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Free Tickets for Vets

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By Debbie Gregory.

The Veteran Tickets Foundation (VetTix) is a national 501(c) 3 nonprofit founded by veterans dedicated to support and honor the U.S. military community, veterans and their families.

Since 2008, Vet Tix has provided veterans, service members, caregivers and the family members of those killed in action with more than three million free tickets to major sports games, concerts and a diverse mix of other ticketed events. And because they’re a non-profit, individual ticket holders and businesses can receive tax deductions for their donated tickets.

So, if you’re looking for some fun things to do before summer is officially over, check out Veteran Tickets Foundation.

Here are some of the events remaining for August:

August 15: Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Houston Astros – MLB

August 16: Washington, DC: Washington Mystics vs. Los Angeles Sparks – WNBA

August 16: Portland, Maine: Goo Goo Dolls’ Long Way Home Summer Tour with Phillip Phillips

August 18: Rochester, New York: Nitro Circus Live

August 19: San Diego, California: Fleet Science Center

August 24: Evansville, Indiana: An Evening with Olivia Newton

August 23: Anaheim, California: Los Angeles Angels vs. Texas Rangers – MLB

August 24: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Los Angeles Dodgers – MLB

August 31: Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Milwaukee Brewers vs. Washington Nationals – MLB

To become a Vet Tixer and request tickets to these and hundreds of other events, visit VetTix.org to create a free account. Once you’ve verified your military service, you can review hundreds of upcoming events across the country. Other than a very small delivery fee, all the tickets are free! If you have tickets to donate, click here.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Trump Budget Bad News for Vets, Government Retirees

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budget trump

By Debbie Gregory.

While President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 aims to improve veteran care, it includes a plan to round down cost-of-living adjustments for veterans benefits payouts and boot some disabled, unemployed veterans from a program that allows them to receive higher disability payments.

The budget proposes to stop the higher payments once a veteran who is eligible for Social Security payments reaches the minimum age to receive them. Veterans who have already reached that age and receive Social Security would be removed immediately.

If a 60 percent disabled veteran living alone is removed from the Individual Unemployability program, their payments could decrease from the highest rate of $2,915 monthly to $1,062.

Changes would be even more dramatic for the estimated 70,000 civilian federal employees who retire yearly, along with the hundreds of thousands who are already collecting their pensions.

Trump’s proposed budget calls for eliminating annual cost-of-living increases for Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) enrollees completely, and lowering the adjustments for Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) enrollees by 0.5 percent.  CSRS beneficiaries are not eligible for Social Security payments. FERS employees are, but those government pensions still make up a significant portion of their retirement income.

The total VA budget exceeds $186 billion for fiscal 2018, which begins October 1st. It’s a nearly 6 percent increase from fiscal 2017.

Congress would have to approve the budget proposal, but both Republican and Democratic lawmakers rejected the budget blueprint, even before it was formally released.

“Almost every president’s budget proposal is basically dead on arrival, including President Obama’s,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the second ranking Republican in the Senate, making the point that such proposals are more statements of priorities than legislation. He added that Trump’s budget “may find a similar fate.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

VA To Provide Mental Health Care To Veterans with Less Than Honorable Discharges

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VA

By Debbie Gregory.

More than a half-million Veterans with other-than-honorable discharges will begin receiving mental health care services through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We are going to go and start providing mental health care to those with other-than-honorable discharges,” VA Secretary David Shulkin testified to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “I don’t want to wait. We want to start doing that.”

Shulkin said he had the authority to start providing the care without legislation and credited Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo for “changing my whole view of this.”

Coffman has reintroduced the Veteran Urgent Access to Mental Health Care Act, which would allow the VA to provide initial mental health assessments and urgent mental health services to veterans at risk of suicide or harming others, regardless of an other-than-honorable discharge.

In addition to providing care to veterans with bad paper, the VA secretary also announced his plan to hire approximately 1,000 more mental health care providers..

After the hearing, Shulkin said he’s working to notify medical centers about providing mental health care services to veterans with other-than-honorable discharges, and that he’d like to implement a program sometime in the next few months.

“So many veterans we see are disconnected from our system, and that’s the frustration,” he said. “We want to do as much as we can.”

