Report
Meeting at Building 9, VAMC Campus
Call to order – 9:30, Invocation – Pledge of Allegiance
Greetings: Recognition of visitors and guests
Announcements -Jerry Kyser, Chair, Mike Rivard, Vice Chair.
Introducing Major General Jon Jensen of the The Adjutant General of the MN National Guard and the Commissioner of the Department of Military Affairs.
TAG – Major General John Jensen reporting
* Reiterating our support of local communities and businesses, without which MN National Guardsmen would not be able to serve. Our legislative priority this year was to ensure that we worked for equal pay benefits between Reserve and Active components in the Guard. We are also working to update our facilities and will hold the ribbon cutting ceremony for our new division headquarters in Arden Hills in September. We are continuing to work with our state legislators to ensure that we fully fund our state education initiates so our Guard and Reserve members can achieve their education goals.
*In 2008, the legislature gave us $1.5 million to begin our 30-60-90 day reintegration event. It has taken us ten years to use that money. We are currently looking for more reintegration funding.
Q. Where do you want support for the next year?
A. We are looking for where we can support our soldiers and airmen, as well as their families. Reintegration funding is critical.
Q. VFW speaking. Under state and federal guidelines, if a Guardsman doesn’t deploy, they are not a veteran. We have had to turn away many Guardsmen because we simply cannot help them. I would encourage you to lobby for more money for the Guardsmen and Reservists who cannot get a job because a small or medium employer won’t hire them. We have to refer them back to the FAC.
A. That is an excellent point.
Q. Are you aware that spouses have to pay $750 to be buried in state cemeteries?
A. I was not aware of this.
1. Federal Congressional Representatives
Senator Amy Klobuchar – Kurt Johnson
*Not present.
Senator Tina Smith – Alex Schueller Reporting
*Smith introduced S3235, the Veterans Hearing Benefits Act of 2018. This bill creates a presumptive condition for hearing loss and tinnitus for veterans.
*Smith introduced the Readiness in Environmental Protection And Integration Act. It was added to the NDAA and has made it out of the conference and the manager’s package. It creates funding for the relief area around Camp Ripley.
*The Vets to Farm Act was included in the larger farm bill for the senate package. Currently the farm bill is being reconciled in committee between the two versions.
Q. Concerning the hearing bill, everyone gets tinnitus. I’ve never heard of anyone getting turned down. What does this do?
A. There are a lot of people who get turned down.
1st District Representative – Tim Walz – Shawn Schloesser
*Not present.
2nd District Representative – Jason Lewis – Tom Tchsida Reporting
*Lewis served on the conference committee for the NDAA. He represented the transportation infrastructure committee as well as the education and workforce committee. It was taken up in the House on July 26th to be voted on, 359-354. Lewis voted in favor. It fully funded a 2.6% pay raise for all troops and included over $700 billion in discretionary funding. It also supports our troops serving around the world.
*Last week, under suspension of the rules, the House voted in favor of eight different bills that supported veterans and the military, including a bill that would amend the Service Member’s Civil Release Act to allow service members to terminate their cable, satellite television, internet, etc. The Vet MD Act, the Navy SEAL Petty Officer William Bill Mulder (Ret.) Transition Improvement Act were also included.
Q. If you’re being deployed, Verizon and other companies won’t let you terminate your contract?
A. In many cases, they will not. That bill has just passed the house and will be taken up in the senate soon.
3rd District Representative – Erik Paulsen – Margret Cavanaugh
*Not present.
4th District Representative – Betty McCollum – Connie Haddeland Reporting
* HR 5879 the Merchant Mariners of WWII Congressional Gold Medal Act. The Congressional Gold Medal is awarded to groups of individuals who have achieved a certain level. On Monday, McCollum will be honoring Robert Holmstrom from Maplewood who was a member of OSS during WWII with a Congressional Gold Medal.
*The Senate Veteran Affairs Committee is set to take up the Blue Water Naval Veterans Bill that passed the house.
5th District Representative – Keith Ellison – Mike Siebenaler
*Not present.
6th District Representative – Tom Emmer – Alejandra Henriquez
*Not present.
