-performing, high quality, integrated health care network, combining the best of VHA and the best of private sector community-based services.
- Highest priority in access to health care given to service-connected and low-income veterans.
VHA Health Care Workforce. Continue to pursue workforce improvements to VA health system by:
- Recruiting and retaining health care professionals, especially in high shortage areas such as physicians, physician assistants, mental health providers, and nurses from other government and civilian sectors.
- Implementing independent practice authority for advance practice nurses (APRNs).
- Growing the existing MOU between VHA and Department of Health and Human Services from 30 to over 100 billets for members of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) to serve in clinical and non-clinical roles.
- Establishing an MOU between VHA and USPHS to create and fund 10 slots per year at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences for medical students who agree to join USPHS and then serve in VHA clinics and hospitals to repay the government for their medical education.
- Invest in programs and research to identify at-risk populations, expand evidence-based treatment, and improve delivery of care and rehabilitative and preventive services.
- Monitor the VA Suicide Prevention Office efforts to increase behavioral health staff, resources, and crisis line capacity, ensuring outreach efforts are expanded and synchronized with the DoD Suicide Prevention Office to address the high rates of suicide among service members and veterans, assuring every call to the VA and military crisis lines are promptly answered.
- Amend 38 U.S. Code 1782, Counseling, Training, and Mental Health Services for immediate family members and caregivers to require VA to provide full range of counseling and mental health services for families and caregivers of veterans participating in caregiving, rehabilitation, and medical care for service-connected and non-service connected conditions, including veterans in crisis.
- Monitor VA’s and DoD’s outreach and policy efforts to address mental health needs of veterans with other-than-honorable discharges.
- Monitor implementation of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act (P.L. 114-2) and ensure resources are provided to support all provisions outlined in the law.
Rural Veterans. Increase funding for the VA Office of Rural Health and ensure mandated outreach efforts in rural and remote areas are implemented as required by the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-461).
Caregivers. Ensure full implementation of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-163) provisions. Extend the Act to include full-time caregivers of catastrophically disabled veterans of conflicts before Sept. 11, 2001. Align the DoD and VA definitions for caregiver support and services, to include qualifying “illnesses.”
Deployment-Related Illnesses and Toxic Exposures Research. Support research on the impact of service members exposed to occupational or environmental toxins or hazardous substances, and/or deployment illnesses resulting from their military service (e.g., burn pit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan, Camp Lejeune contaminated water, Gulf War Illness). Specifically:
- Ensure health care and benefits are established to appropriately compensate and support veterans, family members and survivors, particularly veterans who experience catastrophic and devastating cancers, diseases, other health conditions, or death.
- Implement September 2016, Government Accountability Office Report (GAO-16-781) recommendation for DoD and VA to examine the relationship between direct, individual, burn pit exposure, and potential long-term health-related issues as well as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report of 2011, which suggested the need to evaluate the health status of service members from their time of deployment over many years.
- Allow surviving family members to add deceased veterans to the Burn Pit or other established registries.
- Monitor implementation of toxic exposure assessment and research provisions contained in the Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-315).
CHAMPVA Young Adult. Expand CHAMPVA to adult children of eligible veterans, family members and survivors until age 26 to align eligibility with TRICARE Young Adult and private sector health insurance.
VHA Access and Fees. Oppose enrollment or access fees for current and future veterans enrolled in VA health care in all priority group categories. Preserve integrity and access to both VA and DoD health systems for dually eligible members.
CLAIMS PROCESSING AND APPEALS SYSTEMS
Integrated Disability Evaluation Benefit Systems. Improve legacy and integrate disability evaluation systems and Benefits Delivery at Discharge efficiency and effectiveness. Continue to press DoD and VA to achieve true interoperability of electronic medical, personnel and benefit records to improve medical outcomes and delivery of benefits.
Claims and Appeals Backlog. Monitor and engage with VA in the implementation of the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-55) to improve the claims to appeals process. Support needed investment in software and hardware upgrades for claims management. Preclude ‘unlicensed’ individuals from taking fees for representing veterans’ claims.
Presumptive Service Connection. Promote dissemination of ‘brown’ and ‘blue’ water Navy ship logs as they become available for veterans to apply for Agent Orange-related diseases. Support legislation to establish eligibility for presumptive service-connection for ‘blue water’ Navy Vietnam War service members. Ensure fair and consistent application of standards and procedures for adjudicating Agent Orange claims. Encourage expansion of Camp Lejeune water contamination conditions to include all those recognized by DoD in 2012 and provide fair effective dates. Promote the inclusion of affected family members.
Mental Health Discharge Board of Review. Support creation of a Mental Health Discharge Board of Review to redress ‘low-ball’ service member ratings for PTSD, TBI, and MST, including Vietnam War and Gulf War I periods. Support efforts to ensure review boards take circumstances of in-service trauma into consideration.
VA Schedule of Rating for Disabilities (VASRD). Support the continual review and modernization of the VASRD based on current medical science.
PTSD, TBI and MST Compensation and Pension (C & P) Exams. Promote VA’s release of Disability Benefits Questionnaires for PTSD and TBI to allow veterans to obtain C & P exams outside the VA-contract examiners (e.g., from DoD doctors if member is still on active duty or from VA treating physicians).
EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Veterans Employment. Support initiatives for employers to recruit, hire and retain veterans, including returning veterans of the Guard and Reserve.
Veterans Hiring Incentives. Re-enact employer tax incentives under the Vow to Hire Heroes Act.
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VRE) Benefits. Establish a cost-of-living stipend for VRE participants.
Veteran-Owned and Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses. Ensure veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses achieve parity with other federal contracting categories and ensure all federal departments at least meet established veteran contracting and hiring goals.
Basic Reserve GI Bill Benefits. Urge proportional upgrades to the Title 10 Montgomery GI Bill program (Chap. 1606, 10 USC) to keep pace with the cost of education.
GI Bill Integration for 21st Century Force. Urge hearings for a unified architecture for all GI Bill programs for active duty, Guard and Reserve service members under the principle of awarding benefits according to the length and type of duty performed.
Student Veterans Protections. Support measures to foster positive student-veteran outcomes including:
- Assuring effective implementation of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-48) (‘Forever’ GI Bill) law in a timely manner and ensure Congressional support for additional resources as necessary to field the bill.
- Further improving laws to protect veterans enrolled in institutions of higher learning that close or lose their accreditation.
- Aligning VA protections for student-veterans with Departments of Education and DoD protections.
- Ensuring schools spend VA benefits on serving the veteran.
- Extending “90-10” ratio of Federal aid to include GI Bill benefits.
SPECIAL INTEREST ISSUES
Veteran Family Members and Caregivers. Require VA funding and collaboration with DoD, to adopt, implement, and grow family, survivor and caregiver support programs. Such collaboration would aim to deliver seamless access to financial, employment, family support, non-medical counseling, health and wellness, and other services military, veterans, and their families may be eligible for at the local, state, or federal level.
Homeless Veterans. Support and expand VA initiatives to reduce and eliminate veteran homelessness.
Veterans’ Preference. Authorize veterans’ preference appeal rights for veterans employed by VA or other federal, state, and local government agencies. Oppose legislation restricting preference currently in law.
Financial and Legal Protections. Support continuous review and upgrades of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act, including elimination of “forced arbitration” clauses in contracts that nullify the Act’s protections. Strengthen re-employment rights for Operational Reservists who support military missions on Title 10 orders. Allow military families to break a lease without penalty when on-post housing becomes available. Make mortgage protection coverage permanent.
Veterans Treatment Courts. Support further expansion of these courts to jurisdictions across the country. Support scaling of services for incarcerated veterans.