STATEMENT OF

THE RETIRED ENLISTED ASSOCIATION

PRESENTED TO THE

THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS

CONCERNING

FISCAL YEAR 2000 VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

28 APRIL 1999

PREPARED BY

MARK H. OLANOFF, CMSGT, USAF (RET)

LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR

On behalf of The Retired Enlisted Association’s (TREA) National President Fred Athans and National Auxiliary President Ethel Hale as well as over 100,00 members and auxiliary, we appreciate the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee concerning FY 2000 Department of Veterans Affairs Appropriations. TREA is a federally chartered Veterans Service Organization (VSO) representing retired, active, guard, reserve and family members who are serving or have served in every component of the Armed Forces of the United States: Army; Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. There are several issues which affect the members of this organization, and all veterans, that will be impacted by the actions of this subcommittee. These issues include:

VA SUBVENTION:

Increased access to health care for military retirees is TREA’s greatest concern. The majority (sixty-one percent) of our members are over the age of 65 and have been disenfranchised from their "earned" military retiree health care benefit. That is why TREA supports legislation authorizing the Department of Veterans Affairs to receive payments from Medicare to serve Medicare-eligible veterans (including military retirees). The Senate has already included a demonstration program in S. 4, the Soldiers’, Sailors’, Airmen’s, and Marines’ Bill of Rights. The VA Subvention program would be a good step in the direction of improving retirees access to health care. Further, the VA Subvention program would help all those veterans who are on Medicare, not only military retirees. As we work with the Ways and Means Committee on this issue, we are hopeful that the members of this committee, the advocates for veterans in Congress, will support VA Subvention when it is addressed in the House of Representatives.

Due to the fact that Medicare Part "B" would be a requirement of VA Subvention, TREA supports legislation which would eliminate the penalty for military retirees that did not elect Medicare Part "B" and now wish to enroll. Unfortunately, many military retirees were counseled by active duty hospital representatives not to enroll in Medicare Part "B" stating that their care at military health care facilities would continue for the rest of their lives. Today, however, we have seen several rounds of base closures which have left hundreds of thousands of military retirees without quality health care. Waiver of the Medicare Part "B" penalty and opening VA Hospitals to Medicare-eligible retirees will help correct this situation. Again, TREA recognizes that this issue falls under the jurisdiction of your colleagues on another Committee but we need your support, as advocates for veterans on this important issue.

LONG TERM HEALTH CARE:

HR 1432, recently introduced in the House by Representative Kelly of New York calls for public funding of long term health care for veterans with a service connected disability rating of 50% or higher. While the Department of Veterans Affairs has been providing long-term care for veterans for many years out of its annual health care appropriation, the increasing cost of health care makes it imperative that Congress provide the funding to carry out this mission. Congress can not allow this benefit to cease due to a lack of funding.

CONCURRENT RECEIPT:

Presently, military retirees pay is being off-set based on the percentage of VA disability they receive. As such, military retirees are the only class of American citizen required to waive their earned retired pay, dollar-for-dollar, to receive VA compensation for service connected disability. There are numerous bills pending in the House of Representatives to eliminate this off-set. TREA supports any legislation which would address this disparity which exists. We support the same treatment of military retirees as U.S. citizens with service connected disabilities. The support of the members of this subcommittee would be appreciated when your colleagues on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee address this issue.

VETERANS BENEFIT ADMINISTRATION:

Following along with the issue of Concurrent Receipt is the existing backlog in the processing of claims for a VA disability. The current wait is, in a word, shameful. It is an understood fact among veterans that if you do not have a Veterans Service Officer working for you, your claim will not be acted upon by adjudicators for a considerable period of time which may last for years. Veterans with service connected disabilities should not be discouraged from applying for their earned entitlement to disability compensation because they know that the system will be working against them. TREA was pleased to hear the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to hire more claims processors in fiscal year 2000. However, we remain skeptical that these additions will have enough of an impact to truly correct this problem. The most recent figures on claims processing show that the existing backlog makes the stated goal of 74 days for a rating-related action unlikely. Further, the increasing complexity, both medically and legally, will continue to have a significant impact on timeliness. The Board of Veterans Appeals currently renders a decision within 120 days of receiving an appeal. However, the total elapsed processing time for an appeal in the first quarter of FY 99 was 968 days, and this is an improvement from FY 98! A time-frame of nearly two and one-half years is not satisfactory. TREA is pleased the VA is working to correct this delay but the fact remains that it still exists.

