VetsFirst recently met with key players in DC to ensure veterans’ issues are kept high on the agenda.

Despite the torrid 103 degree heat and the soaking late afternoon thunderstorms, a few weeks ago my wife, Daisy, who is my caregiver, and I travelled to our Nation’s Capital. We accompanied Ms. Heather Ansley, VetsFirst’s director of Veterans Policy, on a two-day visit to my representatives and to key members of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives.

All of these individuals play an important role in helping to improve the quality of veterans’ lives, so it was good to have the opportunity to not only discuss the work of VetsFirst and what we are trying to accomplish, but the concerns of the brave men and women we serve.

We met with staff members of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Eliot Engel of New York, who are my representatives in Washington. We also met with staff of Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, who chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee; with staff of Congressman Jon Runyan of New Jersey, who chairs the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee; and with staff of Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle of New York, who chairs the Subcommittee on Health of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

In general, I believe that we were very well-received by the staff members to whom we spoke, whether Democrat or Republican.

During all of these important meetings, we began by providing a folder to each staff member that included printed information about VetsFirst and the services that we provide to our members, as well as a short list of our “Policy Priorities” for the current year. Also included in the packet were position papers on reform of the VA’s benefits claims process, and in support of passage of the Veterans Equal Treatment for Service Dogs Act.

Ms. Ansley and I began our visits by telling each staff person about VetsFirst, including our history that goes all the way back to 1946. We also discussed our network of accredited and trained National Service Officers and our information-filled Website with its very popular “Ask VetsFirst” feature. We emphasized VetsFirst’s focus of helping our members become re-integrated back into their communities.

On the House side, we pushed for the passage of H.R. 2433, the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act. We also pushed adoption in the House of the Veterans Equal Treatment for Service Dogs Act (H.R. 1154) because the Senate has already passed its version of this bill.

Since both Congressman Engel and Senator Schumer are also in a position to try to keep Medicaid program cuts to a minimum, and since VetsFirst has some members who served honorably during peacetime periods but sustained disabling injuries afterwards that forced them to rely on Medicaid home care services, we asked both their staff members to remember that many seriously disabled peacetime vets rely heavily on Medicaid help.

We also urged everyone with whom we met to consider that many pre-9/11 disabled vets like myself rely heavily on their caregivers to live productive lives, too, so that when enhanced caregiver benefits are enacted into law, they must be extended to veterans with significant disabilities from all previous wartime periods of service.

Now that the all-consuming battle of the debt ceiling is over, VetsFirst will renew its efforts to have all of our veterans’ benefits policy priorities enacted into law.

Terry Moakley
Chair of the VetsFirst Committee