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 Chaplin Dan Pulju from the 133rd Airlift Wing.
Introducing Isaac Lundquist from the Veterans Benefits Administration.
The next Honor Flight will be September 29th.
1. Federal Congressional Representatives
Senator Amy Klobuchar – Kurt Johnson
*The American Legion recently celebrated their 100th Year Anniversary at a convention in Minneapolis. Klobuchar and Smith introduced and passed a resolution to recognize the efforts of the Legion, and dedicating the week of August 24th through the 30th as American Legion Week.
*Klobuchar was in Park Rapids to present a Purple Heart to the family of Albert Hanson, a WWI veteran. Hanson’s daughter Betty Landa accepted the medal on her father’s behalf.
Senator Tina Smith – Alex Schueller
* Not attending.
1st District Representative – Tim Walz – Shawn Schloesser
*HR 299, The Blue Water Navy Veteran’s Act of 2017, was passed through the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. We predict that if this act is going to pass this year, it will need to pass as part of an omnibus package before Veteran’s Day. We need swift action on this and would appreciate your support.
*Walz spoke at the American Legion convention.
*Walz received the Award For Merit of 2018 from the Military Coalition.
*Walz will receive the Patriotism award from the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS).
*The Department of Defense has published some instructions for the Forever GI Bill, which allows veterans to not have an arbitrary date for their GI benefits, as well as the ability to transfer them to their family members. The DOD has decided that transferring benefits is neither an entitlement nor a transition or a readjustment benefit. Only veterans with at least six years but fewer than sixteen years of service can transfer their eligible benefits to a family member. If you are looking for more information, please look up DOD Instruction number 130.13.
Q. How does the pentagon have the authority to reinterpret laws?
A. The laws create the foundation for the pieces of legislation, then the administrative organizations, such as the DOD, has the opportunity to write the rules and how they will be applied.
Q. Are Guard members with more than sixteen years grandfathered in with this legislation?
A. Not under these new rules.
Q. What is happening with the Choice program in terms of new Mission Act?
A. I haven’t seen the rule writing yet, but that bill did allow for Veterans Choice to continue being funded using mandatory funding. The VA Mission Act will be done under discretionary funding.
Q. There will be public hearings once the draft is released. There is also a public comment period whenever a department of the administration implements a new law opened by the federal registry, where any member of the public can comment. The agency will then address those comments at the end of the open period.
A. How can the public affect this?
Q. What can Walz or other members of congress do to get information down to the American Legions? We would like to improve the process of supporting you.
A. We will put together an info sheet on the Forever GI Bill.
2nd District Representative – Jason Lewis – Tom Tschida Reporting
*The DOD Appropriations Bill will be up for a vote this week in the senate.
*Several congressional staffers met with Cheryl Mason, Chair of Veteran Appeals, to discuss the Veterans Appeals Improvement And Modernization Act of 2017. The act will be implemented in February 2019. They also discussed the need for more administrative law staff and judges in order to process appeals faster. This year, Veteran Appeals has decided approximately 70,000 cases thus far. Last year, there were a total of 50,000.
*Our Service Academy Info Night was last week.
Q. What is the difference between the RAMP program and further appeals?
A. RAMP is not in font of the Board of Veteran Appeals. It goes through a different department. The 70,000 mentioned here only went through the Board of Veteran Appeals.
3rd District Representative – Erik Paulsen – Margaret Cavanaugh
*Not present.
4th District Representative – Betty McCollum – Connie Haddeland Reporting
*The congressional delegation had a briefing on September 5th from the MN National Guard on the 148th Fighter Wing’s deployment.
*The 34th Infantry Division is about to deploy for a year on September 20th. They will be based in Kuwait.
*Rick Olseen and Shawn Schloesser received the Patrick Henry Award from the National Guard Association of the United States for their work on behalf of the MN National Guard. Kurt Johnson was also commissioned as second lieutenant in the Army National Guard.
*The Defense Appropriations Bill is going to conference this week. The goal is to have it finished by the end of the month.
5th District Representative – Keith Ellison – Mike Siebenaler
*Not present.
6th District Representative – Tom Emmer – Alejandra Henriquez Reporting
*We are hoping to have more information on the upcoming conference report soon.
*Our Service Academy Information Night will be September 13th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Ramsey City Hall. We have an average of fifteen to twenty students who apply.
7th District Representative – Collin Peterson – Meg Louwagie Reporting
*Peterson has been busy in August working on the Farm Bill.
*Currently we have two students expressing interest in the Service Academies.
8th District Representative – Rick Nolan – Rick Olseen Reporting
*The Chisago Lakes Area Beyond The Yellow Ribbon Program has been very active, working on an ABC (America’s Best Communities) Grant. They were one of the national finalists. A local National Guardsmen has been taking the lead on this project.
