Report
Meeting at Building 9, VAMC Campus
Call to order – 09:30, Invocation – Pledge of Allegiance
Greetings: Recognition of visitors and guests
Announcements – Jerry Kyser, Mike Rivard
1. Federal Congressional Representatives and Senators
1st District Representative – Jim Hagedorn – Joe Steck reporting
•Not present.
2nd District Representative – Angie Craig – Mike Siebenaler
•Not present.
Senator Bruce Anderson reporting
•This past session, a complete budget was fulfilled for the Veteran and Military Affairs, with $2 million to the Department of Military Affairs to sustain the state enlistment incentive and retention bonus programs, such as tuition reimbursements. $775,000 was provided for an operating adjustment for state veterans cemeteries, $544,000 in program and service operating costs for the Department of Veterans Affairs, $516,000 to sustain reintegration programs for deployed service members, $500,000 to expand the Civil Service Corp, which provides free essential services directly to veterans and their families, and $100,000 to upgrade the Armed Forces Service Center at the Minneapolis/St. Paul international airport.
•The Veterans Service Courts bill is still before the senate in the Veterans Public Safety and Judiciary Committee.
•The next session starts in February.
Q. What action is being taken on Senate File 26-79, the Veterans Small Business Enhancement Act
A. I have not heard about this one.
Q. HR 886, the Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act of 2019, is 11-53 on the senate level. This bill doesn’t cost money and shows a savings of $1 million and 370 thousand in the first two years. This will be an important bill for veterans in rural MN.
A. Thank you. From conversations with the Chairman of the Veteran Affairs committee, he would like to see more veterans courts established in counties across the state.
Q. Veterans Day on the Hill is in March, and is generally not well attended. Is there anything we can do to increase the participation level?
A. Increasing awareness of the event would help.
Q. Veterans Day on the Hill is also dependent on the weather and the earlier in the session it is held, the greater the risk of adverse weather that prevents veterans from greater MN from attending.
A. Thank you.
3rd District Representative – Dean Phillips – Rollie Olson reporting
•The first Veterans Community Conversation town hall was held on May 30th.
•Philips will be touring the different facilities in the 3rd District and around the Twin Cities in August to increase exposure around veterans’ issues.
•Philips is on the Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
Q. One of the VFW’s national proprieties is the expansion of veteran treatment courts. HR 886, the Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act of 2019, has bee introduced. Currently Betty McCollum is the only member of the MN delegation to co-sponsor it. Would Philips consider supporting it?
A. I will pass the information along.
4th District Representative – Betty McCollum – Connie Haddeland
•Not present.
5th District Representative – Ilhan Omar – Akolade Gbadamosi
•Not present.
6th District Representation – Tom Emmer – Alejandra Henriquez
•Not present.
7th District Representative – Collin Peterson – Meg Louwagie reporting
•Peterson is on the Veteran Affairs committee and the democratic co-lead on HR 35-30, Improving Confidence In Veterans Care Act. The bill will go through the HVAC oversight committee, of which Peterson is also a member. The bill is based on the VAO report of Representative Bergman, requesting credentialing of the VA.
•Peterson recently attended the Oversight Committee to examine challenges faced by the Department of Veteran Affairs whistleblowers.
•Prior to that, Peterson attended a full committee legislative hearing on nine bills, four of which related to medical cannabis. He also met with MDVA’s Commissioner, Larry Berke, and the program’s managers for the VA’s state home construction grants to discuss MN’s prospects for the three homes and the federal matching funds this year.
8th District Representative – Pete Stauber – Margaret Cavanaugh
•Not present.
2. Federal Agencies
VISN 23 – Ross Tweten – Ron Woolery reporting
•Ron Woolery is the new Public Affairs officer.
•The Mission Act is out in full force, and has been implemented across VISN 23. There are some adjustments being made to the local network to deal with a lack of vendors in some locations.
•The budget for VISN 23 is good for the rest of the year.
VBA Regional Office – Kim Graves – Ron Woolery reporting
•Assistant Director Anderson has retired. She will be missed.
•Assistant Director Donna Myhre Hickle will be leaving in July to become the new director of the Wichita Regional office.
