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, Chair; Mike Rivard, Vice Chair.
- Introducing Brian Morton, the new Patient Advocate Supervisor at the Minneapolis VA.
- Announcements – Jerry Kyser, Chair; Mike Rivard, Vice Chair.
1. Federal Congressional Representatives and Senators
Senator Amy Klobuchar- Kurt Johnson
• Not present.
Senator Tina Smith – Alex Schueller reporting
• Smith recently signed onto S1860, a bill for SecDef to carry out a pilot program on prediction and prevention of musculoskeletal injuries, S1789, the Military Justice Improvement Act of 2019, S1775, the Protecting Our Students and Taxpayers Act of 2019 or the POST Act, S1218, the WWI Valor Medals Review Act, S1195 the Blue Water Navy Act, S785, the Commander John Scott Hannon Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019, S679, the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act, or HAVEN Act of 2019, S622, the Military Widows Tax Elimination Act, S555, the Mark Takai Atomic Veterans Health Care Parity Act of 2019, S514, the Deborah Samson Act, S504, the Legion Act, S257, the Tribal Hud Vash Action of 2019, S208, the Retired Pay Restoration Act, S191, the Burn Pit Accountability Act, S203, a bill to address fees erroneously given by the VA for housing loans and other purposes, S1906, the Improved Wellbeing for Veterans Act, S524, the Tribal Advisory Act, S164, and the TriCare Reserve Improvement Act.
• Smith sent a letter to Secretary Wilkie on the VA’s anti-worker/union negotiation tactics. She also signed onto the 9/11 victims compensation bill.
1st District Representative – Jim Hagedorn – Joe Steck
• Not present.
2nd District Representative – Angie Craig – Mike Siebenaler
• Not present.
3rd District Representative – Dean Phillips – Rollie Olson reporting
• There will be a veterans/military members listening session with staff and the veteran’s advisory council on October 7th. It will be held in Chaska at 6:00 PM.
4th District Representative – Betty McCollum – Connie Haddeland reporting
• Haddeland spoke with Ben Peterson, who serves on the Defense Appropriations Committee, who noted discussions are ongoing on the conference concerning the NDAA. The NDAA will likely be released by the end of October. The fiscal year 2020 appropriations are currently stalled in the Senate.
• HR250, the Merchant Mariners WWII Congressional Gold Medal Act, has passed the House and moved over to the Senate.
• The National Purple Heart Call of Honor Commemorative Coin Act has passed the House and moved over to the Senate.
• There are currently more than 50 Service Academy nominations under consideration.
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
• Meg Louwagie received the National Guard Association of the United States Patrick Henry Award.
• There were three Service Academy Information Nights in September, in Fargo, Bemidji, and St. Cloud. There will be another in October in Windom. The deadline for applications is October 31st. Interviews will be conducted on November 23rd.
8th District Representative – Pete Stauber – Margaret Cavanaugh reporting
• Currently there are about 30 candidates for Service Academy nominations. The 8th District rarely has more than 15 who complete applications. The deadline for applications is October 31st
• Stauber is cosponsoring HR886, which directs the DOJ to establish a veteran’s treatment court program to provide grants and fiscal assistance for state, local, and tribal governments to maintain treatment courts, HR303, which allows veterans to receive their disability and either retired pay for years served or combat related special compensation, and HR613, which allows federal employees who are members of the Guard or Reserve access to TriCare Reserve.
• Bills that are still pending include one that would expand eligibility for counseling and care at the veterans centers to those who served in the Reserve, National Guard, and Cost Guard.
• Concerns raised at the Commander’s Taskforce included the number of veteran centers in Minnesota and moving up the timeline to look at claims for Blue Water veterans.
2. Federal Agencies
VISN 23 – Ron Woolery – Jason Petti reporting
• The Secretary of the VA recently visited the Fargo location and will visit Iowa on October 3rd.
• The St. Cloud medical center has a new director, Brent Thelen.
• VISN 23 finished out the fiscal year in good standing for all of the medical centers.
• The governor recently visited the Minneapolis location and toured the mental health unit. He was complementary of the construction efforts.
• The preliminary budget for the fiscal year has been received. It is tighter than it has been in the past, but we will do our best to ensure this does not impact the delivery of patient care and services.
