[Vision2020] [Spam] House Passes Veterans' Benefit Bill

[lfalen]

Tom 

Thanks for posting. This is indeed good news. It is extremely important that our veterans be taken care of. We ( individually and the government)  all need to do what ever we can to help disabled veterans. I donate to 4 or five organizations that help veterans. If anyone would like a list of them I would gladly provide it

Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:10:30 -0800
To: "Vision 2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Spam] [Vision2020] House Passes Veterans' Benefit Bill

> >From the "Roundup Edition" of today's online Army Times with a very special
> thanks to Senator Larry Craig.
> 
> HR 6314
> http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c109:./temp/~c109H0lzTT
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> House passes veterans' benefit bill
> 
> By Rick Maze
> 
> The House passed a stripped-down veterans' benefits bill Tuesday that
> prevents the cutoff of some current programs and provides a new education
> benefit to spouses of severely injured active-duty service members.
> 
> The bill, HR 6314, could be the final benefits bill passed this year,
> although Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the House Veterans' Affairs Committee
> chairman, issued a plea for the Senate to dust off some larger proposals.
> 
> Sitting in limbo is a bill that approves construction and renovation of
> major veterans' facilities and a separate bill to provide new protections
> against identity theft when the Department of Veterans Affairs loses
> personal information on veterans.
> 
>  
> "The hard work of the past two years must not go in vain," Buyer said in a
> statement aimed at Senate Republican leaders. "I call upon the Senate
> leadership to finish our negotiations. Let's complete our work. Let's not
> forget our veterans and their families."
> 
> One major holdup on veterans' bills has been the inability of Buyer and Sen.
> Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman, to
> reach a compromise on details. Several sticking points have emerged,
> including Craig's wish that the House change federal law to allow veterans
> to hire attorneys to represent them when filing benefits claims and Buyer's
> insistence on changes in information technology oversight within the VA.
> 
> Senate committee aides have been working with Buyer's staff to try and write
> a compromise bill that would pass before the current session of Congress
> ends, but an agreement has proven elusive.
> 
> Buyer's concern about hard work being in vain results from the fact that
> neither he nor Craig will be veterans' committee chairmen next year because
> Democrats won control of Congress in the Nov. 7 election. Sen. Daniel Akaka,
> D-Hawaii, was named Tuesday as Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman.
> No chairman has been named for the House committee.
> 
> The bill approved by the House on a 393-0 vote prevents a cutoff of
> rehabilitation programs for homeless and seriously mentally ill veterans as
> well as grants for veterans' programs. It also extends the VA advisory
> committee on homeless veterans and health care for veterans exposed to
> biological and chemical testing under Projects SHAD and 112 in the 1960s and
> '70s.
> 
> There is one new benefit, which is built upon a current survivor benefit:
> Spouses and children of service members who are permanently and totally
> disabled from service-connected causes would be allowed to use VA survivor
> education benefits while the member is still on active duty. Under current
> law, that is allowed only after the disabled service member is separated
> from active duty.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Pro patria,
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> "Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
> and steady dedication of a lifetime." 
> 
> --Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
> 
> 
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