•KARE11 recently ran a story on the VA Home Loan Funding Fee. The veterans who are primarily impacted by the story are veterans who bought a house who were not service-connected when they bought the house, but had a claim pending with the VBA at the time they purchased the house. With VA home loans, if a veteran is service-connected, they do not pay the funding fee. A small percentage of veterans who have a claim pending when they purchase the house and are certified afterward. In that case, the effective date goes back to the date they filed the claim. Therefore they should not pay the funding fee. However, there have been some mistakes with this, so the VBA is going back and reviewing all the home loans for the last five years to determine if anyone paid a fee that needs to be refunded. Beginning in May of 2019, every new claim that is awarded comes with a statement about the refund process.
•The Blue Water Navy act has been passed. It will be effective on January 1, 2020. In accordance with the law, the VA secretary has decided not to process claims until January 1st, 2020. That time before then will be used for extensive training of the claims processors. Staffing will also be increased.
Q. Has the mile limit for the Blue Water Act been discussed further?
A. A team outside of the VA will review all claims, ships logs, and determine what was within the 12-mile limit. The determination will be made before the VA begins to work the claim.
Q. Will individuals who did not wear earplugs be impacted by the 3M decision?
A. They will not. This is not a VA decision.
Q. Will there be some sort of application of the Blue Water for groups who did not mean the income means test?
A. VBA doesn’t decide what the priority groups are, but it is my understanding that if they are found to be service-connected with the Blue Water law, they are treated like every other Agent Orange veteran. Additionally, the Korea date for Agent Orange exposure has been moved back 1 year earlier, to 1949. If a Blue Water veteran had applied for service-connected presumptive in the past and been denied and are now deceased, the widow is now eligible to apply for DIC. If the veteran passed away from a condition that is one of the presumptive and the veteran was within the 12-mile limit, the widow can file and will be granted DIC. HR 299 convers exposure for certain veterans from Korea and Vietnam from September 1, 1967 to August 31, 1971.
Q. What recourses do veterans have if they have doubts about the accuracy of the ship logs?
A. That will likely be done on a case-by-case basis.
Minneapolis VA HCS – Director Patrick J. Kelly –
•Not present.
St. Paul Veterans Center – Dr. Wallace
•Not present.
St Cloud VA HCS – Heath Streck – Cheryl Thieschafer reporting
•The following staffers were in attendance: Heather Helmin, Secretary to the Director, Tyler Beiniek, Administrative Officer to Director, Barry Venerable, Public Affairs Officer, Dave Hintgen, Chief, Heath Administrative Services, JD Anderson, Chief, Pharmacy, Deb Corrigan, Chief Nurse, Mental Health, Breta Monroe, Service Line Director, Primary Healthcare, Alice DeLane, Chief Nurse, Specialty Care, Christopher Churchill, Service Line Director, Extended Care and Rehab, Matt Mrnak, Administrative Office, Mental Health, and Jeremy Mavrstad, Service Line Director, Mental Health.
•The canteen renovations are complete.
•One of the IT buildings has been replaced.
•A women’s clinic will be added.
•One of the window replacement projects recently got through the historical renovation requirements to be more energy efficient.
•Currently, St. Cloud doesn’t have an emergency room. However, there is an urgent care center. There are also no medicine beds. St. Cloud also has an extended care community living center, residential rehabilitation treatment, and acute inpatient psychiatric care, but doesn’t have any impatient medical beds. This matters because after the Mission Act, St. Cloud made an adjustment to the after-hour triage hours. If a veteran needs care after the urgent care or posted clinical hours, the care would be directed to the appropriate level in the community.
•Nationally, VA campuses are going smoke and tobacco free. St. Cloud’s implementation date is July 15th. Resources will be offered to veterans who need it in their health plan.
•St. Cloud is working with third party administrators to identify and expand the urgent care clinics that are available to veterans in the rural community.
Ft Snelling Cemetery – Bob Razor
•Not present.
3. State Agencies and MN Veteran Assistance Organizations
MN Dept. of Veteran Affairs – Larry Herke – Ben Johnson reporting
•We are starting to put together policy proposals for the next session. If you have ideas for things the state could be doing to help veterans, now is the time to share them.
•MDVA was asked to host a veterans listening session in the Hastings veterans home. This will be held on July 22nd from 9:00 to 10:30 AM in the gymnasium. Policy for next session will be discussed.
•July is Hire Veterans Month. A veterans career fair will be held on July 24th in the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center from 2:00 to 6:00 PM.
•The MN Military Family Association is hosting a golf fundraiser on August 13th in Bunker Hills.
•Military Appreciation Day at the State Fair is August 27th.
•The Minneapolis Stand Down will be held at Target Field on August 16th from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
•The Duluth cemetery dedication will be held on September 21st. Time and more specific details TBD.
