Family Caregivers of All Severely Injured and Ill Veterans

Family Caregivers of All Severely Injured and Ill Veterans
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 9, 2014

Memorial Day is the day we remember all generations of war fighters we credit with obtaining the freedom of this nation and retaining it since 1775. We do not honor one generation over another. Veterans Day is the day we honor all our veterans no matter when they served.

If we can really say we support our veterans then it is vital to insure that all veterans are treated equally.

Independent Budget is a joint effort by AMVETS, DAV, VFW and PVA

"Our veterans have always stepped forward when we needed them to do the tough jobs, often in the worst conditions imaginable, and while making numerous personal sacrifices and enduring physical and emotional pain. Veterans have paid their dues in full. It is time that those sacrifices be repaid in kind."

Notice how this statement from those organizations do not separate generations but include all together equally? That has been the mission of most veterans groups. The problem is it isn't in the interest of all veterans groups.

Summary: H.R.2342 — 111th Congress (2009-2010)
There is one summary for this bill. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Shown Here:
Introduced in House (05/11/2009)

Wounded Warrior Project Family Caregiver Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as part of authorized Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home health care services for veterans, to furnish to a family member or other designated individual advanced instruction and training and certification as a family caregiver for a veteran who incurred serious wounds on active duty during, or in training for, Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom and is determined to be in need of personal care services.

Requires the Secretary to provide to such caregiver: (1) appropriate support services; and (2) a monthly family caregiver allowance. Authorizes the Secretary to provide medical care to such caregiver.

While Vietnam veterans families have endured and suffered longer, just as Korean War and WWII veterans had, all generations were fought for by the Vietnam veterans and their families.

We have been pushed out of the way for far too long. Let congress know they should never, ever support one generation of veterans over another.

Family Caregivers of Severely Injured and Ill Veterans

Many family members serve as lifelong caregivers to severely injured veterans. To respond, Congress enacted Public Law 111-163, the “Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act.” More than 10,000 families of veterans are now enrolled in this support program.

Over our objection, the law limits eligibility for full benefits and services to families of veterans who served on or after September 11, 2001. This comprehensive support program should apply to all service-disabled veterans on the basis of medical and other pertinent needs, not based solely on the period of military service involved. To make the benefit more effective, we urge Congress to authorize expansion of the comprehensive program to cover family caregivers of all service- disabled veterans, irrespective of a veteran’s period of service.

Our families do not deserve less from the Congress. We have waiting longer for the same issues the OEF and OIF families face. We have to take care of our disabled veterans the same as they do. Did members of Congress ever stop to think about how the Caregiver Act made us feel when we were excluded?

Bush ticks off veterans again with veto threat of what they need

Veterans Groups Appalled at White House Veto Threats


Last update: 10:16 a.m. EDT Aug. 1, 2008
WASHINGTON, Aug 01, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A coalition representing millions of America's veterans today expressed outrage at a White House claim that Congress is overspending on veterans programs and has threatened to veto any of the remaining 11 spending bills that exceed the President's request unless Congress finds $2.9 billion in offsets elsewhere in the federal budget.

Under the fiscal year 2009 Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs would receive $47.7 billion, which is $4.6 billion above the 2008 funding level and $2.9 billion more than the President requested.

As the House of Representatives prepared to debate the measure, the four Independent Budget veterans service organizations told Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that they "vigorously defend the crucial increases in VA funding" which the Administration has underfunded in its budget requests for the past several years.

In their July 31 letter to Speaker Pelosi, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars said, "This budget, a budget that intends to bind the wounds of war and to care for those who have worn the nation's uniform, should never be used as a political lever to force policies of one branch (of government) on the other."
click post title for more

The VA is not a "budget deficit" it's an obligation

Tom Hayes: Congress must extend VA benefits to all combat veterans
Mar 08, 2008 @ 11:35 PM
The Herald-Dispatch
American Legion Post 93 has been working on a bill in Congress (HR 1901) to help veterans of Lebanon, Grenada, Panama and Korea. This bill will make these combat veterans eligible for the VA non-service-connected disability pension. It is only paid when a veteran becomes permanently and totally disabled and has limited or no income.

We commend Rep. Nick Rahall for introducing this bill for us. Congressman Rahall testified in support of HR 1901 on the House floor on April 19, 2007. He again testified before the House subcommittee on veterans affairs on July 31, 2007, along with representatives from the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

We asked Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, to sponsor the bipartisan bill, and her response was, "Should this bill reach the House floor, I will be sure to keep it in mind."

On more than one occasion, we asked Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a member and former chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee, to join Congressman Rahall in introducing a companion bill in the Senate. Sen. Rockefeller's responses were, "HR 1901 is currently pending with the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, and I will certainly keep your concerns in mind if it is brought before the Senate for consideration," and, "The tremendous deficits faced by our country are making it difficult to expand veterans benefits as much as we would all like to see."
go here for the rest
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/opinions/x1084925679

When I read what they say or watch them speak when they are covered by CSPAN, I cannot believe the audacity of these people. While they talk about the great debt we owe those who serve this nation with one breathe they then turn around and speak of deficits in the budget. The only deficit they should be concerned with is the morality they are lacking.

How can they say whatever money Bush asks for to continue the occupation of Iraq without any form of accountability and results, turn around and whine about the money it will cost this nation to care for the wounded they demand the right to keep producing? It makes no sense at all.

Had they not been so inclined to ignore the hundreds of millions of dollars that vanished in Iraq, the cost-plus contracts the defense contractors received or the money Bush keeps asking for aside from the budget on "emergency" spending requests, there wouldn't be such a huge deficit. The wounded are part of the costs of conducting two occupations producing more and more wounded on a daily basis. They are part of the emergency they need to pay for but they cannot see it that way. They would rather see the veterans as a burden to the tax payers while conducting the occupation no one wants has no limit to the amount of money they are willing to pay.

The veterans of today and tomorrow are no less and no more worthy than those of yesterday. They are just in addition to them. It's time to fully fund the VA so that there is no more separation of indebtedness. It cannot be one group of veterans being pushed aside to make room for another group because there is a budget deficit. Why is it that politicians seem to have little problem finding money to wage war and a gigantic problem paying for the results of those wars?

Already we have seen veterans coming back and told they have to wait as their claims fall into a huge pile so deep it depends on the day and the reporter using the data provided on that day. What happens is a report will ask about the number of backlog claims and they are told what the person answering the question wants to tell them. A report came out last month addressing the cut back in IT workers stating the backlog of claims was over 800,000, yet another article will be written days later putting that number back around 400,000. Does Congress ask what that cause of the discrepancy is coming from? Do they even notice the huge difference in what they are being told by different people?

This entire subject is not just absurd, it's disgraceful.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington