Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

1.      Distribution Of Expanded Agent Orange Benefits Underway At VA. In continuing coverage, MedPage Today (11/3, Walker) noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs has “started to distribute disability benefits to veterans who suffer from three additional illnesses thought to stem from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.” The benefit “payments are for B cell leukemias (such as hairy cell leukemia), Parkinson’s disease, and ischemic heart diseases.” According to MedPage Today, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a press release that VA is demonstrating a “commitment to provide Vietnam veterans with treatment and compensation for the long-term health effects of herbicide exposure.” Stacey Hopwood, a “Montgomery County Veterans Service officer,” also took note of the expanded Agent Orange benefits in an op-ed for the Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle (11/3, 19K), as did the WCMH-TV Columbus, OH (11/3, Yost) website and a report aired by WCBI-TV Columbus, MS (11/3, 10:19 p.m. CT).

 2.      Use Of Videoconferencing To Treat PTSD Earns Award For VA Psychologist. NextGov (11/4, Brewin) reports, “For the past three years Peter Tuerk, a psychologist and associate director” of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinical team at Veterans Affairs hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, has “used videoconferencing systems to conduct prolonged exposure therapy sessions with veterans” that “cannot make it to the hospital for face-to-face counseling.” This week, Tuerk “received a VA national award for his pioneering work in recognition of his contributions in an area critical to the rehabilitation and improvement in the quality of life of war-injured veterans. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the department presented Tuerk with its Olin Teague Award, named after the former Texas congressman and World War II veteran, as his work ‘exemplifies the strides VA is taking in understanding and treating’ combat stress.”                                                                                                       

Nonprofit Establishing Residential Addiction And PTSD Treatment Center For Vets. In an op-ed for the Allentown (PA) Morning Call (11/3, 104K), Diana Heckman, “director of development for Treatment Trends Inc., a private, nonprofit corporation,” noted, “Suicides among US military veterans ballooned by 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to statistics released in January by the Veterans Affairs Department. ‘Of the more than 30,000 suicides in this country each year, fully 20 percent of them are acts by veterans,’ said” Shinseki at a “VA-sponsored suicide prevention conference earlier this year.” Heckman went on to point out that her organization is “establishing a Veterans Sanctuary, a residential addiction and PTSD treatment center.”

 3.      Arizona State Veteran Home “Rising Fast.” The Tucson-based Arizona Daily Star (11/3, 116K) said housing for “Pima County veterans is rising fast north of East Ajo Way near South Sixth Avenue. The Arizona State Veteran Home-Tucson is scheduled to open next fall, said Homer Rodgers, Arizona Department of Veterans Services assistant deputy director for health care.” According to the Star, the “137,500-square-foot complex is going up on 8.5 acres of land donated to the state” by the Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

 4.      Miller A Potential Chairmen Of House Veterans Affairs Committee. The AP (11/4, Margasak, Abrams) reports, “The Republican takeover” of the US House of Representatives “means a complete turnover in committee chairmen, with the new, and sometimes returning, GOP chairmen coming in armed with the promise from their leaders that they will no longer be an afterthought.” While “who winds up where won’t be made official until the new Congress takes office in January,” 51-year-old Jeff Miller, a “conservative from the Florida Panhandle, is seen as a leading candidate to head” the Veterans Affairs Committee. Miller, a “former real estate broker and deputy sheriff, has a large veteran population in his district and since coming to Congress has championed legislation to improve benefits for military personnel, veterans and their families.”

 5.      Akaka Expected To Continue Chairing Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. CQ (11/4, Donnelly) says the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for the 112th Congress, which will be sworn in early next year, is “expected to remain under the chairmanship” of US Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), who “will focus on improving adjudication of veterans’ disability claims.” Akaka, who has “already written a bill intended to make the process fairer and to reduce a backlog of claims numbering in the scores of thousands,” also “plans legislation to enhance” the Post-9/11GI Bill. CQ adds that the committee will “continue to monitor the signature effects” of America’s two current “wars: traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health issues, suicides, substance abuse and homelessness.”

