FW: VFW Action Corps Weekly, February 27, 2015

 Ya' know,  every once in a while something comes along that is just perfect!!!

We are here on earth to do good unto others. What the others are here for, I have no idea.

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Subject: VFW Action Corps Weekly, February 27, 2015
To: rserge1@outlook.com
From: amarkel@vfw.org
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 17:17:06 -0500

February 27, 2015 In This Issue: 1. Ending Sequestration Tops VFW Legislative Agenda 2. VFW Testifies Before Senate VA Committee 3. VFW Meets with House Democratic Leaders at Roundtable 4. VFW-SVA Legislative Fellowship Program 5. Senator Sanders to Receive Congressional Award 6. VFW Responds to Forbes Attack 7. Voice of Democracy Program Winners 1. Ending Sequestration Tops VFW Legislative Agenda: More than 500 VFW members are arriving in Washington this weekend to urge their members of Congress to end sequestration, which is set to restart Oct. 1. "America is still a nation at war, and the looming restart of mandatory sequestration will have a devastating impact on the ability of our military to respond when and where necessary, on homeland security, and on military quality-of-life and veterans' programs everywhere," said VFW National Commander John W. Stroud, who will present the VFW's legislative positions at 10 a.m., Wednesday, in testimony before a joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. "Our members—all voting constituents—will use this face-to-face opportunity to demand that their Congress put an end to the sequester, to defeat continued attempts to force veterans, service members and their families to shoulder an unfair share of the nation's debt, to approve advance appropriations for all VA accounts, and to fight to preserve the safety and security of the United States and the continued viability of the All-Volunteer Military," he said.  Read about other VFW legislative conference highlights, as well as how to watch video of scheduled events, at: http://www.vfw.org/News-and-Events/Articles/2015-Articles/Ending-Sequestration-Again-Tops-VFW-Legislative-Agenda/. 2. VFW Testifies Before Senate VA Committee: On Wednesday, Ray Kelley, Director, National Legislative Service, presented a set of policy and budget recommendations that reflect what we believe would meet the needs of America's veterans. VA Secretary Bob McDonald, opened the hearing by laying out what VA's current budgetary need is and that the cost will continue to increase for years to come as Vietnam veterans age and more current conflict veterans enter the system with complex, multifaceted medical conditions -- noting that historically, VA sees the usage and cost for care peak for each generation of war fighters 40 years after the conflict ends. Read the full testimony and watch the hearing here: http://www.veterans.senate.gov/hearings/fiscal-year-2016-budget-for-veterans-programs-and-fiscal-year-2017-advance-appropriations-request. 3. VFW Meets with House Democratic Leaders at Roundtable: On Thursday, Ray Kelley, Director, National Legislative Service, participated in a roundtable with veterans service organizations and advocacy groups as part of the party leadership's ongoing efforts to discuss and address the critical issues facing our nation's service members and their families, as well as veterans.  More than a dozen Democratic Members attended the roundtable, facilitated by Congressman Tim Walz, including VA Committee Ranking Member Corinne Brown, many members of the VA Committee and other congressional leaders. Among all the topics that were discussed, Kelley took the time to voice support for the Veterans Choice program, but informed the panel that oversight moving forward will be critical to ensure veterans receive quality health care in a timely manner. 4. VFW-SVA Legislative Fellowship Program: Joining this year's VFW Legislative Conference will also be 10 student veterans who were selected as Fellows who are currently enrolled in colleges or universities in Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. The partnership between the VFW and Student Veterans of America will pair each Fellow with a VFW mentor to accompany their respective VFW state delegations around Capitol Hill for in-person meetings with their members of Congress and their staffs. The student veterans will also receive briefings from the VA Department of Labor on ongoing policy initiatives, as well as briefings on ways to work constructively with the media when advocating for veterans' policy initiatives. Learn more at: http://www.vfw.org/uploadedFiles/VFW.org/VFW_in_DC/SVALegislativeFellowship.pdf. 5. Senator Sanders to Receive Congressional Award: The VFW's 2015 Congressional Award will be presented next Wednesday to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who for eight years on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee—two of them as chairman—has been a commanding voice against changing the COLA calculations for disabled veterans, for the proper care and treatment of women veterans, homeless veterans, for better employment opportunities and improved access to mental health programs, as well as increased congressional oversight of the VA claims processing transformation.  "It is no understatement to say that Senator Sanders has taken care of wounded, ill and injured veterans and their surviving family members," said VFW National Commander John Stroud. "When the VA imploded last year, he was the lead negotiator for the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, which the president signed into law last summer," he said. "The VA still has an uphill climb to fix what's broken, to hold employees appropriately accountable, and to restore the faith of veterans in their VA, but veterans everywhere should be proud and comforted to know that this United States senator has their back in Congress." 6. VFW Responds to Forbes Attack: In an editorial published yesterday, Forbes magazine columnist Avik Roy accused the VFW of being an obstructionist to changing the way the Department of Veterans Affairs takes care of veterans. Entitled "The Veterans Independence Act: Giving Vets A Way Out Of Socialized Medicine", the piece was meant more to publicize a new task force report that he co-chaired than to offer any substantive ideas. In a response, VFW National Commander John Stroud said there are no quick fixes to the challenges that continue to confront the VA, and that the VFW remains against privatizing veterans' health care because it is an inherent government responsibility, but that we have never been against augmenting VA care with civilian practitioners on an as-needed basis, or to help serve veterans who reside in rural America. "Everyone just needs to understand the limitations of the private sector, where there are too few medical providers with waiting lines of their own, and who limit the number of government-sponsored patients they accept because of low reimbursement rates," he wrote. "Civilian providers have a role in caring for veterans, but to supplement, not to replace, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides a continuum and continuity of care to wounded, ill and injured veterans that is unmatched in the private sector." Read the Chief's response at: http://www.vfw.org/uploadedFiles/VFW.org/VFW_in_DC/VFWCICForbesLetter.pdf. 7. Voice of Democracy Program Winners: The winner of this year's $30,000 Voice of Democracy scholarship will be announced Monday evening at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Va. This year's winner will be selected from 54 VFW state and department winners who were the best of almost 37,200 high school student entries. The winner will be joined onstage by Ethan Schroeder, a 13-year-old 7th Grader from New Kensington, Penn., who bested more than 125,000 middle school students to win a $5,000 scholarship in the VFW's annual Patriot's Pen contest. The VFW will stream live video of the 2015 Voice of Democracy Parade of Winners beginning at 6 p.m. (EST), Monday, at http://www.vfw.org/legislativeconference/, or use the "on-demand" feature to watch at any time. Veterans and supporters can also follow the VFW on the web at www.vfw.org, as well as on social media. Look for #VFWHill2015 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 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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