Blinded Veterans Helping Blinded Veterans Since 1945
1) BVA 62nd National Convention Resolutions
2) Landmark Legislation Passes House and Senate
3) Operation Peer Support
4) November 1, 2006 Partnership Press Release on Budget Reform
5) BVA 61st National Convention Resolutions
6) VA Responds to 60th National Convention Resolutions
7) BVA Reacts to Records Theft at VA Headquarters
8) BVA 60th National Convention Resolutions
9) BVA Angered by House Chairman’s Decision
10) BVA Bylaws
11) Information about the BVA Congressional Charter
12) BVA Congressional Charter (PL 85-769)
13) VA Responds to 59th National Convention Resolutions
14) 59th
National Convention Resolutions
15) VA Responds to
58th National Convention Resolutions
16) 58th National Convention Resolutions
17) VA Responds to
57th National Convention Resolutions
18) 57th National Convention Resolutions
19) VA Response to 56th National Convention
resolutions
20) 56th National Convention
Resolutions
21) Recent Testimony Submitted to
Congress
News Release
Budget Reform Needed for Veterans Health Care
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2—A coalition of national veterans service organizations has again called on House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) to schedule hearings on legislation that would replace the current discretionary funding mechanism that puts patients at risk and makes it impossible for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to operate effectively.
The nine organizations that make up the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform have long sought congressional hearings to explore ways to guarantee full funding for veterans health care, but those requests have not been honored. The latest request for hearings was made in a Nov. 1 letter taking issue with Rep. Buyer’s recent assertion that the current discretionary appropriations process has been a “successful funding approach” to meeting the health care needs of America’s sick and disabled veterans.
“The discretionary budget has become highly politicized and puts at risk the VA health care system and its patient population. In the past 12 years,” the Partnership letter noted, “Congress has completed only one regular VA appropriations bill by the start of the new fiscal year. Unfortunately, the norm has become a series of continuing resolutions each year that funds VA at the previous year’s level, holding down spending and finally lumping VA’s budget into an omnibus spending bill.”
“This annual limbo hinders effective staffing decisions, construction planning, and day-to-day management by VA leaders. Additionally, VA funding growth has not nearly kept pace with its patient workload demands,” the letter said. “A method of assured funding, such as H.R. 515 (Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act), would eliminate the year-to-year uncertainty about funding levels. Annual fiscal turbulence rarely occurs in comparable mandatory spending programs. It is blatantly unrealistic to expect VA to manage efficiently and carry out its missions expertly without knowing what its projected budget will be or when funds will be approved.”
Chairman Buyer has said that mandatory funding is an “inferior approach to funding” and that Congress would lose its “oversight clout” of the VA health care system under a mandatory funding mechanism. However, the Partnership believes that guaranteed funding would simply ensure that VA is provided the necessary resources to care for the enrolled patient population.
The Partnership letter also noted that all other mandatory programs still receive congressional oversight. “We would expect your Committee to hold VA accountable for how it spends every dollar and how well VA manages its health care programs.”
Each organization in the Partnership has approved resolutions that support guaranteed funding for veterans’ health care.
The Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform includes The American Legion, AMVETS, Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans of the USA, Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and Vietnam Veterans of America.
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BVA Angered by House Chairman’s Decision
By Tom Zampieri, BVA Director of Government Relations
The Blinded Veterans Association and other Veterans Service Organizations were told on November 9 that their traditional yearly testimony before both the House and Senate Committees is now a thing of the past. Representative Steve Buyer (R-IN-4) made the announcement without notice, indicating that VSOs would have other means of involvement in the legislative process.
The announcement blindsided BVA and its sister organizations, having been made minus consultation with major leadership of the various organizations. It also came as a surprise to the minority members of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
One of two local Capitol Hill newspapers, The Hill, ran article on November 16 by staff writer Elana Schor that highlighted the depth of disappointment and outrage caused by the decision. The fact that the determination was made as VA experiences budgetary problems and shortfalls has not been lost. VSOs suspect that the real reason for the change is to prevent organizations from accessing a formal outlet through which criticism of proposed budgets can be aired. It was, after all, the persistent reports to Members of Congress last spring and early summer that forced VA to come forward and admit that the Veterans Health Administration had a $1 billion shortfall.
The following article in The Hill Newspaper, already alluded to above, tells pretty much the entire story.