Shulkin is also working with educators, researchers and other health care systems to determine other actions the VA can take. He said he will go to Congress soon with more proposals.

VA officials said they expect to finalize plans for rolling out the program in early summer. Shulkin intends to consult with members of Congress, veterans service organizations and the Pentagon on the best way forward.

Discharges that are other-than-honorable, including a “general” discharge, are known as “bad paper” and can prevent veterans from receiving federal benefits, such as health care, disability payments, education and housing assistance.

Note from Debbie Gregory and MilitaryConnection.com

Please pass the word to those you know who need help and can now obtain these important mental health benefits.   Please tell us what you think and share any comments regarding this important issue.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Drugs Vanish at Some VA Hospitals

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opioids

By Debbie Gregory.

Opioid theft, missing prescriptions, and unauthorized drug use by staff at federal hospitals has increased sharply since 2009, according to a recent investigation.

Now, federal authorities are stepping up investigations at more than 1,100 Veterans Affairs medical centers.

The investigation by the Associated Press revealed that drugs intended for patients simply disappeared.

Aggravating the problem is that some VA hospitals have been lax in tracking drug supplies.

“Drug theft is an area of concern,” said Jeffrey Hughes, the VA’s acting assistant inspector general for investigations.

Both the inspector general’s office and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said they have increased scrutiny of drug thefts from the VA, with the DEA reporting more criminal investigations.

It’s not clear if the problem is worse at the VA than at private facilities, where medical experts and law enforcement officials say drug theft is also increasingly common in a time of widespread opioid abuse in the U.S.

But the VA gets special scrutiny from lawmakers and the public, given Americans’ esteem for veterans served by the agency, and because of past problems at the VA, especially a 2014 wait-time scandal in which some patients died.

The drug thefts from VA also raise the possibility that patients will be denied medication they need or that they will be treated by drug-impaired staff.

Perhaps the problem of missing medicine is no worse at the VA than in private facilities, but the VA is charged with caring for the nation’s wounded or ill veterans, and should be held to a higher standard. Our nation’s new VA secretary should make fixing this problem a priority, and ensuring that the drugs designed to treat our military veterans end up in the hands for which they are intended.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Lockheed Martin Exec a Possible VA Secretary Nominee

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Mackay

By Debbie Gregory.

President-elect Trump may be considering Lockheed Martin Senior Vice President Leo Mackay, Jr. to fill one of the few remaining cabinet posts, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Trump has publicly sparred with Lockheed Martin in the past few weeks, arguing that the defense contractor wastes billions in tax dollars building F-35 fighter jets that are behind schedule and over-budget.

Mackay, who served as deputy VA secretary under President George W. Bush, met with the president-elect, and said that he and Trump had a “good discussion.”

He added that “things are progressing; we’ll keep having a conversation.”

“The president-elect is up on the issues and very concerned about the department and veterans issues,” Mackay said. “He’s a first-class veterans advocate and we had a good conversation.”

Other rumored contenders have included former Sen. Scott Brown, former House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller and Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth, who helped grow Concerned Veterans for America into an influential veterans’ advocacy group.

A 1983 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Mackay was born into a military family in San Antonio, Texas and grew up on, and around, military installations. He lived in Japan as a child and spent two years of high school in Tehran, Iran. He served in the Navy as a naval aviator. He completed pilot training in 1985, graduating at the top of his class. He spent three years in Fighter Squadron Eleven flying the F-14, attended Fighter Weapons School (Topgun), and compiled 235 carrier landings and 1,000 hours in the F-14. He also served as an instructor at the Naval Academy

The VA secretary search carries unusual significance for the Trump team given how intensely the president-elect focused on veterans issues during his campaign.

Trump regularly blasted the VA as a prime example of the Obama administration’s failures, especially when whistleblowers exposed the agency’s nationwide use of fake patient waiting lists to conceal long delays in health care in 2014.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Wrongfully Collected Money to be Returned to Some Veterans

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disabled vets

By Debbie Gregory.

Veterans who had to medically retire from the military because of combat-related injuries during the last two decades have lost out on thousands of dollars in severance pay because the Defense Department improperly taxed those payments.