• All of the individual authorizations that used to be used to send veterans out to the community have ceased as of September 30th. Veterans Care Agreements have been established in their place, meaning there are individual agreements with providers or groups of providers, to continue delivering services for veterans who need it in the community.
• The new contract is part of United Healthcare, which will start next week in the southern sites, including Nebraska, western Iowa, Iowa City, and Des Moines. Those sites were chosen because they have a consolidated medical record.
• The expansion of telehealth services across all of VISN 23 will lead to some interesting changes.
• The market assessments that are going on as part of the Mission Act were recently in Minneapolis and St. Cloud. The reports will likely be received in December.
• We are continuing to hire providers and additional staff to run the service lines.
Q. What kind of progress are you making on filling the vacancies?
A. We are doing well. For police, we have filled six of the six vacancies. We are filling most of the mental health provider positions and most of the physician positions. There is less of an issue in Minneapolis with recruitment, which largely impacts the southern tier sites in Sioux Falls and Black Hills, which are more remote and have difficulty attracting talent. We are utilizing as many techniques as possible for recruitment, including student loan reduction programs and recruitment and retention incentives.
Q. I would be interested to know the total number of vacancies in medical staff and also the turnover rate.
A. I will get that information for you.
VBA Regional Office – Kim Graves – Ron Sackett reporting
• We are waiting for January 1st to implement the Blue Water Navy Act, though are currently fully into the Appeals Modernization Act.
• All of the fiscal year targets for the regional office were exceeded in all areas.
Q. What is the justification for waiting to adjudicate the Blue Water naval veterans? We have received a number of complaints.
A. Congress gave the VA a stay until January 1st to implement the act. The purpose is to hire and train additional staff if necessary to adjudicate the work, and to work with the Department of Defense to gather the registries from the impacted ships to properly identify qualifying veterans.
Q. Did they determine which regional office will adjudicate this process?
A. They have not. We are not sure if all regional offices will be contributing or if a single one will take point. We expect to receive guidance soon.
Q. I am aware of several Blue Water veterans who are in the final months of their lives and who are trying to get benefits for themselves or their spouses. Will this delay prevent them from getting benefits?
A. We encourage anyone who thinks they qualify to file as soon as possible so they are in the queue when we are able to start processing.
Q. Regarding the court order to pay back veterans who accrued bills wrong, any sense of how that is
going?
A. That is part of the Mission Act.
Minneapolis VA HCS – Director Patrick J. Kelly – Jemima Faiella reporting
• There have been questions about the letter that was recently circulated about the Veterans Health Information Exchange. We are trying to be more proactive with veterans healthcare and exchange information more effectively, meaning without a release of information. However, if a veteran does not want this to happen, they can fill out a form by September 30th deadline. After the September 30th deadline, it will be a new form. The opt-out is still available.
Q. The Veterans Health Information Exchange created problems nationwide with veterans who were concerned about maintaining their privacy.
A. We apologize for any confusion with the letter.
Q. If a veteran participates in the Veterans Health Information Exchange, is it correct that only information relative to their treatment is shared?
A. That is correct.
Q. Will additional information be made available in the future, such as the Million Veteran program, that could potentially be a source of profit?
A. Not that I am aware of. The privacy officer at a given healthcare facility will have more specific information. In general, only actionable information pertaining to a veteran’s healthcare plan will be shared.
St. Cloud VA HCS – Tyler Bieniek
• The St. Cloud medical center has a new director, Brent Thelen. He was sworn in on September 30th.
• There have been some struggles in recruiting nursing assistants. In response, St. Cloud will be hosting its first ever job fair for nursing assistants to help deal with the recruitment issues. It will be held on October 5th from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
• The flu vaccination clinics are ongoing. Dates and times are listed on the website.
• We will be hosting a Dress for Success event on October 22nd, which provides veterans clothing for interviews, mock interviews, and other resources to help them with employment.
Q. Do you offer any sort of education reimbursement program for nursing assistants?
A. I am not certain.
Ft. Snelling Cemetery – John Knapp
• Not present.
3. State Agencies and MN Veteran Assistance Organizations
MN Dept of Veteran Affairs – Larry Herke – Ben Johnson reporting
• With the bonding session next year, we are continuing to develop our requests for capital investment. Please reach out if you have ideas for legislature benefiting veterans that we should be focused on.
