YOU DID IT!!!!! The GI bill passes the House!

You did it. Just a few minutes ago, the House of Representatives passed the new GI Bill by a vote of 256-166, as an attachment to the emergency supplemental. Click here to view the full list of who voted for it and who voted against it.

Earlier this week, we told you that the new GI Bill was facing opposition from a small group of Representatives in the House, who were threatening the bill despite its deep bi-partisan support.

We asked for your help, and you stepped up to the plate. Thousands of you took action by calling your Representatives, signing the petition at www.GIBill2008.org, and spreading the word to your friends and neighbors. Today, your dedication paid off and together, we made history.

There’s no question that your efforts had an impact. Referring specifically to the group of Representatives that were standing in the way of the bill, known as the Blue Dogs, the Politico, a Washington-insider newspaper, said that “there had been erosion among Blue Dogs in the face of pressure from veterans groups.”¹ The leadership you demonstrated in fighting for this bill shows that IAVA is a force to be reckoned with.

The new GI Bill has widespread support among Democrats, Republicans, and all of the major veterans organizations. But the legislative process is a long one, and it’s your dedication that keeps it going during these crucial stages.

Next week, the Senate will have to vote on the bill as well. After that, it will go to the President’s desk for his signature.

We’ll keep you updated via email, but for the latest news, just visit www.GIBill2008.org.

Thank you again for standing with us. The support we’re getting in this fight has been truly inspiring.

Sincerely,

Patrick Campbell
Iraq Veteran
Legislative Director
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

1. Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10331.html

More GI Bill info. House Nixes Tax increase on Millionaires.

Well I know we have plenty of Millionaire kids out there serving in the military. (HAH!).
They won’t support the military and they won’t pay for more taxes to support the military or the new GI Bill. Folks please call your rep’s about this. Look at the email I sent out earlier this week about the New GI Bill trying to be stopped by some Democrats out there.
Here is the story by the AP and Military.com.

Senate Dems Nix Taxes for New GI Bill

May 15, 2008

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders are rejecting a plan by Democrats in the House of Representatives to add a surcharge on upper-income taxpayers to a bill providing $163 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year.The half-percentage point surcharge on income exceeding $500,000 for individuals and income above $1 million for couples was added to the House war funding bill on Tuesday. The tax increase would be used to finance a $52 billion increase in college aid for post-Sept. 11, 2001, veterans that has been added to the war funding measure.

The tax increase on wealthier people was inserted to mollify moderate House Democrats upset with Democratic leaders’ original plan to simply add the big increase in benefits under the GI Bill to the near-record budget deficit. That would violate so-called pay-as-you-go budget rules that require new benefit programs to be “paid for” with accompanying revenue increases or spending cuts.

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray - a member of the party’s leadership team - rejected the idea Wednesday, telling reporters that the additional veterans money is a cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new college aid bill would essentially guarantee a full-ride scholarship to any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for individuals who serve the military for at least three years. It’s aimed at replicating the GI Bill benefits awarded veterans of World War II.

The House is slated to vote on the war funding bill Thursday. The measure also includes foreign aid funding, money for military construction projects, flood protection around New Orleans and a variety of smaller items, bringing the total appropriated spending to $183.7 billion.

In addition to the benefits, Democrats have tacked on a plan to give 13 more weeks of unemployment checks to people whose benefits have run out and 13 weeks beyond that in states with especially high unemployment rates. That provision would not comply with the budget rules requiring deficit neutrality, so its $15.6 billion cost through 2009 would simply be added to the budget deficit.

President Goerge W. Bush has promised to veto any supplemental spending bill exceeding his requests of $108 billion for the remainder of the 2008 budget year ending Sept. 30 and a $70 billion downpayment to fund the war effort for several months into 2009, which would give the next president some breathing space to set war policy.

Bush has also threatened to veto any bill that ties his hands on Iraq. The House measure would require Bush to begin pulling out troops from Iraq within 30 days with a nonbinding goal of a complete withdrawal of combat troops by December, 2009. The provision is expected to be blocked by Senate Republicans.

Appropriations Committee Democrats made some small cuts to Bush’s Pentagon request and added Bush’s $5.8 billion request for New Orleans area flood control projects.

Taken together, the changes to Bush’s requests probably are not big enough to provoke a veto, but the same cannot be said of Democrats’ plans to extend unemployment benefits or improve the GI Bill.

The measure also contains a provision to prohibit using U.S. aid to rebuild towns or equip security forces in Iraq unless Baghdad matches every dollar spent, lawmakers said Tuesday.

Care Costs Rise as Veterans Population Declines.