And for some veterans of these veterans who were shortchanged millions by the government, it took an act of Congress to finally get the money they were owed.

Luckily, the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program stepped up to go to bat for these disabled American veterans.

“It literally takes an act of Congress to try to right this historic wrong that was done to them,” said Thomas Moore, a lawyer with the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

“We have estimated that it’s about 14,000 veterans, and the total amount taken from these veterans we’ve estimated as about $78 million,” Moore said.

Both houses of Congress unanimously passed H.R. 5015, the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016, before Congress wrapped up its legislative session. Once the bill is signed into law, the veterans will be allowed to file an amended tax return to get their money.

The accounting error related to taxes and disability severance payments might stem from the system’s shortcomings when identifying disability severance payments (DSP) categories. While combat-injured vets receiving DSP aren’t supposed to be taxed on that payment, the government does withhold taxes on disability severance payments for service members who are separated because of non-combat-related injuries.

Sen. Warner said he takes comfort knowing the bill is heading to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

“It is unbelievable that Congress needed to act to clear up this issue,” Warner said.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Veterans Have Good Showings in 2016 Election

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By Debbie Gregory.

The recent election has proven that Americans are recognizing the leadership capabilities gleaned through military service. At least 27 post-9/11 veterans won congressional races in the November 8th election. This is in addition to the current Congress, which includes 26 veterans. At least 18 veteran incumbents won reelection

And in one of the most closely contested races, Eric Greitens, a decorated former Navy SEAL who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, won his election for governor of Missouri as a Republican against Democrat Chris Koster, the former State attorney general.

The election underscored a growing trend of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan parlaying their military leadership skills in bids for national elected office. More than 30 veterans of the two wars ran for House Seats they had not held before.

Greitens has a distinguished resume as a former Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow who is also the founder of The Mission Continues.

Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth, who served honorably as an Army officer in Iraq, made a successful bid for a Senate seat.

Duckworth, the daughter of an Army veteran, is a former helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq. She will be the second female Iraq veteran in the Senate, joining Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican of Iowa.

Brian Mast, a medically retired Army explosive ordnance disposal specialist, lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt.Mast first considered running for an elected office while recovering in a hospital bed at Walter Reed. He earned his bachelor’s degree after he was wounded, taking classes at Harvard University. Mast won the Florida seat left open by Rep. Patrick Murphy.

Other veterans heading to Congress for the first time include Republican Scott Taylor, a another former Navy SEAL and veteran of the Iraq War who will fill the Virginia Beach seat left open by retiring Rep. Scott Rigell, and Democrat Jimmy Panetta, a Navy veteran of Afghanistan who is the son of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and defeated Republican Casey Lucius in California.

Anthony Brown, a Democrat from Maryland who formerly served as lieutenant governor, and who served a tour in Iraq as an Army judge advocate, won a House seat vacated by Rep. Donna Edwards in a landslide. Republican Jim Banks, a former Navy officer who served in Afghanistan, and Republican Mike Gallagher, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, won seats in Indiana and Wisconsin, respectively.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

The VA is Leading the Way on Genetic Research

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genectic

By Debbie Gregory.

Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research to understand even the most complex biological systems. And with 500,000 samples collected from U.S. military Veterans, the Veterans Heath Administration now has the world’s largest genomic database. No other medical research facility has ever had such a massive data set in this field.

The voluntary project, called the Million Veteran Program, or MVP, started in 2011. The database will aid in gene-based research for conditions such as cancer, diabetes and PTSD.

The program aims to help doctors understand the genetic component of why some patients respond to treatment, why others don’t and whether some people are more prone to illnesses.

The MVP program has Veterans donate a blood sample and agree to answer follow-up surveys that track their military experiences, health, and lifestyle. VA Secretary Bob McDonald joined the program as the 441,196th Veteran to participate.

Now the VA is heading towards the goal of enrolling 1 million veterans over the program’s five- to seven-year span. The program is funded entirely by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research & Development

Research is already underway, and VA researchers are using it to study mental illness, heart and kidney disease. The hoped for outcome is developing new treatments and cures, as well as allowing for early detection and specialized treatment based on one’s genetic background.

