VoteVets.org Legislative Priorites for 2009

VoteVets.org's Legislative Priorites for 2009

One of the primary missions of VoteVets.org Action Fund is to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions they make pertaining to veterans and active duty service members. Our legislative priorities are the top recommendations that we believe will best take care of our veterans and strengthen our active military components.

With input from our database of over 100,000 members we have produced a list of 12 things that we will be pushing for in 2009.

Allow Category 8 Veterans back into the VA.

In 2003 the VA signed a directive that barred veterans making over a certain amount from receiving VA care. This move was designed to help the VA save some money by decreasing the amount of veterans in the system. Congress needs to fully fund the VA and allow all veterans back in the system.

Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.

The policy of "Don't ask, Don't tell" is a discriminatory policy that does not allow otherwise qualified individuals from serving in the Armed Forces. Congress needs to repeal DADT to ensure that all Americans are allowed to serve in uniform, regardless of their race, religion, sex, creed or sexual orientation.

Reform Mobilization and Demobilization procedures for the Guard and Reserve.

Members of the Reserve Components often do not have the same support network as their active comrades both before and after mobilization. With the number of deployed National Guard soldiers at its highest level since World War II and our reservists deploying in large numbers, we need to ensure that these service members are taken care of both before and after deployments.

End Short-Call Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) recalls.

While we would like to see all IRR Recalls end, we understand that may not be a reality at this time. For the time being we believe that Congress needs to look into Short-Call IRR Recalls. These are when HRC recalls someone within 6 months of his or her 8 years Military Service Obligation ending. This means that when the soldier is mobilized, he or she will ultimately be stop-lossed in the deploying unit and forced to serve well beyond his or her eight-year commitment-effectively making it a nine-year contract. We don't believe this is an acceptable status quo for the Army or for the military in general.

Demand Accountability and oversight for the implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

The bi-partisan Webb-Hagel "Post 9/11 GI Bill" was an enormous step to take care of our returning service members. The new bill is take effect in August, 2009. We need to ensure that Congress establishes the proper oversight of this program. Any problems in implementing the GI Bill need to be addressed by a system that will hold the VA accountable for fixing the problem.

Close the gap between the reality on the ground and military regulations.

Congress needs to look into the increasing gap between the reality on the ground in the military and the regulations that govern the military. With the military being stretched incredibly thin, the military is forced to make due with what it has instead of being allowed to use all of its assets to complete the mission.

1. DoD regulations signed in 1994 prohibit women from serving in or near direct combat. As we have seen in both Iraq and Afghanistan women are indeed serving in and around direct combat thus violating the DoD regulation. Congress needs to look into this issue to ensure that our women that are serving valiantly in and around the front lines are not breaking regulations signed over a decade ago.
   
2. As of August, 2008 over 35,000 service members who were deemed non-deployable for medical reasons were deployed. These service members were found non-deployable for a number of reasons are being thrown into situations that put them and their fellow troops in undue danger. Congress needs to address this issue to make sure that we are not sending troops to combat zones that are deemed non-deployable.

Fully fund the VA for one year.

VoteVets.org is joining with many other organizations that are calling for the VA to be fully funded one year in advance.

Improve Health Care Services for Women Veterans

We support the bipartisan legislation(S. 597) introduced by Sen. Patty Murray(WA) to improve VA health care for women veterans, especially those who are returning from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Implement the Government Accountability Office suggestions for VRE.

GAO Report 09-34 recommends better incentives, workforce planning and performance reporting in order to improve the Vocation Rehabilitation process. We agree with the findings and would like to see them implemented.

Improve Substance Abuse counseling and Treatment for Service-Members.

Our military is stretched to an almost breaking point and this is adding increased stress on the men and women who make up our forces. One of the ways people deal with the additional stress is to use drugs and alcohol. In addition, a large number of wounded troops are using prescription painkillers to help them heal.

We need to make sure we are better educating these troops to make sure they are not getting addicted to these substances and to treat them if they are.

Ensure Tricare is accepted at more facilities.

Tricare should be accepted at the majority of health care facilities in the United States. The men and women who have earned those benefits deserve to be able to use them.

Allow single servicemembers more flexibility in allocating benefits.

Troops who wish to remain single should have the same choices in allocating benefits as their married counterparts do. The policy of not allowing single soldiers to allocate their benefits to the person of their choice leads to resentment among the ranks and an increased number of marriages that are only in place for the benefits. We believe that single soldiers should be able to choose who they want their  benefits to go to.

Ensure a Seamless Transition from DoD to the VA.

When servicemembers have completed their time in service we need to make sure that they do not have any lag time between the time the DoD stops taking care of them and the time the VA starts to take care for them. There are many recommendations on this subject and we believe that making electronic medical records that can be shared between the DoD and the VA is a good first step to ensuring that no servicemember is left behind in this transition period.

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1. GAO-05-21 November 10, 2004