Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      Shinseki Leads Delegation To Events Commemorating Recapture Of South Korea. Armed Forces Network Korea (9/28) broadcast that this week in South Korea, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki “led a four-person presidential delegation to represent the United States” as tribute was “paid…to the fallen service members of the Korean War.” Shinseki was shown saying, “I am most honored to represent…President Barack Obama at these historic ceremonies here in the beautiful country of Korea.”
     UPI (9/29) notes that Shinseki was in the audience when South Korea’s president, Lee Myun-bak, “delivered a speech in Seoul on the anniversary of the recapturing of Seoul from North Korea” by United Nations “allied forces on Sept. 28, 1950.” The American Forces Press Service (9/29, Miles), meanwhile, says Shinseki is “leading the US delegation during two days of…events” commemorating the recapture.

2.      Disabled Vet’s Son Tearfully Complains To Obama About VA Care. In its blog, “The Caucus,” the New York Times (9/29, Stolberg, 1.01M) notes that when President Obama “continued his tour of American backyards” on Tuesday, he dropped “in at the home of…disabled veteran” Andy Cavalier in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cavalier’s son “broke into tears as he told Mr. Obama that his father had ‘sacrificed his body, 17 surgeries,’ and was not getting the medical care that he needed at the local” Veterans Affairs hospital. The President “comforted the man, telling him that he viewed the government’s obligation to caring for veterans as a ‘sacred trust.'” Reuters (9/29) and UPI (9/29) also note the exchange between Obama and Cavalier’s son.
     The AP (9/29, Korte), meanwhile, says Obama’s visit to New Mexico was suggested by US Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who on Tuesday said Cavalier is a “great example of somebody who should not have to be fighting for the treatment he has earned.” The lawmaker, who was in attendance Tuesday when Obama spoke at Cavalier’s home, “said the Democratic controlled Congress deserves credit for changing Veterans Administration appropriations from a one-year to a two-year cycle. It helped insulate the agency from political maneuvering as funding bills approached completion, he said, helping veterans like Cavalier.”
     The “Washington Wire” blog for the Wall Street Journal (9/29, Weisman, 2.09M) points out that after hearing from Cavalier’s son, Obama criticized Republicans for insisting that tax cuts for the affluent should not be allowed to expire. According to the Journal, Obama told Cavalier’s son that because the deficit is so large, choices have to be made and he would “rather choose…veterans” than choose tax cut extensions. The Journal says Obama also stressed to Cavalier’s son that with increased spending on VA and the leadership of the Secretary Eric Shinseki, VA care is improving.

 3.      Senate Passes Compromise Veterans Package, House Expected To Do The Same. The Army Times (9/29, Maze, 104K) reports, “With just days before Congress takes a six-week break for the November elections, the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees have reached agreement” on HR 3219, an “omnibus bill making improvements in employment, job protection, housing, insurance and other benefits.” After noting that the “Senate passed the bill…by voice vote late Tuesday,” the Times says the “House is expected to approve” the bill, known as the Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010, “in the next few days.”
     CQ (9/29, Lesniewski) HR 3219 “would reauthorize programs that provide services to veterans, including the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Education and the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.” The bill would also “authorize certain Department of Veterans Affairs major medical facility leases in fiscal 2011” and “would provide for a permanent extension of a life insurance program for ‘totally disabled’ veterans.” Other provisions of the bill “impact national cemeteries, including an increase in burial plot allowances. The measure would direct the Veterans Affairs secretary to report to Congress on site selection for five new national cemeteries.”

 4.      Bills Passed By House Aim To Improve Services For Vets. CQ (9/29, Dumain, Poe) reports, “The House passed several bills Tuesday aimed at bolstering services for veterans, including two bills to help ease veterans’ entrance into the workforce.” After noting that Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner, a “California Democrat, said the legislation was essential, given the sluggish job market and the number of veterans looking for work,” CQ says HR 6132, one of the bills passed, “would establish a new employment transition program to help veterans develop marketable skills and would create an awards program to recognize businesses for their contributions to the employment of veterans,” while HR 5360, another of the bills passed, would “authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs to make loans to veterans looking to launch small businesses.” CQ notes that HR 5630, a third bill passed, “would mandate stricter certification requirements for vocational rehabilitation counselors and employment coordinators employed by…VA.”
     Committee Praised For Approving Bills Prior To Full House Vote. The third item for the “Sgt. Shaft” column for the Washington Times (9/29, Fales, 77K) gives an “attaboy” to the House Veterans Affairs Committee for approving “six bills that would improve benefits and services to veterans provided” by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The column offers details on what would be done by the bills, including the three covered in the aforementioned CQ story, as well as H.R. 3685, which “would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to include on the home page of the Department of Veterans Affairs website a hyperlink to the VetSuccess website,” H.R. 3787, which “would recognize the service in the reserve components of certain persons by honoring them with status as veterans under law,” and H.R. 5993, which “would ensure that beneficiaries of Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance receive financial counseling and disclosure information regarding life insurance payments.”

