Veteran Issues Digest Number

[admin]

1.

Senate proposes improved disability benefits

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

Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:52 am (PST)


Senate proposes improved disability benefits

A package of improvements in treatment and benefits for wounded service members - including some precedent-setting changes in disability policies -was attached Thursday to the Senate's $648 billion defense policy bill, approved by a 94-0 vote.

Called the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, the bill would make a variety of changes in current policies, especially in helping troops whose injuries are so severe that they are unable to continue serving in the military and cannot get post-service treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill orders a review of all recent disability discharges where a service member received a lump-sum severance payment instead of the lifetime disability retired pay that would come from being rated with a disability of 30 percent or more. It would also radically change the entire military review process by assuming that anyone who has served in the military was physically and mentally fit before entering service.

The assumption of fitness, which would apply to anyone who has served at least six months, would prevent the services from deciding that a service member's post-deployment problems, especially mental health issues, were the result of a pre-service condition that does not warrant severance or disability pay.

Anyone medically retired from the military for combat-related reasons would be eligible for three years of military health care after discharge, a move aimed at reducing problems getting post-service treatment.

The bill would address concerns that the military's process for evaluating service members seems adversarial, and that the services - especially the Army - seem to consistently assign lower disability ratings than would be assigned by the VA by ordering the military to use the VA's disability ratings schedule unless the military's ratings are higher.

The House of Representatives also included a wounded warrior package as part of its version of the defense authorization bill passed earlier this year, which means congressional negotiators who meet later this year to work out a compromise bill will face questions about treatment, medical retirement and other issues


2. Senate bill aims to help homeless vets

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

Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:58 am (PST)


Senate bill aims to help homeless vets

By Amy Doolittle - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 13, 2007 11:48:58 EDT
http://www.armytime s.com/news/ 2007/07/military _vethousing_ 070713w/

Homeless veterans may soon qualify for special Section 8 housing vouchers under a measure approved Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

To apply for the vouchers, veterans would contact the Veterans Affairs Department, which would screen applicants for eligibility and then manage cases. The Housing and Urban Development Department, in turn, would distribute the rental assistance.

If enacted, the funds, which total $75 million, should help provide housing for 7,500 veterans.

The money - part of a $104.6 billion transportation, housing and urban development spending bill - was not requested by the administration. The housing money is designed to accompany an increase in funds for medical and support services in the VA spending bill approved by the committee late last
month.

"This program is designed to target both housing assistance and supportive services to homeless veterans, including veterans returning form the war in Iraq," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., during the committee markup. "This program hasn't received funding for several years."

Veterans make up about 18.7 percent of homeless adults who use emergency shelters or transitional housing, according to the committee's explanatory report on its bill.

The committee unanimously approved the measure, but it is not yet scheduled for a floor vote by the full Senate. The House version of the bill does not contain the housing vouchers provision, which means this will be one of the many issues that will be negotiated in a House-Senate conference to craft a final compromise bill.