With the November general election less than a month away, Disabled American Veterans is hoping candidates and current lawmakers will focus on seven priority issues which highlight the challenges facing the veteran community.
Known as Vision for Veterans, the list reflects the most urgent veteran needs, as well as those issues which have a long-lasting impact on those who have served, DAV Deputy Communications Director Ashleigh Byrnes told CBS Eye On Veterans host Phil Briggs.
Byrnes said that the nonprofit organization is pushing for the passage of the Veteran Burn Pit Exposure Act. Currently, veterans have to prove they were exposed to burn pits in order to receive health care from the Veterans Administrations for illnesses related to their service, she explained.
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“We want to remove that step,” she explained.
Below are the seven issues on the list:
1. Protect and strengthen benefits for ill, injured and disabled veterans; 2. Ensure timely and accurate delivery of all earned veterans benefits; 3. Sustain a comprehensive, high-quality veterans’ health care system; 4. Improve veterans’ mental health care and suicide prevention efforts; 5. Provide equitable benefits and services for women and minority veterans; 6. Expand support for families and survivors of disabled veterans; and 7. Enhance veterans’ transition, employment and economic empowerment. “We’ve recommended that elected officials consider establishing a new federal works project to guarantee federal employment to service-disabled veterans after they’ve been discharged from military service,” Byrnes added.
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The list reflects both the most urgent needs of veterans and those issues which will have serious, long-lasting impacts on those who served, based on DAV’s nearly 100 years of expertise in service, advocacy, and feedback from its more than 1 million members, she said.
“In the years to come, lawmakers will face major decisions about the future for our nation’s veterans and we have to be clear about the importance of the policies they’ll put in place to ensure the men and women who served receive the care and benefits they’ve earned,” said DAV National Commander and Iraq war veteran Stephen “Butch” Whitehead.
The document also includes informative issue briefs and recommendations for a path forward through policy and systematic reforms.