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ABOVE: Tammy secured the Purple Heart medal that he earned in WW II for veteran William Ryan.
Protecting Veterans Health
I firmly believe that our nation must fully honor the commitments and the promises it has made to our veterans. Ensuring access to quality health care is one of the most basic of these commitments. With a growing number of injured and disabled veterans as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to those veterans receiving treatment for injuries sustained during previous conflicts, we must recommit our nation to ensuring that our VA health system is strong and accessible.
Over the past few years, I have been shocked and saddened by the shortfalls in the health care system that serves our nation’s active and retired military. What began as news of deteriorating facilities and disjointed care afforded to some out-patient service members and their families at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., evolved to be a series of systemic failures in the military and veterans’ health care system.
Congress has responded with a number of initiatives to reverse these failures, but there is still much work to be done. One outstanding issue that must be addressed is the determination of disability ratings, and thereby disability benefits. Too many veterans languish in their rehabilitation progress as they are forced to navigate an unnecessarily complex and non-communicative system, oftentimes coming to suffer much worse physical and mental affects during that time.
I intend to continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that all American service members and veterans receive the medical care they richly deserve. All of our service members and veterans must believe that the American people and our government are as committed to their well-being as they are to ours.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
The core of adequate and respectful veterans’ health care is medical technology that can address the specific injuries and disabilities sustained during military service. Due to the ever changing face of war and defense technology, veterans’ medical facilities are currently treating injuries and disabilities – namely PSTD and TBI – to an extent never before seen, both in sheer numbers and in scope sustained per patient.
I support legislation and efforts to provide the veterans’ health system with the resources, flexibility, and integration necessary to address the changes and provide the best care possible. I believe these efforts should include cutting edge pre- and post-deployment testing, and personalized treatments for servicemembers, veterans, and military family members. Unfortunately, a stigma persists against those servicemembers who pursue mental health care during and after deployments. I am heartened by the Department of Defense’s efforts to dispel this stigma. The damaging effects of the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to come to light, and as a country and government, we must do all we can to mitigate these effects, and support those who have sacrificed so much.
Veterans Disability Claims
We must eliminate the VA case backlog that is nearing a point of crisis. I am deeply concerned about the delays that many veterans experience in gaining resolution to their claims for service-connected compensation and related benefits, and I am an ardent supporter of efforts to remove the backlogs at every stage in the process. Making veterans wait for 12 to 18 months to resolve a claim is simply unacceptable.
Veterans Education
In addition to medical benefits, our country commits to honoring veterans and their selfless sacrifices through education benefits. I am pleased to have supported the largest expansion of veterans’ education benefits since the enactment of the Montgomery GI Bill in 1944. The new benefits increase aid – tuition, books, and housing – to military servicemembers, reservists, and National Guard members who serve active duty after September 11, 2001. These benefits also will be available for education benefits accrued before 9/11, but not yet awarded. Most importantly, these benefits will not expire as quickly as those awarded under the previous GI Bill, and can be transferred to a spouse or dependent after a certain period of service and upon election of further service.
Over the last six decades, the purchasing power of the Montgomery G.I. Bill had eroded significantly. Now I believe we can provide veterans with an education benefit that is worthy of their service to our nation.
Concurrent Receipt of Benefits
Currently, military retirees who also are eligible for VA disability benefits are subject to an offset that prevents them from receiving full retirement benefits concurrently with VA disability benefits. This rule is unfair to those disabled veterans, and I support legislation to repeal it.
Dr. James Allen Disabled Veterans Equity Act
Dr. James Allen, a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin—School of Medicine, worked at the VA Hospital for thirty-three years and treated numerous eye patients, including blind veterans. He brought to my attention the fact that veterans who suffered a service-connected blindness in one eye received no additional VA compensation when they lose vision in the other eye.
Congress has rightly recognized that some human organs or limbs are designed to work in pairs: legs, hands, kidneys, lungs, ears, and of course eyes. In the instance of eyes, blindness in one eye profoundly affects depth perception, even if sight is fully retained in the other eye. The paired organ statute was written to assist those veterans who experience a service-connected loss of a paired organ or limb. This statute recognizes the interdependency of paired organs and endeavors to treat the combined disability created by a non-service-connected loss, injury or degeneration of the remaining paired organ or limb as though it were the result of a service-connected disability. In general, the paired organ statute accomplishes this task, with the exception of its treatment of loss of sight.
Consequently, and based on Dr. Allen’s professional expertise and experience, I introduced legislation to fix this inequity in the current paired organ statute. I am extremely proud to say that the Dr. James Allen Disabled Veterans Equity Act was signed into law in December 2007. This success is one of the most meaningful of my congressional career thus far – addressing an issue a constituent brought to my attention that will impact countless veterans nationwide. To his further credit, Dr. Allen has since received the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs’ Veteran Lifetime Achievement Award.
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