7th District Representative – Collin Peterson – Meg Louwagie Reporting
*Peterson cosponsored HR 4556 to require the VA to offer comprehensive dental benefits to enrollees. He also co-founded the Rural Hospital Caucus, which will work towards helping our veterans receive care as close to home as possible and identifying and addressing issues facing veterans in rural hospitals. He co-sponsored HR 5191, the Medical Improvement for Neurodegenerative Diseases Act, which directs the VA to establish Alzheimer’s disease research and clinic centers. He supported both of the MN chapter Disabled Veteran bills, HR 1802 the Care for All Veterans Act and HR 93, the gender-specific Care for Female Veterans Act.
*Peterson joined a letter urging the VA to reconsider the proposed rule that would limit a veteran’s ability to select where they get their prosthetics.
Q. Can you explain a bit more about the prosthetics issue?
A. It looks like the VA recently proposed a rule giving itself sole authority over whether the veteran can access private prosthetics over VA prosthetics.
Q. Given the flooding, were any of the Guard or Army facilities impacted?
A. No.
8th District Representative – Rick Nolan – Rick Olseen Reporting
*We appreciated the tour of the National Guard armory.
*Nolan is retiring at the end of the year.
2. Federal Agencies
VISN 23 – Acting Director Patrick Kelly – Andre Kok Reporting
*We are seeing a lot of success with the VetText program. This helps veterans easily cancel appointments they are not able to make.
*Community meetings:
August 9th – Galesburg, IL
August 16th – St. James, MN
August 21 – Montevideo, MN
August 22 – Carroll, IA
August 23 – Minot, ND
August 29 – Grand Island, NE
*The new secretary, Robert Wilkie, was sworn in on July 30th. We look forward to seeing what new initiatives and practices the secretary will bring.
VA Regional Office – Kim Graves – Pete Phillippi Reporting
* The new secretary, Robert Wilkie, was sworn in on July 30th. We look forward to seeing what new initiatives and practices the secretary will bring. He previously served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
*Dr. Paul Lawrence, the Undersecretary for Benefits, will be coming to the St. Paul regional office on August 24th. We are scheduled to have a roundtable discussion and hope to get a better understanding of his initiatives and how he sees the future of the VA. He will also be attending the American Legion 100th National Conference.
*In July, we went into a RAMP process. This is a new way that the VA will be processing veterans’ appeals. It is a pilot program to get the VA ready for the new legislation that will become legally effective in February 2019. Because we are processing the RAMP appeals, those appeals are coming in from all around the nation and our MN legacy appeals have, for the most part, been brokered to other stations for processing. We will only be processing MN appeals with hearings pending on them.
*Thus far, the RAMP process has been successful.
Q. Are you saying MN and western Wisconsin people are going to be penalized for sending in appeals?
A. No, I’m only saying that the chances of their appeal being processed in-state are slim unless they have requested a personal hearing. They should get the same treatment wherever they go.
Q. Can you speak to what the difference is with the RAMP process?
A. I can. Currently, a veteran has a year to file a Notice of Disagreement with any decision the VA makes in writing. Once the veteran makes that claim, we have an opportunity to either grant the appeal or issue what’s called a Statement of the Case, at which point the veteran has an opportunity to submit a perfected appeal which will then allow the veteran to take that appeal to Court of Veterans Appeals, the federal circuit court, or even the supreme court. Those rights will still be there with RAMP. However, the veteran now has two options. They can do a Higher Level Review or they can do a Supplemental Claim to have their previous claim reconsidered. The Supplemental Claim allows new evidence to be reviewed and the Higher Level Review allows a decision to be made on the evidence in record at the time, without adding new evidence. Previously, a veteran could add new evidence as desired, stretching some claim appeals on for years. What we have with the Higher Level Review is Difference of Opinion Authority, meaning they can issue a different opinion with the same evidence on record. Previously, without that authority, a veteran would have to submit new evidence in order to get their claim reconsidered. Thus far, it has been proving effective.
Q. I believe that it’s more effective, but the report from the JAO back in May said that there wasn’t a good way to judge the numbers because there wasn’t a good comparison.
A. I have not seen that report. At our location, we are looking at a 61% grant rate. Yes, it is early and it is hard to tell, but we are optimistic. We won’t know for sure until the new law is fully put into place. We also have a number of legacy appeals to process before we can move forward.
Q. Are the Court of Veteran Appeals up and running?
A. The Court of Veteran Appeals is not yet processing appeals that were perfected and they opted to RAMP in. They are supposed to start processing in October. The board had to put together their own resources to make that level of decision.
Q. Are you getting adequate funding now that the VA funding bill has passed to hire the right people to get the work done?
