FW: VFW Action Corps Weekly, June 6, 2014

Thank You

Robert Serge

VVA 17 Member

Blog Master

To all my fellow veterans friends and family my we all remember 

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Subject: VFW Action Corps Weekly, June 6, 2014

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 15:01:31 -0400

June 6, 2014 70th Anniversary of D-Day In This Issue: 1. Senate Moves VA Bill Forward 2. VA Message to Veterans 3. Acting VA Secretary Moving Quickly 4. VFW to Sponsor Town Hall Meetings June 9 5. American POW Bergdahl Released 6. Marine Sergeant Still in Mexican Jail 7. New Marine Commandant Nominated 8. Three WWII MIAs Identified 9. D-Day 70th Anniversary 1. Senate VA Bill Moves Forward: On Thursday, Senate VA Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) laid out a bipartisan bill that broadly outline solutions to VA healthcare scheduling and access deficiencies. The VFW is pleased that the Senate has reached a compromise that will begin to improve access to care and rebuild veterans' confidence in VA. We urge both the Senate and the House to move quickly on this and other measures to provide timely and quality care for veterans. As this bill moves through the process, we will keep you informed. The text of the bill is not yet available, but the provisions discussed would: * Authorize a two-year program that allows veterans to seek medical care outside the VA if they cannot get an appointment within a reasonable time (based on a VA wait time metric), or who reside 40 miles or more away from a VA hospital or clinic. * Authorize 26 new major medical facilities leases in 18 states. * Provide an expedited hiring authority for VA to employ more doctors, nurses and other medical providers. * Permit the VA Secretary to fire employees immediately without pay, but allow employees to appeal to the Merit System Protection Board within one week of dismissals. * Create independent commissions on capitol planning and scheduling. * Improves access and care for victims of Military Sexual Trauma. * And provide in-state tuitions for veterans at public colleges and universities, which is VFW-supported legislation that has already cleared the House. Check back here for more information on the text of the bill and further action as it happens next week. Read Chairman Sanders' statement on the bill at http://www.veterans.senate.gov/newsroom/majority-news/sanders-mccain-reach-agreement-on-veterans-bill. 2. VA Message to Veterans: In a June 2 message to all veterans, Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson said not all veterans were getting the timely access to the healthcare they have earned, and that systemic problems in scheduling processes have been exacerbated by leadership failures and ethical lapses. He said he will use all available authority to swiftly and decisively address issues of willful misconduct or mismanagement, and that his first priority is to get all veterans off waiting lists and into clinics while the VA addresses the underlying issues that have been impeding their access to healthcare. Read his statement at http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2549. 3. Acting VA Secretary Moving Quickly: Just prior to resigning last Friday, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said that he may have trusted the people below him and the information they provided too much. The new Acting VA Secretary isn't making that mistake, especially with an interim IG report that confirms a systemic effort to hide actual appointment waiting times from the VA headquarters in Washington. On Thursday, Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson was in Phoenix meeting with staff and, more important, veterans, and today is doing the same in San Antonio. In a statement, Gibson said the VA is using its current outsourcing authority to immediately provide care in the community, to include primary care. "We now know there is a leadership and integrity problem among some of the leaders of our healthcare facilities, which can and must be fixed. That breach of integrity is indefensible," he said. "In Phoenix, we initiated the process to remove senior leaders. Across the country, VA has suspended all VHA senior executive performance awards for FY 2014. We will use all authority at our disposal to enforce accountability among senior leaders." Read his statement at http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2551. 4. VFW to Sponsor Town Hall Meetings June 9: The VFW is sponsoring Veterans Town Hall meetings Monday evening in a northeast Baltimore suburb and in Kansas City, Mo., in an effort to help separate truth from conjecture regarding veterans' healthcare issues. The town halls will began at: * 7 p.m. at VFW Post 6506, 8777 Philadelphia Road, Rossville, Md., 21237. * 6 p.m. at the Uptown Theatre at 3700 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo., 64111. All veterans are encouraged to come out and share their stories, good or bad, about the care and treatment they receive at their VA medical centers. At the meetings will be VFW Department and national service officers and leadership from the VFW Washington Office and the VFW National Headquarters to respond to questions and carry veterans' concerns directly to Congress and the administration. "The VA needs to immediately identify and fix what's broken, to hold employees appropriately accountable to the maximum extent of the law, and to restore the faith of veterans in their VA," said VFW Washington Office Executive Director Bob Wallace. "We need to separate truth from conjecture, and the only way to properly do that is to talk directly with veterans." 