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VFW URGES CONGRESS TO BLOCK DOLE-SHALALA
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION -- Says "NO" to a
separate disability system that would compensate
veterans
with similar wounds differently based on their
age.
We have two down and one to go.
The VFW has now joined the DAV is criticizing the
Dole-Shalala Commission's recommendation to establish a multi-tiered
disability compensation system that would give different benefits to the
"new" veterans coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
But, where is the American Legion? We
really need the Legion to join this fight so the "Big Three" VSOs can
stand together on this issue.
If implemented, Dole-Shalala would also set up a
system of disability re-evaluations on a regular basis for the "new" vets.
If that happens, older vets can expect the same.
For a complete background on the Dole-Shalala
Commission, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=dole+shalala&op=ph
VFW press release here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/vsop08/vsop020708-1.htm
Press release below:
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VFW Wants Dole/Shalala Recommendation Blocked
Creating separate system is an injustice to all disabled veterans
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2008--The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is
urging the leadership of four key congressional committees to block
attempts to create a separate disability system that would have the
Department of Veterans Affairs compensate veterans with similar wounds
differently based on their age.
"There is no difference between a 22-year-old shot in the leg on Iwo Jima
63 years ago this month and a 22-year-old shot in the leg in Iraq
yesterday," said VFW National Commander George Lisicki, a Vietnam veteran
from Carteret, N.J. "To compensate them differently based solely on age,
and using the rational that this new generation is more deserving than
older veterans, is an injustice, and violates every fundamental rule of
fairness that Americans hold dear."
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The recommendation in contention was made by the
President's Commission on Care for America's Wounded Warriors, which was
co-chaired by retired Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and former Secretary of
Health and Human Services Donna Shalala. The Dole/Shalala Commission was
chartered in March 2007 as the administration's response to the outpatient
housing debacle at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Four months later, the
commission published a 149-page report with six broad recommendations.
The VFW wants more attention paid to the Veterans' Disability Benefits
Commission that Congress chartered in 2004 to study the benefits that
compensate and assist veterans and their survivors for disabilities and
deaths attributable to military service. After thousands of interviews and
almost three years of research – including major studies by the Institute
of Medicine and the Center for Naval Analysis – it published a 562-page
report in October 2007 that included 113 detailed recommendations.
"The Dole/Shalala Commission's mandate was not to make broad
generalizations and sweeping recommendations that would throw out a
disability compensation system that has served millions of veterans
extremely well over the years," said Lisicki. "Dole/Shalala was good, but
it wasn't that good, and it certainly wasn't thorough enough to be touted
as the 'cure-all' for all the VA's problems."
The VFW national commander is very concerned that a major change in the
way the VA conducts business may be forced upon America's veterans without
any opposition.
"The VFW is 100 percent against compensating veterans with the same
injuries differently because of their age," said Lisicki, who voiced the
VFW's opposition yesterday in a letter to the leadership of the House and
Senate Committees on Armed Services and Veterans Affairs. [Read letter]
VFW Washington Office Executive Director Bob Wallace is now tasked to
ensure the VFW's position is conveyed to and understood by the
administration and Congress.
"How our nation properly cares for, and then fairly compensates our
disabled veterans or their surviving family members are the only issues on
the table, and that's why we are calling on Congress to thoroughly
evaluate the recommendations made by both commissions" said Wallace, also
a Vietnam veteran.
"Everyone wants to do what's best for our troops and for our veterans – to
include all the members of both commissions – but what we absolutely must
not do is create conditions that could cause the VA to fail in its primary
mission," he said. "The VA is a national resource for disabled veterans.
As an institution, it must survive, not just for the next 10 years, but
for the next 100 years."
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posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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