A. We don’t look at the actual funding, we look at staffing resource allocation models which allow us to hire a specific amount of people. We have been allocated adequate staff. There is a lot of complexity in the actual hiring process, but we do have the staff we need. We are still looking to hire seventeen more right now.
Q. With the Blue Water passing, what will happen to Blue Water veterans who went to the VA and were denied benefits in the past? Will they have the chance to re-appeal?
A. Historically, when the legislation has passed, we will receive specific guidance on how to proceed. We have not received that guidance yet.
VAHCS Minneapolis – Director Patrick J. Kelly – Ralph Heussner
*Not present.
St. Cloud VA HCS – Director Stephen Black – Tyler Bieniek Reporting
*We have our 4th annual Summer Games at 9:30 AM on August 4th. It closes with an awards ceremony at 1:30 PM.
*We’ve been working to reduce our vacancy rates, especially amongst our medical support assistants. Recently we achieved a good level, with a 3% vacancy rate. Currently we are 5th overall veterans’ health facility for vacancy rates. What that means is the frontline staff seeing veterans as they come in or are receiving phone calls have very few vacancies. We are also seeing improvement in our call center numbers.
*Our Flu Clinics are scheduled to start on October 1st. Schedules will be sent out shortly.
*There are several Vietnam Veteran Recognition Ceremonies coming up. The first will be on August 4th in Mora at the Civic Center at 2:30 PM. There will be another in Montevideo at the Montevideo VA clinic at 5 PM on August 4th.
Ft. Snelling Cemetery – Jerry Kyser
*Not present.
3. State Agencies and MN Veteran Assistance Organizations
MN Department of Veteran Affairs – Ben Johnson Reporting
*See handouts for legislative highlights. The handout will be posted on the MN VA website. The 2018 MN review of veteran related legislation will also be posted online.
*Heroes and History is a new documentary with Twin Cities Public Television about the history of the Minneapolis veterans home. It aired on July 29th. We are very proud of this documentary. It is available on the TPT website (www.tpt.org/heroes-history/).
*The application deadline for the Minnesota Veterans Outdoor Program, the disabled veterans deer hunt, is August 17th. The hunt will take place the 9th through the 11th of October. Please spread the word.
*Military Appreciation Day at the State Fair is August 28th. The theme this year is honoring women veterans.
*With the upcoming legislation and the incoming new governor, our agenda is developing initiatives that are not controversial and that will have support from anyone who comes into office. We are also planning for the transition. If there are things you believe the new administration should know about veterans, their state, their community, or their issues, please let us know and we will add it to the transition materials.
*At the moment, the only planned transition is Commissioner Shellito, who is retiring for the third time. He will be transitioning out when the new governor takes office on January 7th. There will be a transition period and new commissioners will be identified and appointed. At this point, we are looking at a continuity of leadership in our organization.
Q. Any news about the bridge at the Veterans Home?
A. The bridge did not pass its opening inspection. They found that the contractors who did the repairs were not quite knowledgeable enough about 1905-1915 steel. So what they did was repair to current specs, without taking into account the different metal properties. The welds didn’t bond properly. We are working with the contractor on recourse. We will hold them accountable and there is currently a plan in place to move forward. The plan will be executed to fix the problems by the first week of September. We will not be asking for more money from the legislature to fix these problems.
MN Assistance Council For Veterans (MACV) – Jon Lovald Reporting
*MACV has received a new HVRP grant directed toward employment in greater Minnesota and the Metro area. We are in the process of hiring new people to assist veterans with employment.
*We received an expanded SSVF grant to assist with homeless veterans and to prevent homelessness in at-risk veterans. This is expanding our reach within the state of MN.
*Previously, if a veteran did not have DD214 proving that they served, we could not help them. We have a grant now, in partnership with the National Guard, to assist all Guardsmen currently serving, honorably discharged, or with under-honorable discharges. It’s a new initiative.
*The August Stand Down will be on August 14th at the Target Center. This is a new location, with new challenges. However, this gives us more direct access to the light rail and bus lines, as well as proximity to a number of shelters. We believe this will be easier for veterans in greatest need to get to us, but it might be more of a challenge for venders. If you have questions, please contact us.
*We are sending out invites for the MACV gala on September 6th in St. Paul at CHS field. The invites will go out this week.
*The Betsy Lennar home is on schedule to be open to women veterans in September.
*Our new home in Hibbing has opened its doors and we are currently placing veterans there.