Outside the Department of Veterans Affairs Headquarters is a quote from President Lincoln which reads, "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and his widow and his orphan." In reality, many who have borne the battle do not receive what they earned for fighting in that battle. The process of filing a claim needs to be reviewed to ensure that veterans who deserve compensation receive it in a timely and efficient manner. Please appropriate the necessary funding to improve the claims process and the lives of deserving veterans.

COMMISSION ON SERVICEMEMBERS AND VETERANS TRANSITION ASSISTANCE:

Along with many other Veterans Service Organizations, and members of Congress, TREA anxiously awaited the report of the Dole Commission. There were numerous points made by the Commission which greatly affects TREA’s members. One point of particular concern is the following statement:

"Although healthcare coverage for Medicare-eligible Service retirees would be expensive, the central issue is fairness and equity, not affordability. In 1997, the Federal Government spent $2.9 billion to provide FEHBP coverage to 1.67 million federal civilian beneficiaries aged 65 or older, and budgeted for immigrant healthcare. Thus, in the interest of fairness and equity for those who have endured the hardships and dangers of a service career, the cost of FEHBP-65 would be a small price to pay."

Military retirees cannot understand why immigrants have more health care options then themselves and their families. We believe that eligibility reform at the Department of Veterans Affairs, an issue we address later, and the previously addressed VA Subvention program would help improve this situation.

One particular area of concern for those of us who spent twenty or more years in the military is the recommendation concerning the limiting of the VA Home Loan guarantee to one use. Certainly, individuals who make the military a career may choose, at some point in time, to buy a home that meets their needs. Perhaps this may come with the arrival of a child or at a location where base housing may not be available. These servicemembers should not be forced into having to determine whether or not to buy a home while still on active duty or wait until retirement. The VA Home Loan program has been a successful program for decades. I do not doubt that a program created following World War II can use some readjustment, but to limit the program to one use will force career servicemembers into difficult decisions that their predecessors did not have to make. Instead of being a transition benefit, this could cause a difficulty veterans should not have to deal with when separating from the Armed Forces. TREA urges Congress to continue to provide full funding for the current VA Home Loan program.

The Commission has also recommended significant changes to the Montgomery GI Bill. The GI Bill is certainly one of the best recruiting tools the armed forces have today. Further, the impact it has had on society has been profound as more and more Americans have had the opportunity to earn college degrees. However, the education system in this country has changed greatly over the years. College tuition increases have nearly always doubled inflation over the past few years. That has made the pursuing of a college degree much more difficult for separating servicemembers as the value of the GI Bill has, therefore, steadily decreased. Further, education itself has changed. No longer is a four year degree the only form of higher education. Often, separating servicemembers may take a course over six months which costs thousands of dollars. The Commission’s recommendation concerning the increase in the amount payable for tuition and fees along with the speeding up of payment for the GI Bill recognizes the fact that education has changed over the years.

The Subcommittee’s support of these improvements to the veterans benefits package would be appreciated, not only by TREA’s members, but by current and future veterans nation-wide. Further, we recognize there are numerous other proposals in the Commission’s report such as merging of DoD and VA purchasing programs as well as facilities. We understand that Congress will need to study these recommendations and determine if they work in the best interest of veterans and the country. However, the recommendations we have addressed here, we believe, are those which can be addressed immediately and will have a significant impact on those who have served our nation.

VA ENROLLMENT:

TREA is very pleased with the current VA policy of enrolling all veterans for health care. This is a positive step towards showing all veterans that their nation is thankful for their service. We urge that full funding be granted to ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs will be able to continue to enroll veterans in future years. We do not want veterans who have enrolled in the VA to be told in one or two years time that the health care they are being guaranteed today has come to an end. We are concerned, however, that disabled veterans are not receiving their guaranteed health care. TREA has been working on a particular case where one of our members, who is rated at 70% disabled, was told there was no space available to treat his service-connected disability. This veteran, in fact, is a priority 1 veteran, those rated 50% or higher. He should not have been told there is no space available due to the large number of new enrollees into the VA system. Just as it is important that all eligible veterans have access to the VA, it is more important that veterans with service connected disabilities can receive treatment and are not told there is no space available. Promising veterans care is wonderful, but not at the expense of the current patient priority system.