*The new Pine County Health and Human Services Building was recently opened. The new Veteran Services Office will be housed there.
*The city of Mora hosted the Vietnam Memorial Wall, along with a number of meetings for veterans and talks with social workers about PTSD.
*There were several Stand Downs in Duluth and Virginia.
2. Federal Agencies
VISN 23 – Acting Director Ralph Heussner – Andre Kok Reporting
*Our new director, Rob Mcdivitt, will start on October 1st. He is looking forward to engaging in veteran-centric events. If you or your organization have something coming up on Veterans Day and you would like Mr. Mcdivitt to attend, please contact us.
*Flu shots are provided at Walgreens, in addition to CBOCs.
*Dr. Stone, the executive in change of VHA, attended the American Legion convention. Mr. Wilke also attended the convention.
VA Regional Office – Kim Graves – Ron Woolery Reporting
*VBA Undersecretary Dr. Paul Lawrence visited on August 25th. He spoke at the employee town hall and shared his three priorities: providing veterans with the benefits that they earned, ensuring VBA is a strong fiscal agent, and foster a culture of collaboration. If you or any of your organizations are interested in getting in touch with Dr. Lawrence, contract him on Linkedin. He posts frequently.
*Following Dr. Lawrence’s third point, we believe that the regional office in St. Paul has done an excellent job of working with our stakeholders. However, we can do more. One thing we can do better on is engaging with smaller aid organizations, such as Team Red White And Blue, Project Got Your Back, and The Eagle Group. At the St. Paul regional office, we would like to become more involved and make ourselves available to these other veterans groups that aren’t as widely known. Contact us if you have any events that you would like VBA to be present at.
*The St. Paul regional office is officially all-in on RAMP. We are one of ten RAMP processing stations in the country. We no longer have legacy appeals. The remaining legacy appeals were packaged up and sent out to the National Work Queue, and then distributed to non-RAMP stations across the country, with the exception of any appeals that have hearings. Those hearings will still be conducted locally.
*There will be another claims clinic on November 5th at the VA medical center in the Flag Atrium.
VAHCS Minneapolis – Director Patrick J. Kelly – Ralph Heussner Reporting
*As a point of interest, Rob Mcdivitt began at the Minneapolis VA in the 1980s as the logistics chief. We look forward to his return.
*There is a great deal of interest in the Mission Act. It will likely be a year before all the rule-making and public input is completed, but we are hopeful that the caregiver program will be expanded from post 9/11 veterans to all veterans. Currently there are no details on how that will roll out.
*We are in the process of moving all primary care clinics to the 4th floor.
*The former 1st floor primary care clinic is going to be converted for service organizations. However, that process has been delayed because of a major expansion of the mental health area on the 1st floor.
*There are no new CBOCs on the horizon. However, new leases and renovations of existing CBOCs are underway. We signed a lease several weeks ago for the new location of the Rochester CBOC. The new space is larger and we expect to see an increase in the number of veterans using the services. We will be able to add additional services to the new space, though we don’t know what those services will be just yet. The new facility will be opened in June of 2019.
*We have been holding monthly meetings and community events at all of our CBOCs. The next one will be in Superior, Wisconsin, at the Twin Ports Outpatient Clinic on September 19th. We still have to visit Maplewood, Rochester, Eely, and Hayward, Wisconsin before the end of the year.
*Director Mcdivitt wants to attend a town hall meeting, so one will be held sometime in November. This will be an opportunity for Director Mcdivitt to meet veterans in the community.
*The secretary at the VISN medical center held high level briefings, making two points: the theme of his administration will be customer service and he wants the VA to get away from responding to the anecdote. The media has been focused on the “tyranny of the anecdote.” There is currently no script for avoiding this, but we look forward to seeing what this plan will entail.
St. Cloud VA HCS – Director Stephen D. Black – Barry Venerable Reporting
*Starting next week, the entire eastern side of the road in front of the campus will be closed for construction. This will primarily impact our mental health inpatient clinic. Parking will still be available.
*The Building 28 renovations were completed in August. Building 28 houses veterans in our residential rehabilitation and treatment program. The first half of the renovation was completed several years ago. This is the second half. This enables us to put all the veterans attending the RRTP into Building 28 or Building 2. Previously we also had them in Building 9. The Building 28 renovation features two person rooms and we are proud of how it turned out.
*We are going to demolish and dispose of the wind turbine. It isn’t feasible to keep it in operation. There was a warranty on the turbine, but it expired before we were able to physically commission that piece of machinery.
*September is Suicide Prevention Month. In August, we held a forum up in Brainerd.
*There will be a Walk and Roll on September 8th. We have been focusing in firearm safety and have handed out over 28,000 gunlocks this year.