5.      Lawmakers Want More Options For Louisiana Vets In Line For Honor Medals. In continuing coverage, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (9/28, Anderson, 158K) noted that on Monday, a “House-Senate committee comprising Democrats and Republicans criticized Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief veterans affairs adviser Monday for not giving Louisiana veterans the option of receiving a special state honor medal on their own terms. ‘Give the veterans the right to choose’ whether they want to be honored at a full ceremony with the governor present to shake their hands, or to just have the award mailed to them, said Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Abbeville.” The lawmaker “told Veterans Affairs Secretary Lane Carson that some veterans in his family passed on the full ceremony with Jindal presiding because ‘they felt it was being politicized by the governor and the governor’s office,'” a charge that was disputed by Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin, who “said…Jindal will continue ‘to take every opportunity he gets to personally thank our brave veterans for their service and sacrifice.'”

 6.      Board Interviews Design Finalists For Minnesota Vets Home Renovation Project. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Finance & Commerce (9/29, Johnson) says the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs took “another step” Tuesday “toward proceeding with $42.2 million worth of construction and renovation at the Minnesota Veterans Home’s Minneapolis campus.” The “state designer selection board interviewed three finalists to design the three-phase project, which includes renovation of a 40-year-old building, demolition of another building, and new construction to accommodate about 150 resident rooms. Kaas Wilson Architects, Mohagen Hansen Architectural Group, and Nelson-Tremain Partnership are the finalists for the project, which is designed to improve and update living conditions for residents.”

 7.      Bill Passed In Senate Would End Practice Of Counting Vets’ Disability As Income. The Rapid City (SD) Journal (9/29) reports, “The Indian Veterans Housing Opportunity Act of 2010, co-sponsored” by US Sen. John Thune (R-SD), “passed the Senate Monday night.” The legislation, now headed to the desk of President Obama, “would discontinue the practice of counting veterans’ disability compensation as income. Because housing assistance is based on income, the practice has often pushed disabled Native American veterans above the income threshold for housing assistance, or actually increased their rent.”

 8.      Akaka Praised For Effort To Extend Health Insurance Coverage For Vets’ Dependents. In its second story, the “Sgt. Shaft” column for the Washington Times (9/29, Fales, 77K) praises “Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, for introducing a bill to extend the age limit for coverage of veterans’ dependents through the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) to the level set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Because of that act, “families with private health insurance coverage can keep their children on their plans until age 26.”

 9.      Bill Calls For Full Accounting Of Arlington Cemetery Grave Sites. The Washington Post (9/29, Davenport, 605K) reports, “The secretary of the Army would have to provide Congress with a full accounting of all of the more than 320,000 grave sites at Arlington National Cemetery under a Senate bill introduced Tuesday.” The bill, introduced by US Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), “comes on the heels of a growing scandal at the nation’s most hallowed military burial ground.” In addition to the grave site accounting, the bill would “require a review of the contracts issued to digitize” Arlington’s “paper records and a study to determine whether the cemetery should be transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

 10.    House Urges Officials To Allow Mojave Cross Replacement. The Victorville (CA) Daily Press (9/29, 0) notes that on Tuesday, the US House of Representatives “passed a resolution condemning the theft of the Mojave Cross memorial and urging federal officials to allow veterans groups to replace it.” An “unknown vandal stole the cross 10 days after the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that had declared the memorial unconstitutional for violating the separation of church and state. Veterans’ groups have offered to install a replacement, but the National Park Service has refused because of ongoing litigation tied to transferring the site of the cross into private hands.”