ELIGIBILITY REFORM:

The Retired Enlisted Association supports the efforts of Chairman Stump to provide for eligibility reform concerning the enrollment categories in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Presently, many military retirees fall under Category 7, the lowest enrollment category which means military retirees, who have often lost their access to military treatment facilities, cannot access VA facilities either. Chairman Stump’s proposal to create a separate enrollment category for retirees is greatly appreciated by the members of this organization and will certainly go a long way towards increasing the health care options for military retirees. Further, we believe it is a justifiable benefit for those who have dedicated twenty or more years of service to this nation. We urge members of this committee to provide adequate funding to create this special category.

FISCAL YEAR 2000 BUDGET:

"PAY GO" is an expression which TREA and the other military associations have heard for years. If one program was going to be funded, its cost would have to be offset by taking money away from another program. Now, we have come to find that this is not always the case. Last year, the infamous "Highway Bill" was offset by taking $10 billion from, among other agencies, the VA. Our members ask, why does "Pay Go" not apply to the Transportation Bill like it does to the VA and DoD Appropriations Bills? In an effort to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, TREA has supported VA Committee Chairman Bob Stump in his efforts to add additional funding for Veterans health care and other issues. The grossly under-funded budget submitted by the Department of Veterans Affairs to Congress was shameful. As the budget surplus was diced up into new programs and securing old ones, the VA saw an increase in its budget that barely kept up with inflation. That is why we must come before you today, to fight for our earned benefits that have, over the years, been gradually reduced due to a lack of sufficient funding. However, we recognize the budget agreement of 1997 limits the increase in spending which is possible. Further, as an association which represents military retirees, we fear an off-set which takes funding from the Department of Defense would have a severe impact not only to retirees and their families but our active duty troops and their dependents as well. The Budget Resolution passed by the Senate included an amendment which increased VA funding without off-sets from other Defense and Veterans programs. TREA urges this Committee to include funding levels equal to, and with the protections guaranteed, in the Senate Budget Resolution.

GULF WAR ILLNESS:

Health care and disability compensation for veterans of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm are another area of concern for TREA. The concept of service connected disability is relatively simple. If you leave the military with an illness you did not have when you entered, you are no longer a "whole person" as defined by the VA and are, therefore, entitled to a disability rating and proportionate compensation. Many veterans of the Persian Gulf returned with symptoms of no particular illnesses or injury. In response, Congress passed legislation allowing the VA to compensate these veterans with undiagnosed illnesses.

Currently, the VA has extended the eligibility period to December 31, 2001 for compensation for undiagnosed illnesses in Gulf War veterans. We are certainly pleased that the VA has done this. We are also pleased that the GAO reported in 1998 that the VA has taken a number of steps to improve its processing of Persian Gulf claims (General Accounting Office, Veterans’ Benefits, Improvements Made to Persian Gulf Claims Processing). However, the work is not finished. Let us not repeat the mistakes that were made over the issue of Agent Orange twenty years ago, where many died while studies were trying to determine the cause of their illness. We may never know what happened to our men and women who served in the Gulf. But we do know that they are sick and in need of our help. TREA would like to thank the many members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, who have introduced legislation calling for increased research, expansion of the list of illnesses which are service connected and other issues relating to Persian Gulf illness. We sincerely hope these veterans will not be forgotten as time goes by and memories of our nation’s efforts in 1990 - 1991 become part of history.

CONCLUSION:

Mr. Chairman, distinguished Subcommittee members, we are at an interesting time in history. Through a balanced budget we have the opportunity to correct nearly three decades worth of injustice on our nation’s veterans. We have been told in the past that once the budget situation is resolved, our issues would be addressed. Today, the budget issue is resolved and we are here asking that our needs be met. Veterans realize there is a budget surplus which does not have a penny directed to their programs. Why have those who put the nation before themselves been put last by the nation? Now you, Congress, have the opportunity to correct this by providing enough funding so veterans can receive their earned benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs must receive full funding, be authorized to begin the VA Subvention program, improve veterans educational benefits and continue to treat veterans fairly and justly. By doing this, Congress can help ensure that veterans once again become prophets of patriotism and service to the nation as well as the best recruiters the Armed Forces had.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for giving The Retired Enlisted Association the opportunity to present its views on these important issues.