*We have selected a new service line director for the mental health, Jeremy Maurstad. He has been with the St. Cloud VA and most recently served as the director of the Residential Rehab and Rehabilitation Program.
*There will be a ceremony on September 17th recognizing the St. Cloud VA as a Yellow Ribbon employer.
*It is important to separate the Choice Act and the Mission Act. The Mission Act is forthcoming. The Choice program was funded by congress with $5.6 billion to continue the program with adjustments. The major adjustment, at least in Minnesota, is that third party administrators will be removed by September 30th. The VA medical centers will manage the referrals and authorization practices.
Ft. Snelling Cemetery
*Not present.
3. State Agencies and MN Veteran Assistance Organizations
MN Department of Veteran Affairs – Ben Johnson
*Not present.
MN National Guard – Director Brian Winters Reporting
*It was a pleasure to recognize Rick Olseen and Shawn Schloesser with the Patrick Henry Award. We want to recognize the efforts of the congressional staffers for all the hard work they do.
*The 147th Casualty Liaison Team is getting ready to deploy. They are part of the 147th Human Resources Company out of Arden Hills. The deployment ceremony will be held on September 16th at the Arden Hills Area Training Center.
*The 34th Infantry Division is getting ready to deploy as well. They will be directing Operation Spartan Shield from September 2018 through October 2019. The division commander is Major General Ben Correll.
*Military Appreciation Day at the State Fair was very successful. The MN National Guard played a large part in getting the events set up. Major General Jon Jensen was the keynote speaker. We recognized USAA as a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Company during the festivities.
*The St. Cloud VA will become a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Company on September 17th. We will also be recognizing Capital One on the 17th in St. Cloud as a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Company.
Q. Will the National Guardsmen who serve the yearlong tour be recognized as legitimate veterans?
A. Yes. For this deployment, they fall under the 12302 Mobilization Authority. Under this legislation, the soldiers who deploy from the Guard receive the same benefits upon return from duty.
MN Military Affairs – Major General Jon Jensen, Annette Kyper
*Not present.
MN Assistance Council For Veterans (MACV) – David Nguyen Reporting
*There were three Stand Down events across the state in the month of August. The Minneapolis event was hosted at a new location, the Target Center. 560 veterans attended the Minneapolis event. There were also Stand Downs in Duluth and Virginia.
*Two new case managers are joining the south office.
*Our Metro office also welcomed two new staff members to the team, as well as a new regional leader who will be joining us soon.
*The Veterans Homeless Registry has recorded that there are currently 224 homeless veterans in Minnesota. We are working on housing plans with all of them.
*The new women’s house, created in partnership with the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, will have its opening on September 26th.
Q. Do you do any coordination with the Department of Corrections with veterans coming out of prison?
A. Currently we are scaling our Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program within MACV. It was originally an employment program. We have hired a new staffer to work with veterans who are justice involved, who present with different challenges. We also have a staffer in our north office who has been closely connected with the DOC.
Military Action Group (MAG) – Jerry Kyser Reporting
*The next MAG meeting is October 22nd. Representative Dettmer and Senator Anderson will be in attendance.
*We are focused on the upcoming year. One of our goals is to remove the eight-year limit on Veteran Homestead Validation Eligibility for spouses of deceased veterans. This was not included in the tax bill this year. We continue to advocate for VFW and American Legions, as well as other veteran service organizations, to allow pool tabs and other expenses to be deducted from the next receipts. We also want to work on giving tax credits to businesses that employ veterans and disabled veterans, which also did not make it into the tax bill.
*We would encourage the next governor to make a military omnibus bill to consolidate many of these bills.
*Another issue is that military recruiters are required to be allowed to attend trade and secondary school career fairs if they accept federal funds. While this is federally charged, the school boards largely do not follow this. A bill must be passed stating that they are required to allow the military and trade recruiters into these career fairs.
*CVSOs will be allowed to share private data with the assessors to verify veterans homestead market value exclusions. Hennepin County is giving us trouble on this. Currently, CVSOs cannot provide information to the counties to prove that veterans are 100% disabled.
*With the Disabled Veterans Homestead Exclusion Act, a one time change of residence allows surviving spouses to continue receiving veteran benefits. The surviving spouse currently has a one year deadline to apply for this benefit. We wish to extend it.
*Jerry Kyser, Representative Dettmer, and Senator Anderson will all be involved in training the new leaders of the different veteran service organizations, as well as the new CVSO leader at October 4th in Camp Ripley.
*POW/MIA Day will be held on September 21st this year. We will be observing the day with David Claypool at the University of MN football stadium at 3:00 PM.
*The next Honor Flight will be on September 29th. We will be taking 29 WWII veterans and 37 Korea veterans.
*We want to support the continuation of the 2020 Historic Fort Snelling funding, which was not supported. The rehabilitation of some of the upper post buildings was supported.
