In January, MOAA outlined its top 10 goals for 2018. Next week, at a joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs Committees, MOAA will highlight Goals 6, 9, and 10.
WHAT: Senate and House Veterans' Affairs Committees Meeting
WHEN: Wednesday, March 14
TIME: TBD
WHERE: TBD
WATCH LIVE: Click here
RECAP: Available in The MOAA Newsletter
WHO: MOAA, Air Force Sergeants Association, Blinded Veterans Association, Fleet Reserve Association, Gold Star Wives of America, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, National Association of the State Directors of Veterans Affairs, and The Retired Enlisted Association
MOAA's top priorities during the Congressional testimony will be the following:
- Health Care Reform - modernize the health system and preserve foundational programs and services unique to VA.
- Caregivers - expand comprehensive assistance to caregivers of catastrophically disabled veterans of all eras.
- Women Veterans - invest in and expand care and services for women veterans. Mandate improvements to the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to ensure women veterans are aware of and can access earned benefits.
- Suicide Prevention and Traumatic Injuries - implement and sustain an integrated, multidisciplinary, comprehensive behavioral health system to address the rising rates of suicides and veterans suffering from cognitive and traumatic mental and physical conditions.
- Deployment-Related Illnesses and Toxic Exposures - Invest and advance joint VA and DoD research on servicemembers exposed to occupational, environmental, or hazardous toxins and contaminants during military service and ensure health care and benefits are established to appropriately compensate and support veterans, their family members and survivors. Establish a framework to manage future toxic exposures.
- Post-9/11 GI Bill - preserve the value of earned veteran benefits, such as the post-9/11 GI bill, from being compromised through unscrupulous actions of those who seek to prey on veterans for financial gain.
- Military Spouse Residency - expanding residency options for mobile military spouses to remove an additional barrier to maintaining a career during service and enable successful transition for military families to veteran status.
Two additional messages MOAA will deliver to lawmakers include, conveying appreciation for the committees' unfailing commitment to putting veterans first and for keeping veterans and veterans' organizations engaged in the policymaking process over the last year; and, MOAA's willingness to help Congress find ways to provide veterans the care and benefits they have earned without cannibalizing those same benefits to pay for other earned benefits or to be used for other national economic priorities.
Each year the committees hear from more than 20 veteran and military service organizations on their priorities for the year during the time many of the organizations are holding winter conferences and Capitol Hill-lobbying events.