*There are three golfing events coming up. On September 5th, in Carver County, there will be an event at Deer Run. On September 10th in Golden Valley, Tee It Up For The Troops is doing an event. Proceeds will come to MACV. The AUSA is hosting their annual golf event on September 17th at Hazeltine Golf Course.
*We have been working with America’s Warrior Partnership using a software system called Warrior Serve. Previously, MACV had been living in a file-folder system. We have recently rolled out the process and software system in our southern reason. It is working and we plan to roll it out in Duluth and our northern region soon. Soon we will bring it to our Metro team and plan on showing it to our other partners.
Q. Since you moved to the Target Center, I’m assuming they donated the time and space?
A. Yes, the Target Center did. We are not paying for the space and they will be helping us to set up tables.
Q. How many people can attend the Metro Stand Down?
A. Typically about 1,000. Right now we have about 200 volunteers.
Military Action Group (MAG) – Jerry Kyser Reporting
*The next MAG meeting will be at 10 AM on August 20th. We are optimistic about the legislative session for next year.
*The Honor Flight is due on September 20th. There will be eighty WWII veterans and forty-five Korean War veterans.
Minnesota Humanities Center – Blake Rondeau Reporting
*We have sent out grants to nine different organizations totaling up to $75,000 all related to events in October related to Veterans’ Voices Month and November 11th, the 100th anniversary of the armistice. A full list of events can be found at https://mnhum.org.
*The MN Humanities Center and the VA have teamed up with Warrior Writers (www.warriorwriters.org/past.html) to do a workshop on September 8th. The presentation will be from 7 to 9 PM. The workshop itself will be from 12 to 4 PM.
*The Veterans Voices award ceremony will be held on October 7th. This is the sixth year. Sebastian Younger will be the keynote speaker. Preregistration information is available on our website.
*The Veterans Voices awardees will be announced in the coming weeks.
Q. Can we have a list of this year’s and prior Veteran Voice nominees?
A. We will ask them permission to provide that information and I will do that.
St. Paul Vets Center – Scott Braden Reporting
*We will be going to the American Legion National Convention in Minneapolis with our mobile vet center. It will be staffed with clinicians and outreach people.
*There are several outreach events going on at Fort McCoy for Guard and Reserve members.
*Currently we have a full staff of clinicians.
*We are moving forward with our move back to St. Paul. We feel this will facilitate better access for the veterans we serve than our current location in New Brighton.
*Our regional office wants to set up some outposts in southern MN. These outstations would be staffed with full time employees. We are considering Rochester and Mankato as possible locations.
Twin Cities Veterans Initiative – Tommy Johnson Reporting
*We are working with America’s Warrior Partnership for Operation Deep Dive. This is a four-year study on veteran suicide. (http://americaswarriorpartnership.org/deep-dive/)
*The Twin Cities Veterans Initiative was started with the Uptown VFW and America’s Warrior Partnership. The founder is Jim Lorraine. The philosophy of the group states that there are enough resources in the community to support veterans, but those resources are not connected; the Twin Cities Veterans Initiative means to do that.
Historic Fort Snelling – Tom Pfannenstiel
*Not present.
Paralyzed Veterans of America – Todd Kemery
*Not present.
Veterans for Peace – David Cooley
*The Veterans for Peace is having their national convention on August 22nd through the 26th in St. Paul at the Intercontinental Riverfront Hotel.
*On August 24th from 10:45 to 12:15 PM there will be an event with three speakers on the topic of the continuing threat to privatize the VA health system. Suzanne Gordon, author of Battle for Veterans Healthcare, will be speaking as part of the Veterans Healthcare Action Campaign (VHAC).
4. Announcements
*Our next UVLC meeting is September 5th.
*The VA Mental Health summit is being held at the University of St. Thomas on August 20th from 8 AM to 4 PM. (www.eventbrite.com/e/6th-annual-va-and-communitymental-health-summit-tickets-47930994896)
*The Service Provider Network Group will be meeting on August 15th. We are expecting the VA Midwest Community Liaison to attend the meeting.
*The 100th National Convention for the American Legion will be happening on August 24th through the 30th.
5. Business Meeting
Treasurer’s Report as of 1 August 2018
Balance as of 1 July 2018 $3,103.40
Deposits for July 2018 $100.00
Expenses for July 2018
Transcription Expense ($120.00)
Balance as of 1 August, 2018 $2,983.40
Submitted by Donald Rask, Treasurer UVLC
End of Report