Lawmakers have proposed legislation that, if passed, would help protect the jobs of Veterans and service members.
A House subcommittee is considering two bills that would expand job protections for Veterans.
The proposed Disabled Veterans Employment Protection Act would prevent employers from discriminating against disabled Veterans who miss work because they are receiving medical treatment for service-connected disabilities.
Under the bill, which is currently pending before the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Economic Opportunity Panel, disabled Veterans would also receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year without fear of losing their job.
House Resolution 3670 would extend employment and re-employment rights to workers for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Currently the TSA, which has more than 50,000 employees, is not required to hold positions and promotions for employees who are called away for military service.
Various Veterans organizations have announced their support for these pieces of legislation.
The medical leave bill for disabled Veterans “should have been enacted 40 years ago,” said Richard Weidman of Vietnam Veterans of America.
This would have prevented reprisals against Veterans, such as losing seniority, pay or some other status, or being considered for furlough because of medical treatment related to their military service, he said.
John Wilson of Disabled American Veterans said current law requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for disabled Veterans, but “are not specifically required by law to allow veterans with service-connected disabilities to be absent from the workplace to receive medical treatment for them.” The pending bill would provide that protection, he said.
Ryan Gallucci of Veterans of Foreign Wars has expressed support for H.R. 3670 stating that VFW believes that it would be beneficial for our service members, as well as the TSA by “offering our military’s best and brightest the opportunity to pursue a meaningful civilian career without the persistent threat of possible termination for service obligations.”
Millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides were sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, exposing service members to toxic chemicals.: Photo by U.S. Army Operations in Vietnam
After having their disability claims unjustly denied for nearly a decade, the plight of ailing Blue Water Veterans is finally receiving attention from lawmakers in Washington.
Representatives Chris Gibson (R-NY), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Tim Walz (D-MN) and Denny Rehberg (R-MT) introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would make it easier for Navy Veterans who served in Vietnam to receive compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for Agent Orange-related illnesses.
The bill is a companion to similar legislation introduced in the Senate in September by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“Our veterans, whether they served a week ago or half-a-century ago, deserve to know that we will make good on our promise to them by preserving fundamental benefits like healthcare,” Doggett said in a statement. “This bipartisan effort to ensure that blue water Vietnam veterans are given all that they earned is a necessary step in ensuring that our obligation to our veterans does not end when they step off the battlefield.”
Agent Orange and the Vietnam War
The U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of herbicides on Vietnam during the 1960s and 70s. Although originally claimed to be safe, the herbicides, which included Agent Orange, were later found to contain the toxic chemical dioxin.
The effects of Agent Orange exposure among Veterans of the Vietnam War has long been a contentious issue. Veterans suffering from illnesses caused by the toxic chemicals have had to fight tooth and nail for every benefit.
After the passage of the Agent Orange Act of 1991, which finally forced a reluctant VA to properly compensate Vietnam Veterans for illnesses caused by herbicides, all Vietnam Veterans were presumed to have been exposed to herbicides. This presumption means that a Veteran was not required to provide proof they were exposed to Agent Orange.
Stripping Veterans of their Benefits
Unfortunately that changed in 2002 when the Department of Veterans Affairs changed its policy, limiting who would be granted presumption. The new policy determined that only Vietnam Veterans who had “boots on the ground” or Brown Water Veterans who had served in inland waterways had been exposed to the toxins.
This decision not only prevented Veterans from receiving service connection for the myriad health problems caused by the herbicides, it also allowed VA to sever benefits for Navy Veterans who had already been granted compensation for their conditions.
According to Rep. Gibson’s office, VA has denied 32,880 Agent Orange claims through 2009 due to this policy.
Finally Ending an Injustice
The time is long overdue for Congressional involvement on behalf of Blue Water Veterans. VA has continuously ignored scientific facts when it comes to Agent Orange. While the very fact that this legislation has been introduced in Congress is progress, legislators have a long way to go before Blue Water Veterans are finally granted to benefits they earned.
Before a bill can be approved or rejected by the legislature, it must be voted out of committee. It has been estimated that 90 percent of legislation introduced in Congress never makes it past committee.
It is up to our lawmakers to ensure that this bill does not simply languish in committee, and the Veterans who desperately need and deserve their help receive it.
Following testimony from Michelle Washington, the director of post-traumatic stress disorder services at the Wilmington, DE Veterans Affairs Regional Office, the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs has called for an inquiry into the Veterans Administration’s health services system.
As reported by the Washington Post, Washington recently testified before the committee, saying that Veterans wishing to receive access to mental healthcare often receive cursory intake appointments followed by delays of up to six weeks. Such scheduling faults are apparently the result of “clerks pressured by management to make the system look good.”
Such news is distressing in light of a recent report by the Center for New American Security, which shows an alarming spike in the number of suicides amongst Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since 2006, VA has seen a subsequent increase in the number of Veterans seeking psychiatric treatment, with more than 1.2 million in 2010 alone.
Committee chairman Patty Murray (D-WA), who has asked the Office of the VA Inspector General to investigate the matter, said, “especially at a time when we are seeing record suicides among our veterans — we need to meet the veteran’s desire for care with the immediate assurance that it will be provided — and provided quickly.”