• We will be holding an event on October 5th at 3:00 PM in the North St. Paul Veterans Park for the inaugural Veterans Suicide Awareness and Prevention Day. September is Suicide Prevention Month nationwide. The lieutenant governor is scheduled to provide remarks and Commissioner
Herke will be the MC. Alissa Harrington, an advocate for veteran suicide prevention and awareness, will speak about how suicide impacts families and available resources. Jesse Fao will also be speaking.
• On October 1st, Commissioner Herke was interviewed on the inaugural Veterans Suicide Awareness and Prevention Day.
• The state Veterans Day ceremony will be held at the Inver Grove Heights Veterans Memorial Community Center on November 11th. A complimentary breakfast will be served from 8:30 to 9:30 AM and the program will start at 10:00 AM. Invitations to congressional delegations will be sent out soon. The Adjutant General will come and provide remarks.
• As of September 19th, the construction team has made good progress on the bridge to the veterans homes. We are on track to open the bridge for vehicle traffic in December.
Q. How many people are on the homeless veterans registry and how many of them have VASH vouchers?
A. The last number on the registry was 252. We recently identified a number of new names and faces. In terms of VASH vouchers, I am not certain of the exact number.
Q. Concerning the Commander’s Taskforce, the VFW had a hard time in the last legislative session making appointments with state legislature. At the Commander’s Taskforce, Senator Anderson, Representative Dettmer, and Representative Ecklund were asked about the level of access advocates could expect to have and what help could be expected to get hearings when bills are stalled. The answer indicated that chamber leadership has no desire or need to meet with the VFW. However, another attendee of the meeting took it to mean there is a process of getting information and meetings that needs to be followed. It will be important to deal directly with the leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.
A. It is an ongoing issue.
MN Military Affairs – Jon Jensen – Brian Winter reporting
• We are operating under a continuing resolution through November 21st, and we hope to have a budget and defense authorization passed by that time.
• Walz is a member of the National Council of Governors, which was developed as a way for governors to communicate on issues relating to homeland security and the state militia. The council has identified a list of priorities and Walz has picked up those to champion for the state of
MN. These priorities include increased fulltime support for the National Guard and duty status reform. We have been offering support to the governor on these issues.
• Don Kerr, the executive director, is currently out on bonding tours with the state legislature in Moorhead. They are looking at several armories with bonding needs. He will also visit the MN Military Museum on October 3rd.
• The 34th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade conducted their deployment ceremony on September 20th at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. Governor Walz, Senator Smith, and Representative Dettmer were in attendance.
• Central Lakes College in Brainerd was recognized as the 67th Yellow Ribbon Company. Several other major Fortune 500 companies are getting ready to be recognized in November and December, including Boston Scientific, Anderson Windows, Securion, and Metronic.
• On October 10th, the MN National Guard, the Holocaust Remembrance Emphasis Council, and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas will be doing a day trip to the Fagen Fighters Museum in Granite Falls for a viewing of a film on the Holocaust.
• On November 3rd, the 34th Infantry Division will be conducting a change of command in Rosemount. The new division commander has not been announced yet, but that should happen any day. The outgoing Major General, Major General Benjamin Corell, has just returned to Iowa where he will serve as the Adjutant General for the Iowa National Guard.
MN Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV) – Neal Loidolt – Sean Riffe reporting
• The WCCO Home for the Holidays Stand Down will be December 12th at Target Field. This year we will be focusing heavily on housing and will be inviting landlords to attend.
• The next two legal clinics will be held on October 8th at the Minneapolis VA and on October 15th in St. Cloud.
• The St. Cloud Stand Down will be held on October 18th at the Rivers Edge Convention Center. MACV is not hosting the event, but will be participating along with several other vendors.
• The groundbreaking for the Bloomington transition house will be held on the week of October 8th.
• We recently moved headquarters to St. Paul. The ribbon cutting and social will be held on November 7th. Initiations will be sent out soon.
Military Action Group (MAG) – Jerry Kyser reporting
• The next MAG meeting will be held on October 21st at 10:00 AM.
• The Commander’s Taskforce recently held a meeting at Camp Ripley with the Department of Veteran Affairs. MAG, the UVLC, the House and Senate Veterans Committee were all invited. It was informative. There is an ongoing situation with the MN legislature, with the House having a
democratic majority and the Senate has a republican majority. Some of them are diametrically opposed on how things should be done.
