Introduced –
S.410 – A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the transfer of unused Post-9/11 Educational Assistance benefits to additional dependents upon the death of the originally designated dependent..
S.423 – A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the maximum age for children eligible for medical care under the CHAMPVA program, and for other purposes.
S.422 – A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify presumptions relating to the exposure of certain veterans who served in the vicinity of the Republic of Vietnam, and for other purposes.
S.324 – State Veterans Home Adult Day Health Care Improvement Act of 2017
S.112 – Creating a Reliable Environment for Veterans’ Dependents Act –
A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize per diem payments under comprehensive service programs for homeless veterans to furnish care to dependents of homeless veterans, and for other purposes.
S.24 – A bill to expand eligibility for hospital care and medical services under section 101 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to include veterans who are age 75 or older, and for other purposes. –
This bill amends the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to extend hospital and medical services under the Veterans Choice Program to veterans who are age 75 years or older

Introduced –
H.R. 369, Eliminating the Sunset Date of the Choice Act –
Eliminating the Sunset Date of the Choice Act, would eliminate the statutory sunset date for the Choice Program and instead allow the program to continue until the original funding has been expended. The Choice Act included language to state that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is authorized to continue services until August 7, 2017, or until the funds provided under the Choice Act ran out, whichever occurred first. While the authorization is set to expire on August 7, 2017, the VA has informed Congress there will still be funds remaining in the Veterans Choice Program after August 7, meaning veterans could still access health care services under the Choice Act if Congress eliminates the sunset date. Should Congress eliminate the sunset date of the Veterans Choice Program, veterans utilizing the program can continue seeking care outside the VA under this authority, paid for with funds that have already been appropriated, while Congress continues to pursue VA reform.
H.R. 1181: Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act –
The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act would prohibit VA from considering any beneficiary who is assisted by a fiduciary as “mentally defective” without a magistrate or judicial authority ruling that the beneficiary is a danger to themselves or others.
Passed House –
H.R. 512: WINGMAN Act –
The WINGMAN Act allows designated permanent, full time Congressional staffers to look up the status of a veteran’s claim on VA’s database—but only if the veteran has given the staffer permission
H.R. 974: Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment (BRAVE) Act –
The BRAVE Act is designed to boost veteran employment by allowing VA to give preference when awarding procurement contracts to government contractors who employ veterans on a fulltime basis
H.R. 28: The Biological Implant Tracking and Veterans Safety Act –
The Biological Implant Tracking and Veterans Safety Act directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to adopt the FDA’s unique device identification system (UDI) for labeling of all biological implants and to implement an automated inventory system to ensure veterans do not receive expired or otherwise contaminated tissue

Military spouses would be able to simplify their state residency status — and their tax bills — under new legislation introduced by a pair of Republican lawmakers this week. The Military Residency Choice Act H.R.282 is designed to untangle the sometimes complicated residency rules surrounding military families, whose frequent duty assignment changes and cross-country moves can leave a confusing trail of paperwork. Bill sponsors Rob Wittman, (R-VA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) said simplifying those rules could lead to fewer financial problems for those
families and even help military spouses continue their careers as they jump from state to state. “The last thing our military families need is additional stress during tax season,” Wittman said in a statement. “Allowing military families to establish a consistent state of residency will give spouses the confidence to rejoin the workforce when they move and help them better provide for their families.”
The new measure allows military spouses to adopt their servicemembers’ state of residency as their own, even if they never lived there before. For all future moves, the couple will have the same state for tax and voting purposes.