Washington testified as a member of the American Federation of Government Employees and says that her managers were slow to act, at times denying the problem “flat-out.” Whatever the forthcoming investigation uncovers, it is clear that the VA must continue to make drastic changes to its staff and policy procedures to ensure that no Veteran seeking help goes untreated.
To learn more about the activities of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, click here. The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs also maintains a website of its own.
President Barack Obama signs the VOW to Hire Heroes Act. The law seeks to decrease the Veteran unemployment rate, which currently stands at 12 percent for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.: Official White House photo by Pete Souza.
With lawmakers and Veterans alike looking on, President Barack Obama signed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act into law Monday.
In a statement before signing the bill, the president commented that there are currently 850,000 Veterans looking for work. The highest unemployment rates are among young Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The bill, which was approved by both chambers with strong, bipartisan support, seeks to better prepare troops for the transition to civilian life and the civilian workforce, to provide tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed Veterans, and provides educational assistance for Veterans who no longer qualify for G.I. Bill benefits.
“The men and women of our military don’t just fight for each other, they don’t just fight for their units or for their commanders; they fight for every single American, . . .” the president said before signing the legislation. “And just as they fight for us on the battlefield, it’s up to us to fight for our troops and their families when they come home. And . . . today a deeply grateful nation is doing right by our military and paying back just a little bit of what we owe to our veterans.”
Although this law may not go as far as some would like (Bob Filner, ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was vocal in criticizing the fact that the legislation would only provide training, but not actually create any jobs), any step taken to try to combat the rising Veteran unemployment rate is an important one.
This debate over this legislation has given the issue of Veteran unemployment a national spotlight. It has forced lawmakers and the general public to discuss the reasons behind the rising numbers – and it has much more to do with a weak economy.
The immediate impact of this new law remains to be seen, but hopefully these measures will ensure that when our troops come home, they are more prepared to enter the civilian job market. A common theme in the coverage of the legislation was how unprepared soldiers are when they come home – many entered the service straight out of high school and have never even written a resume. They spend so much time in the military, yet those skills are not valued or understood in the civilian world. The mandates in this law will hopefully help to change that. The unemployment rate for the general population has been slowly decreasing in recent months; hopefully this legislation will mean the number of jobless Veterans will start going down as well.
California Rep. Jeff Denham was one of five lawmakers who visited Afghanistan last week.: Photo by U.S. House of Representatives.
Last week, members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee traveled to Afghanistan to take stock of the developing legacy that will affect U.S.service members for decades to come.
Regardless of the length of the conflict, it is clear that the government remains committed to providing for Veterans on their return to civilian life.
Rep. Jeff Dunham (R-Calif.), who made the trip with three other members of Congress, told one newspaper, “It’s obviously going to be a huge expense… the one thing that is defined is that we have to take care of the Veteran.”
Meeting the monetary cost of this commitment will be a formidable challenge in the coming decades. As of 2010, more than 513,000 Veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan had applied for disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Around 1,600 of these have had one or more limbs amputated as a result of combat wounds, but far more – over 400,000, according to the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense – are suffering from brain trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Over the next four decades, as the true extent of these disabilities becomes apparent, compensation and medical expenses could approach close to $1 trillion.
The committee members, who visited several military installations and were briefed by Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, remained unfazed by these daunting figures.
“I want to make sure our veterans are taken care of, once they get home,” Denham said.
To learn more about the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, click here.
For more information on Veterans benefits, please visit www.vetlawyers.com.
The Veterans' Affairs Committee approved legislation aimed at reducing the unemployment rate among Veterans
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved legislation Thursday that would create new programs and change existing ones in an effort to lower the unemployment rate among veterans.
“In today’s economic environment, finding meaningful employment is difficult, and it’s no different if you are a veteran,” Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla), committee chair, said in a statement when the legislation was introduced. “We must come together as a nation to keep our promise to those who have protected not only our Liberty, but the American way of life. It is our
duty to welcome these men and women back into society and match their skills with their jobs.”
The Veteran Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act was introduced in an effort to put the nearly one million jobless Veterans back to work and is targeting those who are between the ages of 35 and 60 and have been out of work for at least 26 months. The legislation primarily focuses on job training to combat unemployment.
It would ensure that the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) is effectively preparing service members for civilian life as well as make GI Bill funds available to Veterans of past wars for up to a year, allowing them to receive additional job training.
The VOW Act also strives to strengthen the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act (USERRA), ensuring that National Guard and Reserve members who had to leave their jobs to serve their country will receive that position upon their return.
The bill would require Congress to work with the Department of Labor to address the problem of translating military experience and training into civilian certification.
Although the legislation was approved with bipartisan support, some Democrats, including the committee’s Ranking Member Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), objected to the way the bill’s programs would be paid for.
He described the nation’s current unemployment crisis as “a national tragedy,” but explained that he could not support delaying planned fee decreases to home loans for Veterans, which he described during a July hearing as “effectively taxing a specific group of veterans for using a benefit.”
The act would also limit the pensions paid to Veterans who are in nursing homes funded by Medicaid in order to pay for the additional costs.
The bill is expected to be voted on by the House of Representatives this fall.
