Legislation

A federal court this week ordered Veterans Affairs officials to reimburse veterans for all expenses at non-department emergency medical centers, a move that could mean payouts of tens of thousands of dollars to patients facing financial distress because of their hospital bills.

On a sunny October day in 2017, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, held a meeting in the West Wing to promote an initiative that would pair shelter dogs needing homes with veterans wanting to act on the increasingly widespread notion that well-trained dogs can improve the lives of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health conditions.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs announced its health care facilities will soon be “smoke-free,” though a smoking ban set to take effect Oct. 1 does not apply to employees, the agency clarified Friday.

While veterans, visitors, volunteers, contractors and vendors will be prohibited from smoking on VA grounds, employees will keep their smoking privileges because of a memorandum of understanding between the VA and the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal union that represents VA workers.

The Senate did some work recently unanimously passing a bipartisan bill named the Legion Act on June 11th. The bill will expand membership eligibility for the American Legion so that all veterans can become eligible to participate in membership. The bill is also known as the National Service Act, sponsored and introduced by Senator Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona. The bill was introduced on February 14 in the Senate.