All of our heroes from WWII and Korea are dying due to age. The VA is not receiving the savings they thought they would due to the Injured Vets from IRAQ & Afghanistan.

Care costs rise as veteran population declines

WASHINGTON — Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the country billions of dollars for decades to come — even as the total population of America’s veterans has begun to shrink.

Despite the decline in the total number of veterans — as soldiers from World War II and Korea die — the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years, up from today’s $29 billion, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans Affairs Department concedes the bill could be much higher.

Why?

Worse wounds. More disabilities. More vets aware of the benefits and quicker to file for them.

Also, ironically, advanced medical care. Troops come home with devastating injuries that might well have killed them in earlier wars.

Time is also a factor when it comes to disability compensation costs. Payments tend to go up as veterans age, and an increasing number of soldiers from the Vietnam War will be getting bigger payments as they get older and are less able to work around their disabilities.

The number of disabled veterans has jumped by 25 percent since 2001 — to 2.9 million — and the cause really is no mystery.

“This is a cost of war,” says Steve Smithson, a deputy director at the American Legion. “We’re still producing veterans. We’ve been in a war in Iraq for five years now, and the war on terror since 9/11.”

VA and Census Bureau figures show the previous six-year period, before hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, saw a more modest increase of 4 percent in the number of disabled vets. Veterans can make claims for disability benefits long after their military service has ended.

Today’s veterans — disabled or not — number nearly 24 million. That population is projected by the VA to fall under 15 million by 2033, mostly because of dying World War II and Korean War vets. But costs are expected to rise.

Inflation accounts for a big chunk of the increase. But even when the VA factors out inflation, the compensation for disabled veterans would still grow from $29 billion to $33 billion in today’s dollars — a more than 10 percent increase. And the department acknowledges the estimate could rise by 30 percent.

VA officials were not eager to talk about reasons for the increases. They declined several requests for interviews. In a written response to a handful of questions, the agency noted a few factors at play in the rising costs, such as the aging veterans population, an increase in the number of disabilities claimed and the severity of injuries sustained.

Outside experts provided more insight.

The American Legion’s Smithson says the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are resulting in more severe injuries — amputations and traumatic burns — the kind of injuries that troops in Vietnam and earlier wars would not have survived.

Smithson says today’s veterans also are filing claims for more disabilities.

“People are more aware of the benefits they are able to file for (because of) better outreach,” Smithson said. “It’s not like the WWII generation and Korean war generation where they weren’t aware of what they could file for, and they were also reluctant to file if they didn’t think they needed it.”

Iraq veteran Christopher Bain filed for about 10 disabilities after his tour in 2004. Bain came under mortar fire outside Baghdad and was hit several times. He successfully fought doctors who wanted to amputate his left arm. But 10 operations later, he still needs help getting dressed each day. An electrical stimulator implanted in his upper buttocks helps dull the pain from his injuries.

“It’s hard, you go through certain periods of remorse,” said Bain. “I am never going to be the man I once was.”

Bain suffers from tinnitus, post-traumatic stress disorder and serious injuries to his arms. He receives a check each month for $2,618 that helps the former Army staff sergeant pay the mortgage, food and clothing costs for his family of five in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Bain is one of about 755,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Of that group, the VA says more than 181,000 are collecting disability benefits.

Another factor driving up costs and the overall number of disabled veterans is Vietnam. Veterans from that era make up the biggest group of vets today receiving disability compensation. At the end of 2006, more than 947,000 Vietnam vets were getting monthly checks.

“You see an awful lot of Vietnam veterans over the course of the years have gone from a 30 percent to 40 percent disability rating up to 100 percent when their employment years start to wane a little bit,” said David Gorman, a Vietnam War veteran who is executive director at the Washington headquarters of Disabled American Veterans.

Conditions, such as a bad back or knee, can worsen with age and draw higher payments. A big concern for Vietnam vets is diabetes. Last year, more than 271,000 veterans were receiving disability benefits for diabetes. Most of the disabilities — 236,000 of them — were linked to Agent Orange exposure.

Veterans who are approved for disability receive monthly checks for injuries or illnesses sustained or aggravated while on active duty. Ratings are scaled from 0 to 100 percent in 10 percent increments. A rating of 10 percent, for example, is given to tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is increasingly common for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because of roadside bombings. Ratings for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can range from 0-to-100 percent, and 10-to-100 percent, respectively.

Former Army Sgt. Michelle Saunders was rated at 70 percent by the VA after being shot at during a 2004 convoy mission in Iraq. The bullet was caught in her flak jacket, but she sustained painful injuries, including two ruptured disks in her lower back and nerve damage to her right leg.

