"Based on our VCS analysis, we estimated the claim backlog would reach one million this year – a national scandal." Paul Sullivan, President, Veterans for Common Sense speaking before Congress.
After shutting down for revision, and rewarding alliance with Veterans for America (VFA) the Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) website is back. Based on your suggestions from member, web designers, and dedicated Veterans advocates, we upgraded our web site so you can sort your news by three different topics: Veterans, National Security, and Civil Liberties.
With our new and improved web site, you can read the documents VCS obtained exclusively from the Pentagon and VA using the Freedom of Information Act. We will also have our DoD and VA "Fact Sheets" available soon. As our new site is still under construction, this section is still being filled with documents.
Anyone interested in our daily and weekly e-mail updates, VCS will soon resume transmitting! Please spread the word about our new site and our work on issues you care about. And ask your friends to Join VCS. This is an exciting time for VCS and our members. Your support for our advocacy continues to raise our profile and our ability to impact the lives of our service members and veterans.
Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
Veterans Advocacy Editor
VT News Network
Member, Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) VCS Meets with House Speaker. On June 17, VCS Executive Director Paul Sullivan attended a Round Table discussion with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-California), the Speaker of the House. We were very pleased to be part of the effort to raise awareness about PTSD in a meeting attended by about twenty veterans groups and more than 25 Representatives. Top Congressional leaders, including Bob Filner, Chet Edwards, Harry Mitchell, John Hall, Michael Michaud, and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, listened to statements about the need to provide advance appropriations for VA, to fix VA’s broken claims system, hire veterans for Federal contractors, and address the healthcare and benefits needs of veterans with PTSD.
VCS Uncovers VA Claims Backlog Crisis. On June 18, the Washington Post published an Associated Press article about VA’s disability claim backlog quickly closing in on one million. The same day, Congress held a hearing about VA’s broken claim system, an issue highlighted by our landmark lawsuit against VA.
In May 2009, Veterans for Common Sense used the Freedom of Information Act to learn that VA’s claims backlog was about 900,000. Based on our VCS analysis, we estimated the claim backlog would reach one million this year – a national scandal.
We shared our information with investigative journalist Jason Leopold at the internet news site Public Record. A few days after Leopold published his story, Congress announced hearings into the growing claims backlog fiasco.
That’s VCS hard at work! First, we identify a problem, then we use the Freedom of Information Act to get the data we need to describe the breadth of the problem, then we publicize results. Finally, we get lawmakers involved so we can fix the problems facing us today and avoid those problems in the future.
[Note: Jim Davis of Veterans for Change reports that the VA Claims backlog has already surpassed a million].
VCS Testifies about Gulf War Illness. On May 19, VCS Executive Director Paul Sullivan testified before Congress about the need for more Gulf War illness research, treatment, and benefits. On June 18, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee announced a second hearing on Gulf War illnesses is scheduled for July 30. These hearings are the result of VCS contacting Chairman Bob Filner and asking him to review the needs and concerns of the estimated 210,000 Gulf War veterans who remain ill nearly 19 years after the Gulf War began.
We appreciate everybody’s patience the past few months while we updated our web site and e-mail system. We especially thank Joseph Harmon and his super staff at Questox in Fairfax, Virginia, for updating our web site!
As a member of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), we are working the issues you care about: helping America’s veterans, assisting our service members, and defending our civil liberties. I help spread the word by posting articles readers will not find on military.com or free republic (the Freepers).
Thank you,
By email from Libby Creagh
Development Director
Veterans for Common Sense
Posted by: Robert L. Hanafin
Veterans Advocacy Editor
VT News Network
Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.
My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.
Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.
I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.
I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.
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