5. American POW Bergdahl Released: America's only known prisoner of war was released last Saturday in exchange for five Taliban prisoners who were being held at the U.S. Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The safe return of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl fulfills part of VFW National Resolution 419, which was passed by delegates attending the 114th VFW National Convention last year. After being held by the Taliban for almost five years, his release is great news for his family, and helps to ensure that no American is left behind once the U.S. ends its involvement in Afghanistan, but the VFW is very concerned that negotiating with terrorists sets a very dangerous precedent. The VFW awaits the results of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl's capture by the Taliban on June 30, 2009. 6. Marine Sergeant Still in Mexican Jail: While former POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl recuperates at a U.S. Army Hospital in Germany, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi continues to languish in a Mexican jail, which prompted VFW National Commander Bill Thien to twice urge the president to action this week. "To secure Bergdahl's release, the government broke longstanding U.S. policy to not negotiate with terrorists," wrote Thien, who asked President Obama to make a simple phone call to Mexican President Nieto. "We understand that the U.S. State Department and our embassy in Mexico are working this, but that's too much political bureaucracy," said the Chief, who urges the president to show the same sense of urgency toward Tahmooressi as he did to secure the release of Bergdahl. Read the VFW's letter to the president at http://www.vfw.org/uploadedFiles/VFWorg/News_and_Events/Articles/2014_Articles/VFW%20Ltr%20to%20President%20re%20USMC%20Sgt%20Tahmooressi%20June%206%202014.pdf. 7. New Marine Commandant Nominated: The president has accepted a recommendation to nominate Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford to be the next Commandant of the Marine Corps. He currently commands coalition troops in Afghanistan as head of the International Security Assistance Force. If confirmed by the Senate, he will become the 36th commandant, succeeding current Gen. James Amos, who is expected to retire later this year. Dunford, 58, is a native of Boston who was commissioned in 1977 after graduating from St. Michael's College. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps from October 2010 to December 2012, and has commanded at every level, to include the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, the 5th Marine Regiment, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, and served as the Commander, Marine Forces U.S. Central Command. 8. Three WWII MIAs Identified: The Defense POW/MIA Office announced the identification of remains belonging to three American servicemen who had been missing in action since World War II. Identified are: * Army Pfc. Cecil E. Harris, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, lost in France on Jan. 2, 1945. He was accounted for May 29 and will be buried with full military honors on a date and location to be determined. * Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Robert E. Howard, 450th Bomber Squadron, 322nd Bomber Group, Medium, was lost over Germany on April 16, 1945. He was accounted for May 28 and will be buried with full military honors on June 19 in Moulton, Iowa. * Army Pfc. Lawrence S. Gordon, Reconnaissance Company, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, was lost near Ranes, France, on Aug. 13, 1944. He was accounted for on May 27 and will be buried with full military honors this summer in Canada. 9. D-Day 70th Anniversary: Seventy years ago today, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed or jumped into occupied France in a daring move that accelerated the defeat of Nazi Germany less than a year later. Due to age, illness, and the fact most who survived the landing would continue fighting for the duration of the war, it is estimated that less than 10 percent of the 75,000 Americans who took part in Operation Overlord are still with us. Hundreds of D-Day veterans made the trek back to Normandy to honor and commemorate their brothers in arms, while others attended commemorations at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, and inside VFW Posts nationwide. America remembers, and so do the French, wrote senior writer Kelly Gibson in the June/July 2014 issue of VFW Magazine. Read her article at http://www.vfw.org/News-and-Events/Articles/2014-Articles/FRENCH-PEOPLE-ARE-STILL-HONORING-WWII-GIs/. To sign up new veterans' advocates, click here: http://capwiz.com/vfw/mlm/signup.htm. As always, we want to share your advocacy stories on the VFW Capitol Hill blog. To share your stories either fill out our online form by clicking here, http://www.vfw.org/Forms/Capitol-Hill-Blog-Submissions/, or simply email photos and stories directly to vfwac@vfw.org

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