“It’s turned me from a really alive, pretty happy person into somebody who is numb. I don’t know how to feel anymore,” she said.

Saunders gets a disability check each month from the VA for just under $800.

Annual benefits run from $1,404 for a veteran rated at 10 percent to about $30,324 for those at 100 percent. Severe disabilities, such as the loss of a limb, draw additional compensation.

BUTT SNORKLER ALERT!! BUTT SNORKLER ALERT!!

If it was good for WWII, why in the same heck is it not good enough for us now? / D.C

CBO: Better GI Bill would cut retention 16%

A new congressional report supports the Pentagon’s claims that vastly improved GI Bill benefits would hurt retention.

The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan analytical arm of Congress, said in a report Thursday that enactment of S 22, a bill promising to pay full tuition plus a stipend for veterans attending college, could lead to a 16 percent drop in re-enlistments.

The Defense Department could counter that drop only by increasing re-enlistment bonuses. Fully offsetting the draw of a better veterans’ education program would require a $25,000 re-enlistment bonus for every first-term service member, something that would cost the Pentagon about $6.7 billion over five years.

However, that cost would be offset by lower recruiting costs, the report predicts. It estimates there would be a 16 percent boost in recruits, which would allow a cut in enlistment bonuses and in other recruiting expenses that would result in $5.6 billion in savings over five years.

The combination of better recruiting but weaker re-enlistments would leave the military with a $1.1 billion cost over five years to maintain the current force, the report said.

The report is dated May 8 but was released Friday morning.

The cost estimate for S 22, sent to the Senate Budget Committee’s ranking Republican member, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, comes as the House and Senate are poised to attach the GI Bill improvement package to the 2008 war supplemental funding bill.

House leaders delayed work on the bill until next week because some fiscally conservative Democrats are concerned about passing a veterans’ benefit program without identifying a way to pay for it.

Overall, CBO’s cost estimate is slightly lower than the estimated price tag issued by the Bush administration. Congressional budget analysts predict S 22 would have an overall cost of $680 million in the first full year and $51.8 billion over 10 years.

VA officials told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the proposal would cost $64.9 billion over 10 years.

S 22, called the 21st Century GI Bill, represents a big increase over the $1,101 basic monthly education benefit provided today for someone with at least three years of active service. It would boost the basic benefit to cover full tuition and fees, up to the cost of in-state tuition at the most expensive four-year public college or university in the state where student is attending school.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a member of the veterans’ affairs and armed services committees and chief sponsor of S 22, said better benefits are intended to help people who leave the military after one enlistment, which is the majority of those who enlist.

Seventy-five percent of Army, 70 percent of Marine, 50 percent of Navy and 49 percent of Air Force enlistees who complete their first enlistment term get out of the military, Webb said.

From: Navytimes

Looking for a “FOIL”

Spring Colds, I hate em. I am been stricken with one for the last 4 days.

Yeah I was a Vet of 24 Years. I have served as a Doc with the Marines, 2 Navy Squadrons and many other billets..

But a cold makes me a boob…

Anyways, heres to hoping I feel better tomorrow.

On to business. I am looking for a co-host for a weekly show with me for Corpsman.com. The Details:

Show will be produced weekly.
You must have a “SKYPE” account
You must be a Vet/ Doc of the Navy, Army, Coast Guard, or Air Force.
If your a Vet, you must have had a Honorable Discharge.
Must have done at least 2 operational deployments
Have a strong desire to help your fellow Doc’s.

If your interested, please do the following, you have to follow the instructions to the “T”.

Send me a Email to include:
Name, Age, When you served, What Service, Discharge Status, A 60 second Digital recording (.mp3 or .wav) telling me about yourself and why you want to be a part of this project.
Why am I asking / Looking for someone? While I have done 18 shows now by myself, the show would flow a lot better with a partner online.

There is no money in this. You would be doing this just for knowing your putting out info to your fellow Doc’s.

Send all submissions to admin1@corpsman.com

Thanks!
D/C

Ring Ring…. Ring Ring….VA to call Iraq, Afghanistan veterans

WASHINGTON — Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: Get ready for a phone call.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that on May 1, it will start calling 570,000 recent combat veterans to make sure they know what services are available to them.

The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.

The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA.

The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.

The agency has faced complaints that a backlog in claims and bureaucratic hurdles have prevented some recent veterans from getting proper mental and physical care. Earlier this week, two Democratic senators accused the VA’s top mental health official of trying to cover up the number of veteran suicides and said he should resign.

Per The VA’s own letter.. Keith Olbermann Countdown.