•We are working on the fourth and final identified state cemetery location in Redwood County. An application for additional funding has been sent in.
Q. Is there an update on the number of homeless veterans in the state?
A. The last number was approximately 202, but that was from the week prior to July 4th. The number before that was 223. The August Stand Down will likely identify more. The agency had a meeting with Governor Walz this week where he stated that while his administration is committed to providing resources to end veteran homelessness in MN, the goal of doing so by Veterans Day 2019 was aspirational, and sets people up for failure if it cannot be met despite how hard organizations are working. The goal is to be the next state to end veteran homelessness, regardless of the actual date.
MN Military Affairs – Jon Jensen – Brian Winter
•Not present.
VA Midwest Healthcare Network – Rob McDivitt
•Not present.
MACV – Sean Riffe
•Not present.
Military Action Group (MAG) – Jerry Kyser reporting
•The SOT process for getting a grant with the VA is difficult, but they provided one for Honor Flight Twin Cities for $50,000 for the April 27th flight.
•On September 21st, a Missing Man formation will be provided to the opening ceremony of the Duluth cemetery.
•MAG was started by Dan Severson over ten years ago. The meetings are open to anyone who wishes to discuss or help push legislative agendas. The next MAG meeting will be August 12th at 10:00 AM on the 4th floor in 400 North.
•The Allied Veterans Day was passed and will go into effect on June 30th, 2020.
Potential Veteran Centers in West-Central MN – Phil Ringstrom reporting
•Though there are a number of rehabilitation services available for veterans, there is a lack of readjustment services for veterans in western Minnesota.
•There are approximately 300 adjustment service centers in the US. Services provided include bereavement counseling, marriage counseling, sees veterans after combat, and those who are suffering from Military Sexual Trauma. There are no tests or third party billing. Veterans, especially those in rural communities, have a tendency to isolate and do not seek out assistance or available resources. Resource centers that do not have barriers to entry, such as means tests, are more inviting, and veterans can talk directly to their peers. Having to ask for disability diagnoses makes veterans feel like victims.
Disabled American Veterans –Trent Dilks
•Not present.
MN Association of CVSOs – Greg Peterson reporting
•A team of service officers has been assembled to try and get Mayo clinic on board with the Mission Act. It will be led by Jason Markward out of Fillmore County. Avera Health in western MN is also a non-participant with the Mission Act. A commercial ran on Fox Sports recently about using CVSOs. More media resources will be forthcoming.
•The 75th Anniversary banquet will be held in September. Invites are being sent out.
•Three new service officers have been added, one in Anoka County, Freeborn County, and in Goodhue County.
Vets for Peace – David Cooley
•Not present.
MN Humanities Center – Blake Rondeau
•Not present.
Paralyzed Veterans of America – Tim Valentine reporting
•Many of our members are in a national athletic event in Lexington, Kentucky.
Project Got Your Back / MNME – Galen Miller reporting
•Galen Miller has been working with Twin Cities corporations to develop resources for corporations that have employee resource groups made up veterans, the Twin Cities Military Network. The Twin Cities Military Network is now expanding across the state to become the Minnesota Military Network (MNMN), which is teaming up with Project Got Your Back.
•Collective Impact, which Project Got Your Back is a part of, just received a $150,000 grant from the MN Bush Foundation. Allison Alstrin has been working to pull together all of the service organizations in the state that provide services to veterans. In June, the largest veteran services organizations got together with Collective Impact to team up and more effectively meet their goals. Congressman Philip’s office is taking the lead on a number of initiatives.
•We have formed a partnership with the National Veteran Intermediary (NVI).
Q. How does this impact Yellow Ribbon?
A. Yellow Ribbon is focused on putting out initiatives for companies to support veterans within that company. We are trying to bring that veteran contribution outside of companies instead of just focusing on internal employees.
Q. Were you able to reach out to the resource movements to get them on board with the Mission Act?
A. No. Any corporation that is part of the Yellow Ribbon network is way more organized because of going through the process of becoming Yellow Ribbon certified. Mayo has veterans, but they are not as organized within the company. We have contacts within the organization we are working with, and Rochester is being considered for expansion for the MN Military Network. More information will be forthcoming.
MN Military Museum – Randal Dietrich
•Not present.
4. Announcements
•The next UVLC meeting will be held on August 7th, 2019, at Building 9 at the VA MC campus at 9:30 AM.