• The Mayo Clinic will be attending the next UVLC meeting on November 6th. The Mayo is working to satisfy some of the needs of veterans and progress is being made.
• The MAG group is currently working on keeping the program for seniors who get the tax deduction on property taxes for being 100% disabled in the state of MN. The only provision that was not passed was the benefit does not currently transfer to the spouse if they want to sell the house after the death of the veteran.
• The Fagan Fighters will be holding an event on October 5th for Vietnam veterans. The program will be held at 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM in Granite Falls.
Q. Veterans are frustrated with the legislative session because we have no input on what is passed or dropped in closed-door joint sessions. With this, it is harder to hold people accountable.
Disabled American Veterans – Trent Dilks
• Not present.
MN CVSO – Greg Peterson reporting
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a presumptive condition of the Blue Water act.
• Under the Mission Act, dental providers are seeking the fee schedule in which United Healthcare would pay for crowns and such. There is a fee schedule but the dentists cannot access it for legal reasons. The VA is instructing dental clinics to make a Freedom of Information Act request, though it will be denied because it is a proprietary issue.
Vets for Peace – David Cooley reporting
• There are ongoing issues with scheduling with TriWest and the VA.
• The VA Office of the Inspector General have announced a VA Healthcare Fraud Taskforce. It appears the Mission Act has coincided with an expansion of healthcare fraud.
MN Humanities Center – Blake Rondeau reporting
• The Veteran Voices Award ceremony will be held on October 5th at St. Paul in the Union Depot. There will be nine awardees, five from Legacy and four from On The Rise. They will be reading their stories in the Veterans Gallery Room. The ceremony will take place in the Red Cabin room on the second floor. Parking is included with the event fee of $15 but the promo code (Pastattendee) can be used to get it down to $10. The event will start at 6:00 PM. Contact information with the awardees will be shared with organizations that request it. Parking will be validated.
• There will be a Warrior Writers Workshop on October 26th. It will be an all day event, and open to the public from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
Paralyzed Veterans of America – Todd Kemery
• Not present.
Project Got Your Back / MNME – Allison Alstrin
• Not present.
MN Military Museum – Randal Dietrich reporting
• Randal Dietrich made a presentation on October 1st in Bemidji on Minnesota’s military history.
• We will be hosting the Senate Capital Investment Committee on October 3rd at 12:00 PM.
• We will be hosting our Court of Honor in conjunction with the National Guard at Camp Ripley on October 6th.
• The Vietnam War Roundtable is ongoing. The next date is October 21st in St. Paul at Concordia University.
MN Historical Society – Chris Belland reporting
• The visitor’s center at Ft. Snelling is currently closed and all of the operations will be conducted out of the stone fort itself and will be for the next few years while the old visitor’s center is demolished.
• The next Public Input Session about renaming the site where the fort sits will be held in Rochester.
Q. Given that the stone fort had a very short lifespan, what is the goal of the Historical Society with the renaming process?
A. The purpose of the public forum is to receive input and feedback. Overall the change would look to tell a broader story about the site and the history surrounding it.
4. UVLC Business Meeting
5. The next UVLC Meeting will be held on November 6th.
Business Meeting
• The balance as of September 1 was $2823.17. Deposits for the month were $100. Expenses for the month were $300, including a transcription expense of $120 and expenses for Jerry Kyser’s trip to the CVSO convention.
• The balance as of October 1 is $2623.17. The treasurer’s report was approved.
• At the previous meeting, there were three organizations that had not paid their dues. Emails were sent to all three, but no one has replied. The Vietnam Veterans group is unclear whether they plan on staying with the UVLC. The other groups are the National Guard Enlisted Association and Women Veteran’s Initiative.
• The groups will remain in the UVLC until the end of 2019. If they have not paid their dues by January 1, they will be swept.
• The UVLC reports are archived by Jerry Kyser.
• The position of Chairman, Second Chairman, and the Treasurer are up for election or appointment in December.
• As the Chairman, Jerry Kyser will MC for Veterans Day on the Hill.
• When the Mayo clinic comes, it will be important not to only focus on the Mission Act. It will also be important to ensure the meeting is well attended.