Election 2008 Videos



VA News - Week of August 4, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 05:31 PM

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VFW Washington Weekly - August 5, 2008

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 08:49 AM

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In This Issue:
1. VA Funding Passes House
2. New Housing Bill has Vet Provisions
3. House Passes Vet Bills
4. Congress on August Recess


1. VA funding Passes House: By a 409-4 vote, the House passed the 2009 VA and Military Construction funding bill. The bill builds on last year's historic funding increase, providing $8.8 billion more than last year's funding level. For VA, it's a $4.6 billion increase in funding to a total of $47.7 billion. It includes funding to treat the 40,000 new Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that VA expects to treat this year.
It also includes funding for:
* Priority 8 veterans - would allow a small number of new Priority 8 veterans back into the health care system
* Mental health care - nearly $1 billion more than last year's funding level for PTSD, suicide prevention and other mental illnesses
* Mileage Reimbursement - would increase the rate by $.13 per mile and freeze the deductible
* Rural care - increases funding for rural care options, especially targeted at returning Guard and Reserve members who live far away from VA facilities
* Research and prosthetics - over $170 million more than last year's amount
* Claims processors - allows the hiring of 2,100 additional processors to help reduce the disability claims backlog
* Construction - begins funding six additional VA facilities and allows smaller projects to be conducted at 145 additional locations

The Military Construction portion of the bill includes $336 million in new funding for quality of life programs for troops and their families, much of which is targeted towards barracks and medical facilities. It also sends $3.2 billion specifically towards military housing.

The bill awaits Senate action. With the Senate on recess until September, we will not see any movement for a while. Once the Senate passes its version of the funding bill, the differences would need to be resolved before being sent to the President.

For a detailed summary of the bill: http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/MilConSummaryHP09.pdf
For information about the bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.06599:
To see how your Representative voted:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll563.xml

Read more Washington Weekly

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The American Veteran - August Edition

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 11:09 AM

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From The Pentagon Channel:

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VA News - Week of July 28, 2008

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 05:42 PM

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VFW Legislative Alert: Pass On-Time VA Funding Bill

Monday, July 28, 2008 at 12:02 PM

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This week, the House of Representatives is expected to take up the FY2009 Military Construction/VA Appropriations bill, but it is in danger of not passing before the Congress recesses. Some members of congress may try to attach non-related items to the bill which would hold up or even defeat final passage. VA would again be severely underfunded well into the upcoming fiscal year.

The VFW strongly supports quick passage of the bill as it provides critical increases in veterans' health care, troop housing and other resources needed for today's servicemembers.

We ask you to contact your Representatives today and urge them to pass a clean VA/MilCon Appropriations bill. Tell them that further delay hurts our veterans and our troops on the ground. Let them know that we expect them to reaffirm their priorities by doing the right thing and passing the funding bill quickly!!

For your Representatives contact information type your zip in the box provided in the link: http://capwiz.com/vfw/dbq/officials/

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VA News - Week of July 21, 2008

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:01 PM

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VFW Washington Weekly - July 21, 2008

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 01:50 PM

by post3962

In This Issue:
1. FY2009 VA Funding Bill
2. House VA Committee Action
3. VA Outreach Hearing
4. SECDEF Recommends New Guard Chief

1. FY2009 VA Funding Bill: The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously cleared its version of the 2009 VA Funding Bill. The bill provides $72.7 billion in discretionary funding for military construction and Veterans Affairs. This is about $5 billion more than the current fiscal year, and is in line with the House Appropriations Committee's recommendations. It includes:
$47.7 billion in total VA discretionary funding.
$41.1 billion for VA health care.
$1.2 billion for VA construction projects, nearly double the president's request, and $1.1 billion for hospital maintenance and repairs.
$84 million more than the president's request for medical and prosthetic research.
$350 million to help certain higher income Category 8 veterans to begin enrolling in VA.
$250 million targeted to the care of rural veterans.
The bill now moves to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

Read more...

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