Q. Though it’s noble to extend the deadline for the 70-90% disabled veteran spouses, I think we’re missing the boat. Spouses of veterans with less than 70% disability don’t get any benefits and the 70-90% veterans only get half the benefits. I would encourage us to fix the entire system rather than focus on this smaller issue.
A. We have time in the legislature to put forth those ideas.
Q. Is the $750 still available to bury a spouse in a state cemetery?
A. I believe this has been taken up with a number of different funds from several organizations. You have to apply for it.
Q. To give everyone a sense of what happened in the last MAG meeting, there is a wide and deep sense of disappointment with the legislature. The bills we’ve put forward are held hostage by legislators that want to make their bills look good. It’s a mess. Once it goes into committees, our work gets held hostage. We will do whatever it takes to improve this system and would like your support to get this done. We don’t want to see this happen again.
A. Thank you.
Q. Just a clarification on the Fort Snelling issue: the funding was approved to look after those buildings, including providing veteran housing, but the housing agency would not sign off.
A. Correct.
Q. There will be a MIA/POW program happening on September 6th at North St. Paul at 6:00 PM.
A. Thank you.
Paralyzed Veterans of America – Todd Kemery and Ted Valentine Reporting
*Ramsey County Parks and Trails contacted us at the beginning of the summer as an ADA coordinator. They are planning a complete overhaul of their parks and trails. We were invited to sit in on committee meetings to advise.
*It was recently brought to our attention that Fosston, MN has a veterans memorial without any ADA compliant parking. We have sent them a letter, but are waiting for more information on how to proceed.
*PVA and the Department of Justice are working toward a solution to an issue with Delta Airlines. At the end of July, they implemented a service dog ban on a certain type of breed. We are opposed to this line of picking and choosing of service animals. The breed in question was the American Pitbull. Now that there has been a complaint, we can move forward. More updates will be forthcoming.
*We participated in the Military Appreciation Day at the State Fair. By 1:00 PM, all of our handouts were gone. This will be the seventh year we have participated.
*We have just returned from the 38th National Veteran Wheelchair Games in Orlando. A total of 19 different veterans went down and participated in 19 different events. We took home 47 medals in total: 22 gold, 13 silver, and 12 bronze.
*There will be a Bike, Walk, Run 5K at the Minneapolis VA on September 8th. Continental breakfast will be included.
Minnesota Military Museum – Randal Dietrich Reporting
*The Minnesota Military Museum, in partnership with Twin Cities Public Television and Concordia University of St. Paul, will be hosting monthly Vietnam War Round Table meetings. They will be held on the third Monday of the month at 7:00 PM. Admission is free. The September meeting will be held on the 17th. The Deadly Writers Patrol, another of our partners, will also be speaking. We are hoping this program will continue up into 2025. See (mnvietnam.org/roundtable) for more information.
Minnesota Humanities Center – Blake Rondeau
* Not present
St. Paul Vets Center – Scott Braden
* Not present
Twin Cities Veterans Initiative – Tommy Johnson Reporting
* Not present
Historic Fort Snelling – Tom Pfannenstiel
*Not present.
Veterans For Peace – Dave Cooley Reporting
*We recently completed our international convention, held in recognition of the 90th anniversary of the Kellog-Briand Pact, which was enacted after WWI in 1928. It outlawed war as a mechanism for solving international disputes and has never been adhered to.
*See (www.veteranspolicy.org)
*The current administration is setting up a private care network, mandated by the recent passage of the VA Mission Act. With that, many more of our mental healthcare services will be fulfilled by private care as opposed to through the VA. Though this is required by the Mission Act, there are still no standards or mechanisms to hold the treatments accountable to standards.
*This week, congress will be reviewing the Appropriation Act for the VA bill. It will be pushing for privatization of care. Spending has been moved from the mandatory to the discretionary side, meaning that private care under the current bill counts as discretionary. However, this year it is being treated as if it is emergency care. Consequently, it will not be subject to the discretionary budgetary gap. The following year, it will be subject to those budget caps. This means the VA budget for healthcare will need to be looked at to keep the private care going. This will create problems down the road.
*Because of the Mission Act, the VA has been required to release data on issues that it had previously not released data on. This includes vacancies within the VA, so we have real numbers to review. This information is available on the VA Office of Public Affairs website (www.va.gov/opa/).
4. Announcements
Next meeting will be October 3rd, 2018.
END OF REPORT
Additional Information Re: Future of Veterans Administration (Also, see September UVLC Report, which is attached below):
Contact address for David Cooley, to be included on his mailing:
dacooley@usinternet.com
Also:
Susan Gordon’s Book: Battle for Veterans’ Healthcare
www.amazon.com/Battle-Veterans-Healthcare-Dispatches-Frontlines/dp/1501714554