Mar 02, 2018
WASHINGTON — More than 500 members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliary are arriving in the nation’s capital this weekend to urge their respective members of Congress to end sequestration and to continue improving the programs and services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The VFW is appreciative of the two-year budget agreement because it will bring temporary funding stability to the Defense Department,” said VFW National Keith Harman, “but a two-year agreement doesn’t end the continued threat of sequestration on a military that is still at war with an all-volunteer force that is fighting with less training and overused equipment,” he said. “Sequestration has been the law of the land for seven years, so service members, veterans, their families and the VFW are counting on the newly-established super committee on budget and appropriations reform to finally repeal it once and for all. We need our troops to keep their heads in the fight instead of wondering about the well-being of their families back at home.”
Harman, a Vietnam veteran from Delphos, Ohio, was elected in July 2017 to represent America’s largest and oldest major war veterans organization. He is set to testify Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. before a special joint hearing of the Senate and House Committees on Veterans Affairs in room G-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Prior to then, he will have already met with a host of military leaders inside the Pentagon.
Along with ending sequestration, Harman will also recommend enhancements to numerous VA programs and policies, as well as weigh in on current legislation, such as calling for the quick passage of the Caring for Veterans Act of 2017 to help ensure veterans have timely access to high-quality health care that is tailored to their unique needs. He will urge expanding the Caregiver Bill to include pre-9/11 families, allowing VA doctors to practice telemedicine across state lines, increase gender-specific services and peer-to-peer support groups, end the Widow’s Tax, eliminate the pay offset for military retirees with VA disability ratings of 40 percent or less, bolster mental health and homeless veterans programs, extend toxic exposure presumptions for wherever Agent Orange was used, stored or transported, and authorize the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency community to have budget carryover authority between fiscal years, among many others.
Other legislative conference highlights include:
The VFW will again livestream this year’s conference. Visit www.vfw.org/VFWDC2018 on Monday at 6 p.m. EST to watch the Voice of Democracy Parade of Winners, plus a delayed viewing of the VFW national commander’s congressional testimony Wednesday afternoon. Look for #VFWDC2018 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and be sure to visit www.vfw.org for all the latest legislative conference updates beginning Sunday.