NGAUS strongly supports S.143, the Military Spouse Job Continuity Act, introduced on January 12th by Senator Robert Casey of Pennsylvania. This legislation would offer a tax credit up to $500 to any military spouse who requires a renewal or transfer of a professional license due to a government-ordered move across state lines (PCS order). The tax credit would only apply to administrative fees paid to licensing boards or certificate-granting institutions. Additionally, eligible spouses are those who are married to a member of the Armed Forces at the time the member moves to another State under a PCS order and the spouse moves with the member

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017 is a bill to restore the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange by veterans who served in the harbors, bays and territorial seas of Vietnam. The bill was introduced on 5 JAN by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) and co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN) Joseph Courtney (D-CT) Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Dennis Ross (R-FL) and Joe Lobiono (R-NJ). The bill picked up an additional 100 co-sponsors in less than a week. HR 299 would correct a policy by the Veteran’s Affairs implemented in 2002 that striped veterans of the presumption of exposure as stipulated in the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The action was based on the interpretation of the phrase that service in the Republic of Vietnam applies only to those who served in the landmass of Vietnam. The opinion ignored that national sovereignty extended to the territorial seas.

On January 19, 2017, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL) introduced H.R. 303, the Retired Pay Restoration Act.  This bill would end the unfair policy of forcing many military longevity retirees to forfeit some of their retired pay in order to receive equal amounts of disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The effect of this policy means military retirees are paying for their own disability with their military retired pay.  This unfair policy has adversely impacted disabled veterans and their families for more than a century, but was partially repealed by Congress in 2004.  Under current law disabled veterans with 20-plus years of active military service who are also in receipt of a VA disability determination of 50 percent or higher may retain both military retirement pay and their VA compensation.

In line with DAV resolution 110, adopted at our most recent National Convention assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, July 31-August 3, 2016, we support the Retired Pay Restoration Act.  H.R. 303 would end the longstanding and unfair practice of the government’s withholding of military longevity retired pay in exchange for VA disability compensation, regardless of disability rating.  DAV believes what is unfair for a veteran rated 50 percent disabled or higher by the VA is equally unfair for a disabled veteran rated 40 percent disabled or lower.  Disabled military longevity retirees should not be unfairly penalized by the government for any reason.

This legislation was referred to the House Committee on Armed Services in addition to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Please use the prepared email, or draft your own message, to request that your Representative support this important bill and ask that it be brought to the floor for a vote and passed as soon as possible.

Thank you for all that you do for veterans and their families.  We need your grassroots action to gain Congressional enactment of this important legislation.

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/dUo42_HY2wFa4k5UovZRjg

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has published regulations to establish presumptions for the service connection of eight diseases associated with exposure to contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The presumption of service connection (SC) applies to active duty, reserve and National Guard members who served at Camp Lejeune for a minimum of 30 days (cumulative) between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, and are diagnosed with any of the following conditions:
• Adult leukemia
• Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes
• Bladder, kidney & liver cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• •Non-hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Parkinson’s disease

The Department of Defense has made a policy change, effective next November,
to allow 16 million honorably discharged veterans to shop online for discounted military exchange products. Peter K. Levine, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, signed a memorandum 11 JAN announcing the benefit expansion, effective Veterans’ Day 11 NOV, and giving Congress the required 30 days’ notice before actions begin to implement the plan. Months of preparation are needed to make e-shopping portals more robust and
to allow the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) time to create software for verifying veterans’ status using Department of Veterans Affairs records.

Career service members earn their retired pay by service alone and those unfortunate enough to suffer a service caused disability in the process should have any VA disability compensation from the VA added to, not subtracted from, their service-earned military retired pay. The proposition made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to remove the Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) provision would strip previously earned retirement benefits from hundreds of thousands of retired service members. Veterans are widely regarded as disadvantaged
when looking for post-service employment opportunities, due largely to the military culture and combat related training. Bean counters at the Congressional Budget Office have come up with a
billion-dollar idea to reduce the deficit. Unfortunately, it’s a billion-dollar bad idea, one that could harm nearly 600,000 service members in the process. The CBO, a nonpartisan budget analysis arm within the legislative branch, has pointed out that Congress could save a whopping $139 billion from 2018 to 2026 by doing away with “concurrent receipt.” This practice allows veterans to collect both retirement pay and disability pay at the same time.
Our elected Congressional representatives continue to receive private medical benefits, compensation and other benefits. Let’s ask them why they don’t forfeit some of their private benefits and take government health care, etc. How much would this safe the government?