You can find out more about the Million Veterans Program online at http://www.research.va.gov/mvp/. While your participation may not immediately benefit you,  research findings may lead to new ways of preventing and treating illnesses in Veterans and all Americans in the future.

Veterans who are users of the VA health care system at one of the enrolling sites are able to participate at this time. MVP is rolling-out at VA medical centers across the nation. Once a site is open for enrollment, Veterans who are users of the VA health care system at that site will receive an invitation by mail to volunteer in MVP. If you are a Veteran who receives health care at an enrolling site but have not received a mailing, you can schedule an appointment by calling toll-free 1-866-441-6075, or walk-in to your local MVP clinic to participate today. To learn more about what participation involves, click here or call the toll-free number.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

McDonald Promises Veterans Same-day Appointments for Health Care

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same day

By Debbie Gregory.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has made a lofty promise to Veterans: by December, they will have same-day access to primary care appointments and mental health services at the VA.

McDonald, who was hired in the wake of a scandal over appointment wait times that led to the resignation of then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, spearheaded a massive restructuring of the VA in 2015.

“You’ve heard many times hat VA is broken. So I’ll answer one question: Can the Department of Veterans Affairs be fixed? Can it be transformed? The answer is yes. Absolutely. Not only can it be transformed, transformation is well underway and we’re already seeing results,” he said.

The MyVA reform effort is designed to overhaul the VA’s administrative practices and improve services, including disability claims processing, health care and outreach to homeless veterans.

McDonald talked at length about improvements to the veteran experience, including changes to the VA’s website and phone number, making it a “one-stop shop for information rather than asking veterans to navigate a complicated system.”

A new mobile app, which McDonald said would be launched by the end of the year, will allow veterans to make, reschedule and cancel appointments without having to call someone or leave the house.

McDonald said the department has added to its staff in the last several years, and the claims backlog, which had about 600,000 more than 125 days old, has been reduced by about 90 percent. He said the department has more people, more space, more productivity and more choice for veterans.

He also said that under the guidance of Undersecretary of Health Dr. David Shulkin, the VA is changing its approach to treating patients.

“VA health care is ‘whole-veteran’ health care — body, mind and soul, customized to meet veterans needs. Yoga? Acupuncture? Sports therapy, music therapy, writing and art therapy? We validate and embrace what works to heal veterans,” McDonald said.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Provision Scales Back Federal Job Preferences for Veterans

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Veterans McCainBy Debbie Gregory.

Congress has stepped into a sensitive issue that’s been quietly roiling the hiring system for federal jobs: the Obama administration’s push to give preference to veterans.

While former service members would still go to the head of the hiring line, a little-noticed provision of the new defense bill recently passed by the Senate would eliminate the preference veterans get once they are in the government and apply for another federal job.

Top defense officials pressed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for the change in order to ensure that qualified non-veterans are considered equally with veterans for specialized, hard-to-fill positions.

The provision would affect thousands of veterans, many of whom get a foot in the door with an entry-level position and then seek jobs at other agencies.

The provision has been fiercely opposed by leading service organizations, which had no idea until the legislation was on the floor that the Senate was moving to chip away at the government’s most visible effort to reward military service.

“Is Congress now starting to dial back the goodwill the country’s shown toward veterans’ employment?” asked Lauren Augustine, senior legislative associate for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group. “Are we now going to set a bad example to the private sector by limiting veterans preference in government?”

In 2009, Obama boosted the extra hiring credits given to veterans to give them a greater edge in getting federal jobs.

But the down-side to the policy has been that qualified non-veterans are getting shut out of federal jobs in deference to those who served, but may not be as qualified.

In 2014, almost half of those hired in full-time, permanent federal jobs were veterans. The figures for 2015 have not yet been released.

A spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee said the committee has not taken a position on the issue.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said last week that he does not think the Senate provision hurts veterans’ preference but instead “balances the goals of rewarding those who are eligible for a federal hiring advantage with the needs of the federal government and notably the Department of Defense to attract and hire the best talent for a variety of important national security jobs.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.


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