This is what veterans want Congress to prioritize

On November 12, 2024By Pranco

From expanding access to health care to reducing suicide rates, veterans groups are preparing to lobby the 119th Congress on a host of issues affecting retired military members.

Veterans groups highlight long-standing problems, such as mental health care and exposure to toxins, as well as emerging problems, such as veterans who are incarcerated and do not have access to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care.

As America celebrates Veterans Day on Monday, Congress is considering two bills that would give veterans groups priority in January’s lame-duck session: Senator Elizabeth Dole’s 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefit Improvement Act and the Major Richard Star Act.

Both have been introduced in the House of Representatives, which will meet again this week after a long election recess.

The Elizabeth Dole act will significantly expand veterans’ ability to access mental health, dental, community and nursing home care, and increased education, employment, disability and rental subsidies.

The Richard Star bill would ensure that veterans who have been seriously injured and medically discharged can receive pension and VA compensation benefits from the Department of Defense. Currently, only veterans who have served at least 20 years are eligible for both.

If these bills are not signed into law in the next two months, veterans groups say they should be passed in the 119th Congress.

Julia Mathis, a Navy veteran and legislative director at the American Legion, said the Dole Act is an important step toward addressing their number one priority: reducing suicide rates among veterans, which remain disproportionately high than that of the average population.

“Improving the care that veterans receive (and) ensuring that sense of community care and belonging, all of that is important to our veterans,” she said. “A well-funded VA will ensure that their suicide prevention programs are far-reaching and effective.”

And Jose Ramos, vice president for government and community relations at the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), said the Richard Star bill is a priority for his organization.

“They’re two different awards, for two different reasons,” he said of the Defense Department’s retirement benefits and VA benefits. “I lost my arm in 2004 after six years of service. My goal was to have 20 years of service… and there are a lot of people like that. … I think we are unfairly punishing these individuals.”

Ramos explained that WWP is also focused on several other issues, including covering more toxins and diseases under the PACT Act of 2022, which expanded treatment for toxic exposures during military service.

Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), said some members of Congress have discussed reducing the toxin exposure fund in the PACT Act, and she was concerned that a Republican-dominated Washington would take action to cut it down.

Victims of Camp Lejeune

Eric Flynn, an attorney with Bell Legal Group, one of the lead firms handling the Camp Lejeune lawsuit, is also looking forward to next year’s conference.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 allowed service members exposed to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC, from August 1, 1953 to December 31, 1987, to seek damages.

But Flynn said the bill needs an update, pointing to new legislation that will adjust language to ensure a jury trial can proceed for the victims of Camp Lejeune. The Justice Department has prevented jury trials because the language on them is ambiguous.

The new bill, Act to Ensure Justice for the Victims of Camp Lejeunewill also expand the cases to all district courts in the 4th Circuit Court’s jurisdiction, rather than just the one federal court in North Carolina, in an effort to speed up the cases.

Flynn said he is pushing for the bill to pass during the lame-duck session, but will continue to advocate for it in the next Congress if necessary.

“A lot of this comes down to a sense of justice on the part of these men and women who have suffered so extraordinarily,” he said. “What people want is for a jury to hear their stories.”

So far, about 200 veterans have been compensated through an early payment program, but more than 500,000 are waiting for assistance.

Reproductive healthcare

Jaslow also said she was watching and waiting to see how Republicans would handle issues like reproductive health care and gender-affirming care for servicemembers.

Under President Biden, the VA created options for abortion counseling and, in rare cases, abortion services for victims of rape and incest or for those whose lives may be threatened by pregnancy.

Republicans have attacked the VA measures as violating the Hyde Amendment, which bans taxpayer money from going to abortion services.

A push for change is likely now that newly elected President Trump will take over the White House in January and the Republicans will control the Senate and probably also the House of Representatives.

The GOP-controlled House this year passed an appropriations bill for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs that would ban abortions at the VA in most cases and also block hormone therapy and surgery for transgender veterans at the department. The VA currently allows hormone therapy for veterans and supports gender-affirming care, although it does not perform these surgeries.

“One of the biggest things we look at is, what do we have to fight against?” Jaslow said. “Everyone is now taking stock of what the new landscape will look like.”

Other priorities

The IAVA also supports efforts to expand alternative treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, including psychedelics, and to repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against global terrorism and Iraq. The Senate adopted the repeals of the AUMF in 2023.

There’s also a new issue before Congress: veterans who are incarcerated and can’t get the VA treatment they need to improve their lives.

Jim Seward, director of the Veterans Justice Commission, has been working on this issue for the past two years. His committee was established in 2022 by the impartial Criminal Justice Council.

The VA had previously provided care to incarcerated veterans, but stopped doing so in 1999 as a way to cut costs. The updated rule at the time specifically said that veterans under the care of another government agency are no longer eligible for VA medical benefits.

Seward said without adequate access to care, veterans are stuck in a dangerous feedback loop.

“We train our troops when they are in combat and face violence, they respond with violence,” he said. “A lot of veterans say that when they come home, they feel like they’re expected to just turn off the switch, and they don’t have a mission, and they get a little lost in their heads.”

“They often have substance use disorders, and those additional disorders can lead to them becoming involved in the criminal justice system. And once they’re in, if they’re not treated,” he added, “it’s harder to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. ”

Representation of veterans

Veterans groups and advocacy groups may have some luck when it comes to getting their priorities approved in the next Congress, as the new class will include at least 78 veterans in the House of Representatives and 18 veterans in the Senate. There are still a number of veterans running in races that have yet to be called, but these numbers already mean that former service members could see themselves well represented on Capitol Hill.

Seth Lynn, founder of the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign, an organization that trains veterans running for office, told The Hill that, as the numbers stand, veterans make up nearly 20 percent of all members.

“It’s a very healthy number,” Lynn said. “It looks like we will have eight female veterans in Congress, which is the most ever.”

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