Veteran Issues Digest Number 1706

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Messages In This Digest (3 Messages)

1. Congress finally approves authorization bill From: Colonel Dan
2. Lawmakers seek to boost home-buying benefit From: Colonel Dan
3. Long road looms for VA From: Colonel Dan

Messages

1. Congress finally approves authorization bill

Posted by: "Colonel Dan" colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net coloneldan1

Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:44 am (PST)


Congress finally approves authorization bill

By Rick <mailto:rmaze@atpco. com?subject=Question from ArmyTimes.com reader>
Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 14:29:13 EST
http://www.armytime s.com/news/ 2007/12/military _authbill_ approved_ 071214w/

A $696.4 billion defense policy bill cleared its final congressional hurdle
and is on its way to the White House for President Bush's signature.

The bill, passed on a 90-3 vote, includes a 3.5 percent military pay raise,
a Wounded Warrior package aimed at helping injured combat veterans and their
families, makes significant increases in the size of the Army and Marine
Corps and includes almost $100 billion in weapons funding.

"The pay increase won't make them rich, but they didn't join to get rich,"
said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, referring to
service members. "It will help them pay bills."

The bill includes authorization to add 13,000 active-duty soldiers and 9,000
Marines to the force, and orders the services to stop converting military
medical jobs into civilian positions.

Also in the bill is a one-year freeze on any fee increases for people using
the military's Tricare health insurance program.

There are two major benefits improvements for disabled retirees eligible for
both military retired pay and veteran's disability compensation. First,
veterans with disability ratings of less than 100 percent who nevertheless
are considered fully disabled because they are determined to be unemployable
will get full concurrent receipt of their retired pay and disability
compensation - although not right away. Second, troops who are medically
retired with less than 20 years of service with combat-related injuries will
be eligible for Combat Related Special Compensation.

Reid, one of the chief sponsors of the two concurrent receipt provisions,
said the bill makes great progress toward keeping promises made in 1999 when
lawmakers began to eliminate a policy set in the 19th century that required
a dollar-for-dollar offset in retired pay for those also receiving
disability compensation for the same period of service.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Calif., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman who
helped negotiate details, said the peacetime defense bill is a critically
important piece of legislation for lawmakers to pass by the end of the year
because troops would not get the Jan. 1 increase in pay and benefits if it
doesn't. To pass the bill, the Senate interrupted debate on other measures.

The all-ranks pay increase should first appear in mid-January paychecks as
long as President Bush signs the measure by about Dec. 31, because the
Defense Finance and Accounting Service generally needs about 10 days to make
major changes in the military payroll. There is another reason why it is
important the bill be signed by Dec. 31: authority for two dozen recruiting
and retention programs - including enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses for
active and reserve forces - expires on Jan. 1 unless extended. The bill
includes a one-year extension.

Congress and the Bush administration had strong disagreements about details
of the bill, and veto threats even hung over the measure, but all of the
major problems appear to be resolved, according to House and Senate aides.
The final hurdle was overcome when the Senate agreed to give up on plans to
attach an expansion of federal hate-crimes legislation to the defense bill.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman who
headed the negotiating conference where the compromise bill was written,
called the measure "the best bill in decades that this Congress has put
forward."

"It is good for the troops, good for our families, it will help improve
readiness of our armed forces and it will bring new significant oversight to
the Department of Defense in areas where oversight was sorely needed,"
Skelton said Dec. 12 as the House passed the bill by a 370-49 vote.


2. Lawmakers seek to boost home-buying benefit

Posted by: "Colonel Dan" colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net coloneldan1

Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:46 am (PST)


Lawmakers seek to boost home-buying benefit

By <mailto:rmaze@atpco. com?subject=Question from ArmyTimes.com reader> Rick
Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 14:43:08 EST
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee is focusing on how to use the
veterans' home loan program to help service members and veterans who risk
losing their homes.

Reps. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and Mike Michaud, D-Maine, introduced a bill
Thursday that would greatly increase the maximum loan amount that the
Department of Veterans Affairs guarantees. The bill, HR 4539, would raise
the current $417,000 limit to a new maximum of $521,250.

Buyer, the former committee chairman, said the chief reason for the increase
is that the $417,000 cap is so low that it precludes service members and
veterans from using the program in some high-cost areas of the country.

"Rising housing costs are keeping many veterans out of the market," Buyer
said. "And those who are able to purchase the American Dream are paying
significantly higher closing costs."

Buyer said the bill also would make it easier for people with non-VA loans
to refinance under the government guaranty program by capping refinancing
fees - which currently are larger for refinancing than for new loans - and
could relax rules on who must pay closing costs, both actions that would
make the VA loan program more attractive.

"With affordable housing so scarce in many areas of the nation, the
increased guaranty and closing cost assistance should be very advantageous
to both our nation's veterans and home builders," said Michaud.

Buyer and Michaud may be the first out of the gate, but the committee's
chairman, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said Friday that he is working on his
own home loan plan that would provide maximum loans of $620,000, waive or
relax fees, and cut some red tape that makes it especially difficult to use
the VA program to purchase certain types of housing, such as condominiums.

Filner said he is even thinking about including a provision that would
prevent a lender from foreclosing on the home of anyone on active duty.

Filner called the current VA loan program "irrelevant" because of the loan
caps, high fees and strict underwriting and appraisal requirements that
discourage homebuyers, real estate and mortgage brokers and sellers from
using the program.

Filner said it is not clear that any veterans' loan-related legislation
could pass Congress this year, "but at least we can get started."


3. Long road looms for VA

Posted by: "Colonel Dan" colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net coloneldan1

Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:50 am (PST)


Army Times: Editorial: Long road looms for VA

The huge backlog of veterans' benefits claims, now 400,000 and growing, is
hardly a secret.

Less well known, however, is the other side of this problem - the appeals
process that kicks in when veterans challenge initial decisions on their
claims.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has the highest caseload of
any federal appeals court. In fiscal 2007, it received 4,644 cases and
decided 4,877 - both all-time records for a court that boasts just seven
judges.

Given the complexity of disability claims and the often murky details,
especially with mental health claims, this astonishing caseload makes it
hard to believe veterans get a fair hearing on their appeals.

Worse, the appeals backlog is at 6,300 and counting, which is why it takes
an average of two years, and often longer, for a decision.

Chief Judge William Greene Jr. has asked Congress to approve the hiring of
more support staff, and to allow decisions to be made using condensed
records rather than more extensive documents that can take months to gather.
A bill to add two more judges to the court is also pending.

But there is little apparent urgency to deal with the matter. The bill to
add more judges, for example, is mired in the Senate Veterans' Affairs
Committee.

The odds are that things will get worse before they get better. After years
of delay, the VA is finally hiring more claims processors - which will speed
initial decisions and likely appeals, as well.

Having browbeaten VA to hire more claims processors, Congress must swallow
its own medicine and add more judges and staff to the appeals court.

The backlog is too long, and the time judges have to render a fair decision
is too short for justice to be served to our wounded veterans.







"Keep on, Keepin' on"
Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"
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