Congress Attends To Wounded Veterans
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Printable FormatPost-Dispatch Washington Bureau
By Ron Harris
WASHINGTON- Prodded by veterans and embarrassed by media accounts of returning servicemen's plight, Congress is moving to improve care for the men and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase inspections at military hospitals, establish timelines for repairs and improve access to psychological counseling.
Prompted in large part by a series in the Washington Post about Walter Reed Hospital, the measure is one of several that Congress will consider in the coming year.
It has gained bipartisan support, including that of Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., who has signed on as a co-sponsor.
The Obama-McCaskill bill also would simplify the amount of paperwork that veterans must plow through to receive disability benefits, one reason for delays spotlighted in a Post-Dispatch story Monday.
"Courageous men like Allen Curry, Daniel Carpenter and Tim Squier, who put their lives on the line to serve our country, should not have to face a second battle when they return home," Obama said, referring to three disabled veterans in the Post-Dispatch stories.
A companion bill soon will be filed in the House, said Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.
Also Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a bill to increase the amount of money families of men and women killed in the war can receive toward education.
"The federal amount that we are currently giving doesn't reflect the reality of education today," Durbin said.
Durbin and McCaskill said they plan a series of meetings across their states to talk with veterans about issues they face.
Next week the House and Senate will hold hearings on how the Department of Defense and the VA are taking care of service people who have fought in the war.
Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-St. Louis, said that while visiting Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix on Monday as part of a Black History Month celebration, doctors told him of a severe financial shortage for mental health counseling for the families of veterans of the war.
"So, I'll be looking at ways to get more money to address those mental health issues for families and returning troops," he said.
In interviews, lawmakers of both parties said Congress and the Bush administration had lost focus on the plight of the men and women returning from the war.
"We have not been paying enough attention to the needs of our wounded," said Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, who sits on a House oversight committee that might soon be examining the issue. "It's OK to give them a handshake when they get back and say, 'Good job.' But you've also got to help them out."
Bond said he is concerned about the plight of veterans, and that's why he agreed to co-sponsor the bill by McCaskill and Obama.
"We think it's needed," said Bond, who said he tackled similar problems of veterans 15 years ago at a veterans hospital in Columbia, Mo.
McCaskill said that while Congress bears part of the burden, the real blame lies with President George W. Bush.
"This administration has completely failed in its responsibility to take care of the men and women who have put it on the line for us," she said.
Veterans groups said they are pleased to see Congress talking more about the issue but are reserving judgment.
The groups say Bush's budget is $2.2 billion short in terms of medical care and $700 million below what is needed to hire enough workers to ease the backlog of disability claims. House and Senate committees will submit their own numbers this week.
"When we see those estimates, that will be a truer picture of whether Congress is willing to provide the (Department of Veterans Affairs) with the necessary resources it needs," said Joe Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, the nation's third-largest veterans group. "That will give us some indication whether they are really willing to step up to the plate."
Legislation proposed by McCaskill and Obama would:
- Reduce the paperwork that veterans must complete to receive disability benefits.
- Increase the number of caseworkers for recovering soldiers.
- Step up caseworkers' training.
- Require more frequent inspections of military hospitals.
- Establish timelines for repairs to hospitals.
- Improve access to psychological counseling.
Legislation proposed by Durbin would:
- Increase the benefit for survivors of soldiers killed in action to $80,000 from roughly $38,000.
- Increase the kinds of education programs in which survivors could participate.
rharris@post-dispatch.com | 202-298-6880