This is just downright disgusting. It’s almost like the Vietnam era when our Vets then fell through the cracks.. This is just plain nuts.. Please contact your elected officials. We have friends and family who are in crisis and need help.

120 OIF/OEF Vets Committing Suicide a Week

This article is from the San Francisco Chronicle.  I am not sure I agree with all of it, but they are quoting emails that have been discovered from the VA.  Read below.. Post what you think in the forums.
D/C

VA stalling on care, judge told at S.F. trial

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

He said veterans are committing suicide at the rate of 18 a day - a number acknowledged by a VA official in a Dec. 15 e-mail - and the agency’s backlog of disability claims now exceeds 650,000, an increase of 200,000 since the Iraq war started in 2003.

Justice Department lawyer Richard Lepley countered that the VA runs a “world-class health care system.” He said the changes the plaintiffs seek in their lawsuit - better and faster mental health care, and more rights for veterans appealing denials of benefits - are beyond the judge’s authority.

“Of course we’re obliged to provide health care,” Lepley said, but “the court does not have standards to determine the speed or the scope or the level of that care.”

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti is presiding over the nonjury trial, scheduled to last two weeks. Conti, a conservative jurist and World War II veteran appointed to the bench by former President Richard Nixon, ruled in January that the case could go to trial. In doing so, he rejected the government’s argument that civil courts have no authority over the VA’s medical decisions or how it handles grievances.

If the advocates can prove their claims, Conti said in his ruling, they would show that “thousands of veterans, if not more, are suffering grievous injuries as the result of their inability to procure desperately needed and obviously deserved health care.”

He also ruled that veterans are legally entitled to five years of government-provided health care after leaving the service, despite federal officials’ argument that they are required to provide only as much care as the VA’s budget allows in a given year.

But at a later hearing, Conti indicated he was uncertain about his authority to require spending on particular types of health care. The lawsuit plaintiffs - Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, D.C., which claims 11,500 members, and Veterans United for Truth, a Santa Barbara group with 500 members - want him to order the VA to provide immediate treatment for suicidal veterans and prompt care for those suffering from post-traumatic stress.

The trial follows publication of a Rand study last week that estimated 300,000 U.S. troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, or 18.5 percent of the total, suffer from major depression or post-traumatic stress.

The lawsuit is a proposed class action on behalf of 320,000 to 800,000 veterans or their survivors. The advocacy groups say the VA arbitrarily denies care and benefits to wounded veterans, forces them to wait months for treatment and years for benefits, and gives them little recourse when it rejects their medical claims.

“The time delays are staggering,” Erspamer, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, told Conti on Monday. Although the VA says it decides the typical claim for benefits in six months, he said, the agency takes far longer to review post-traumatic stress claims, and four years or more for the government to hear veterans’ appeals of denied treatment.

Veterans who seek benefits within the VA’s grievance system have no right to a lawyer and no right to demand records or question opposing witnesses, Erspamer said. The plaintiffs want Conti to grant those rights and to require the agency to set a timetable for deciding claims.

Lepley, the government’s lawyer, said the VA has undertaken a “huge staff increase” - 20 percent in mental health, 25 percent in claims processing - and now provides one mental health staff member around the clock at every VA center, as well as a suicide-prevention hot line.

For those who do not need immediate care, he said, the agency has a policy of scheduling a mental health appointment within two weeks, and has reached that goal at 80 percent of its facilities.

“These kinds of medical decisions are not something that this court can inject itself into,” Lepley said. He referred to the plaintiffs as “single-interest groups” and said the legal rights they seek in the VA benefit system, such as the involvement of lawyers, are “not in the patients’ interest.”

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

 

 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/22/MNQK109AA7.DTL

RAND CORP: PTSD STUDY–MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

editor–This was taken from Military.com

WASHINGTON - Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates.

Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.

“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND.

“Unless they receive appropriate and effective care for these mental health conditions, there will be long-term consequences for them and for the nation,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The 500-page study is the first large-scale, private assessment of its kind - including a survey of 1,965 service members across the country, from all branches of the armed forces and including those still in the military as well veterans who have left the services.

Its results appear consistent with a number of mental health reports from within the government, though the Defense Department has not released the number of people it has diagnosed or who are being treated for mental problems. The Department of Veterans Affairs said this month that its records show about 120,000 who served in the two wars and are no longer in the military have been diagnosed with mental health problems. Of the 120,000, approximately 60,000 are suffering from PTSD, the VA said.

Veterans Affairs is responsible for care of service members after they have left the service, while the Defense Department covers active duty and reservist needs. The lack of information from the Pentagon was one motivation for the RAND study, Tanielian said.

