Legislation
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Veterans’ GI Bill benefits to continue during COVID-19 pandemic
Type of content: News
WASHINGTON – President Trump signed into law S. 3503, March 21, which will enable the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to continue providing the same level of education benefits to students having to take courses online due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
- Topics
- Benefits
- Education
- Legislation
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Court orders VA to cover veterans’ emergency room debts
Type of content: News
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.
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New Military Suicide Report May Revive Debate Over Gun Restrictions
Type of content: News
A new report from the Defense Department is likely to revive debate over the prospect of using "means restriction" -- limiting access to firearms -- as a way to reduce the number of suicides among U.S. troops.
According to a DoD report on military suicides in 2017 released Wednesday, two-thirds of suicides among active-duty personnel that year were by firearm, a statistic consistent with the previous five years.
Of the 309 suicides among active-duty troops in 2017, firearms played a role in 202 deaths. Most were privately owned guns, not service weapons.
- Topics
- DoD
- Legislation
- Mental Health
- Suicide
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Do Service Dogs Help Treat PTSD? V.A. Still Doesn’t Know
Type of content: News
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.
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New Law Increases VA Home Loan Limits, Funding Fees
Type of content: News
A law signed by President Donald Trump on June 25 to provide compensation to ill veterans who served on Navy ships in Vietnam also made several changes to Department of Veterans Affairs-backed home loans for all eligible veterans.
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Department of Veterans Affairs’ new ‘smoke-free’ policy doesn’t apply to employees
Type of content: News
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.
- Topics
- Legislation
- VA
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Benefits for ‘blue water’ veterans finalized after years-long fight
Type of content: News
The “blue water” Vietnam veterans benefits act is now law.
Late Tuesday night, President Donald Trump signed the legislation, which grants presumptive status for disability benefits to an estimated 90,000 Navy veterans who served in the seas around Vietnam during the war.
Unlike their fellow service members stationed on the ground and on inland waterways, those veterans faced additional paperwork barriers to prove exposure to toxic defoliants during their deployments, even after developing identical serious cancers and respiratory illnesses.
- Topics
- DoD
- Legislation
- Vietnam
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Veterans suicide prevention efforts will include more discussions on firearm safety
Type of content: News
Federal suicide prevention efforts in coming months will include increased focus on veterans’ access to firearms, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said during a Capitol Hill appearance Wednesday.
“It is key,” he said during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on his department’s recent efforts to address the problem. “Seventy percent of veterans who (die by suicide) do so with firearms. We’re dealing with a population that has a special familiarity with firearms. So we’re working on ways to build time and space … between thoughts and impulsive acts.”
- Topics
- Legislation
- Mental Health
- Suicide
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Legion Act Passed By U.S. Senate
Type of content: News
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.
- Topics
- Legislation
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New VA Policy Aims to Stop Veterans from Hiding Guns in Wheelchairs
Type of content: News
The Department of Veterans Affairs now has a policy requiring veterans in wheelchairs to switch to ones provided by the facility during emergency room visits to make sure they're not hiding guns, a top VA official testified Tuesday.
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