NewsBytes November 1, 2019
In this issue:
Oppose “Skinny” NDAA
VA Approving More Appeals
DOJ to Help Veteran Treatment Courts?
WW II Coast Guard POW Comes Home
Oppose “Skinny” NDAA
The Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (Okla.) has introduced a “Skinny” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). He did this “to ensure that critical defense programs are authorized, including: pay for our service members and Department of Defense civilians; quality-of-life programs for military families; support for U.S. troops and partners conducting operations overseas; oversight of military construction and acquisition programs; and critical readiness efforts.” However, this “Skinny” NDAA leaves out critical provisions for troops, retirees and widows. The FRA believes the House and Senate should pass a full NDAA, which has been done every year for the past 58 years.
The House and Senate should pass a full NDAA that includes: ending the Widows Tax; delaying the elimination of nearly 18,000 medical billets; allowing service members to sue the DoD for instances of medical malpractice unrelated to combat; and requiring the Pentagon to implement military housing reform. Members are urged to use the FRA Action Center to ask their legislators to oppose the “Skinny” NDAA and pass the full NDAA with the provisions listed above.
The VA is Approving More Appeals
The Board of Veterans Appeals is adjudicating more disability claims appeals. The Board processed 11 percent more claims (more than 95,000) and held 38 percent more hearings in FY2019 when compared to FY2018. The improvement at the BVA is due to more staff and to a new appeals structure that was mandated by Congress and supported by the FRA. The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act (H.R.2288-Public Law 115-55) sponsored by Reps. Mike Bost (Ill.) was enacted into law on August 23, 2017. The law created three “lanes” for veterans’ appeals including: The Local Higher Level Review Lane where an adjudicator reviews the same evidence considered by the original claims processor; The New Evidence Lane where the veteran may submit new evidence for review and have a hearing and, The Board Lane where jurisdiction for the appeal would transfer immediately to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. The Act would allow some veterans, who were already going through the appeals process, to opt into the new system.
Bill Allows DOJ to Help State and Local Veteran Treatment Courts
The House passed the Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act (H.R.886), sponsored by Reps. Charlie Crist (Fla.) and Elise Stefanik (N.Y.). The Act creates a new office in the Department of Justice that is responsible for providing grants and assistance to strengthen and expand state and local veteran treatment court programs across the country. The legislation, which passed the House by voice vote, will support the unique needs of veterans who find themselves in the criminal justice system. The veteran’s treatment court program offers life-saving and life-changing second chances to non-violent veterans caught in the criminal justice system. The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.
WW II Coast Guard POW Comes Home
Lt. Thomas James Eugene “Jimmy” Crotty was the only member of the U.S. Coast Guard to become a POW of Japan. His remains were recently identified, after being exhumed from a common grave in the American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila in the Philippines.
He will be buried with full military honors next to his parents in Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna, Erie County, New York. The Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Karl L. Schultz, is expected to attend. The family will also receive LT Crotty’s Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Medal of Honor during the ceremony. It symbolizes Congressional recognition of the enduring bond between the American and Filipino forces who defended the Philippines against Imperial Japan’s invasion.
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