The most prominent and detailed military study on mental health that is released is the Army’s survey of soldiers at the warfront. Officials said last month that it’s most recent one, done last fall, found 18.2 percent of soldiers suffered a mental health problem such as depression, anxiety or acute stress in 2007 compared with 20.5 percent the previous year.

The Rand study, completed in January, put the percentage of PTSD and depression at 18.5 percent, calculating that approximately 300,000 current and former service members were suffering from those problems at the time of its survey, which was completed in January.

The figure is based on Pentagon data showing over 1.6 million military personnel have deployed to the conflicts since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001.

RAND researchers also found:

-About 19 percent - or some 320,000 services members - reported that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed. In wars where blasts from roadside bombs are prevalent, the injuries can range from mild concussions to severe head wounds.

-About 7 percent reported both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.

-Only 43 percent reported ever being evaluated by a physician for their head injuries.

-Only 53 percent of service members with PTSD or depression sought help over the past year.

-They gave various reasons for not getting help, including that they worried about the side effects of medication; believe family and friends could help them with the problem, or that they feared seeking care might damage their careers.

-Rates of PTSD and major depression were highest among women and reservists.

The report is titled “Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery.” It was sponsored by a grant from the California Community Foundation and done by 25 researchers from RAND Health and the RAND National Security Research Division, which also has done does work under contracts with the Pentagon and other defense agencies as well as allied foreign governments and foundations.

Overcoming Obstacles is Key to Veterans’ Success Stories

“The American Veteran” Highlights Helpful Programs

WASHINGTON - Military members are trained to overcome obstacles, as part of a team, to achieve their mission. Returning to civilian life, especially after a combat tour, poses new challenges for many service members, requiring new tools and new forms of support.

Programs to help these veterans, available from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and partnering organizations, are the focus of the April edition of “The American Veteran,” VA’s monthly half-hour news magazine.

“We are committed to outreaching to veterans and military personnel about the VA programs available to help these warriors recover from their physical and mental injuries,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. “These stories showcase the courage and determination of the veterans, as well as the commitment of those willing to help - many of whom are veterans themselves.”

The lead story looks at veteran suicide, examining the programs VA has put in place to ensure that everyone from front line clerks to mental health providers are prepared to recognize the early warning signs of suicide and know how to respond.

A second feature looks at a unique rehabilitation program in Florida, “Shake A Leg,” designed to help disabled veterans cope with physical and mental difficulties by teaching them how to sail.

In another story, VA partners with city leaders in Fargo, N.D., to support Project HART, a program created to help homeless veterans get off the street and stay off the street with a unique four-step program.

The series is designed to inform active duty members, veterans, their families and their communities about the services and benefits they have earned and to recognize and honor them. VA’s Office of Public Affairs and the VA Learning University/ Employee Education System (VALU/EES) produce the program and broadcast it to VA facilities around the world on The Pentagon Channel and to community cable outlets.

Aimed at veterans of all eras, VA also tells stories of heroism and sacrifice, and relives moments in history with those who were there, reminding veterans of the bond of service they all share.

The VA Office of Public Affairs offers the program to local broadcasters and cable outlets and makes it available for viewing on the VA Web site, www.va.gov. Just click on “Public Affairs” and then “Featured Items.”

“The American Veteran” schedule on The Pentagon Channel is available at * http://www.pentagonchannel.mil *. The Pentagon Channel has more than 1 million military viewers and is delivered domestically via DISH, EchoStar, T-Warner and Cox cable systems. (Check for service in your area.)

Additional stories on the April edition of “The American Veteran” include:

VA’s Newest Liver Transplant Center — A look at VA’s third and newest Liver Transplant Center at the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Center in Houston where Michael Abshire became the first patient to go through their liver transplant program.

* VA dedicates a new national cemetery in South Florida.

* A new Travel Nurse Corps is designed to address the nursing shortage.

* New GI Bill rules provide an increase in educational benefits.

* A VA research project searching for a vaccine against Salmonella bacterium is carried aboard a NASA space shuttle to the International space station.

* James H. Parke Youth Volunteer Award Winner — Meet Megan Smith a high school junior from Miami. Megan is this year’s winner of VA’s James H. Parke $20,000.00 Youth Volunteer Award Scholarship.

For information about “The American Veteran” program and how to obtain it for local programming, contact VA at 202-461-7502.

* Indicates a link to a non-VA Web site.

People wishing to receive e-mail from VA with the latest news releases and updated fact sheets can subscribe to the VA Office of Public Affairs Distribution List.

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