 6.      First Iraq War Vet Elected To Congress Among Democrats Voted Out Of House. The Army Times (11/4, Maze, 104K) reports, “Tuesday’s elections swept some key Democrats” from the US House of Representatives, including US Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), the “first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress,” US Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX), “chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding veterans programs,” US Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), “chairwoman of the Veterans’ Affairs economic opportunity subcommittee,” and US Rep. John Hall (D-NY), “chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs disability assistance subcommittee.” Hall “had worked with Edwards to find funding for extra employees for the Veterans Affairs Department to process benefits claims with hopes of reducing a growing backlog.”
     Another Iraq Vet Just Elected To Congress Wants To Trim Federal Workforce But Not At VA. CQ (11/4, Koss) notes that among other things, Arkansas Republican Tim Griffin, who on Tuesday defeated Democrat Joyce Elliott to succeed retiring US Rep. Vic Snyder, “has called for trimming the federal workforce to ‘pre-Obama’ levels, with exemptions for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.” Griffin, who “served in the Iraq War for a few months in 2006, says the US has an obligation to leave Iraq and Afghanistan able to govern themselves.”
     Measure Already In House Would Also Exempt VA From Proposed Hiring Limitations. The “Federal Diary” column for the Washington Post (11/4, Davidson, 605K) lists “some…proposals that will have new life in the Republican-led House,” including one from US Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis (R-WY), who wants “growth in the federal workforce…cut by limiting hires to one for every two retirees.” Lummis’ bill “excludes the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, which are among the government’s largest employers.” The “Federal Eye” blog for the Washington Post (11/4, 605K) runs a shortened version of the same column.
     Third Iraq Vet Hoping For Spot On House Veterans Affairs Committee If He Wins Close Race. CQ (11/4, Adams) profiles Arizona Republican Jesse Kelly, another veteran of the Iraq War who is involved in a “too close to call” race against US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). CQ says that if Kelly wins, he “hopes to earn a seat” on the Armed Services Committee or the Veterans Affairs Committee.

 7.      VA To Continue Using QuadraMed Coding Software. Health Data Management (11/4, Goedert) reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs will continue to use a variety of coding software from QuadraMed Corp. under a five-year, $221 million contract.” Since 2005, VA has “used the Reston, Va.-based vendor’s software at 150 medical centers. Additional functions and enhancements under the new contract include physician query tracking capabilities, and enterprisewide central management reporting and monitoring of key performance indicators.”

 8.      VA, Air Force Leading Way On Transition To Windows 7. According to NextGov (11/3, Brewin, Kalish), the US Air Force “and the Veterans Affairs Department are leading the way in migration to Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system for personal computers, with the Air Force planning to complete the move by December 2011, while VA last week solicited bids to support what will be a five-year transition project.” After noting that Microsoft will “end support for the Windows XP operating system in April 2014, which means all users must develop a migration strategy before then,” NextGov added, “Ed Leary, an optimized desk top specialist with the Microsoft federal group, said he spends at least 30 hours a week talking with federal agencies about Windows migration, but to date, ‘I would say that the Air Force and…VA lead the way.'”

 9.      Omaha City Council Helps Plan For Vets Facility Move Along. In continuing coverage, the WOWT-TV Omaha, NE (11/3) website said that because the Omaha City Council unanimously “voted to reclassify a piece of land near the Field Club Trail,” a new veterans facility is a “step closer” to reality. The US Department of Veterans Affairs “and Volunteers of America plan to build a $20 million housing and support facility at 40th and Pacific.” After noting that the facility “would be home to 75 otherwise homeless veterans,” WOWT added, “At a public hearing in October, some Field Club neighbors” argues that the facility is “not a ‘good fit’ for the area.”

 10.    Survey: Veterans Do Not Feel Supported Or Understood At US Colleges. The Washington Post (11/4, A6, Johnson, 605K) reports, “Enrollment of veterans is surging at America’s college campuses, but as a group they don’t feel supported and understood, according” to researchers “with the National Survey of Student Engagement,” which the “Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research produces…each year to measure how students and faculty interact and learn.”