Democrats threaten to hold their own hearing on vets
By Elana Schor
Democrats on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are openly rebelling against Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) over his cancellation of Congress’s annual joint hearings with veterans groups, spurring lawmakers and lobbyists to consider breakaway hearings of their own.
Senate veterans committees every winter since the 1950s, and VSOs consider the hearings a prized tradition of dialogue with both chambers on the White House veterans affairs (VA) budget. But Buyer abruptly ended the tradition last week during a “veterans summit” meeting from which two top VSOs were conspicuously absent.
Democrats on Buyer’s committee responded this week with a strongly worded letter, asking the chairman to reinstate the annual joint hearings or risk the embarrassment of hearings led by the minority.
“While it is not clear how you could unilaterally abolish this series of joint hearings with the Senate, you are certainly within the purview to withdraw yourself from such hearings and discourage your majority colleagues from participation,” the Democrats wrote.
Majority staffers on the committee spent several hours yesterday in closed-door negotiations with their Democratic counterparts, attempting to reach a compromise that would avert further political damage.
The turmoil on the House veterans affairs panel comes as Buyer approaches his one-year anniversary at the committee’s helm. Leadership abruptly removed Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) from the chairmanship in January, aggravated by Smith’s outspoken advocacy for greater veterans funding.
Rep. Lane Evans (Ill.), ranking Democrat on Veterans’ Affairs, said he would fight to preserve the hearings in their current form.
“Chairman Buyer did not consult or even inform me before he terminated these hearings. It’s not clear if he even consulted his own Republican members,” Evans said in an e-mail. “What is clear is that it was the wrong decision.”
Democrats have also written to Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), that committee’s top Democrat, asking that senators take the lead in salvaging the joint hearings. Under Buyer’s proposal, the chambers would hear from VSOs separately before Congress receives the president’s budget request, a change that veterans lobbyists say would prevent them from making informed comment on VA budget realities.
Craig said he would ensure that the VSOs receive an appropriate level of access to Congress and charged Democrats with politicizing veterans issues in an effort to tar Republicans as uncaring.
Craig acknowledged, however, that he did not agree with Buyer’s bid to cancel the joint hearings.
“He and I differ a little bit on this issue. … I did not join him in what he proposed,” Craig said. “At the same time, I don’t disagree with him that as we move forward, there is a way to do it better.”
In recent letters to Buyer, the national commanders of leading VSOs have hinted that the chairman is using his post to disenfranchise and silence veterans during a time of war. Veterans leaders also took Buyer to task for his Nov. 7 “veterans summit” at the Army War College’s which allowed only 90 minutes for issues amid a field trip and battlefield tour.
Thomas Bock, head of the American Legion, the largest U.S. veterans group, did not receive an invitation to Buyer’s summit. The Legion was told that the invitation was mistakenly sent to a previous commander, according to the Legion’s legislative director, Steve Robertson.
When Buyer wrote a letter to Bock noting that “it was unfortunate that the American Legion chose not to send a representative,” Bock fired back.
“We will not be talked down to, lectured or treated as if we were superfluous,” Bock wrote, adding that “a modicum of respect is owed” to VSOs and “precious little was paid” by the chairman.
Robertson said the Legion would attend any Democratic-led joint veterans hearing and vowed to hold VSO-led hearings if Congress does not reinstitute the forum for veterans.
“Basically, [Buyer] is saying that all of our hearings have been irrelevant,” Robertson said. “We will schedule our own hearings … but that’s not how the democratic process is supposed to work.
On August 27, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into
law an Act of the 85th Congress that formally incorporated the
Blinded Veterans Association. In addition to greater prestige,
the Act made BVA eligible to participate in state funds for veterans’
service work that were only available to Congressionally chartered
organizations.
Representative T.A. Thompson of Louisiana originally introduced
the Bill to incorporate BVA on June 21, 1957. "The worthy
efforts of the membership of the Blinded Veterans Association
deserve no less than recognition by the Congress of the United
States," he stated.
The Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on August
4, 1958 and approved by the Senate on August 18. Much of the credit
for BVA’s success in achieving the charter status belongs
to Irvin P. Schloss and Melvin J. Maas. Able assistance also came
from William W. Thompson, who had just previously been appointed
National Executive Director; Carleton F. Steep, then Secretary
of the District of Columbia Regional Group; Kathern F. Gruber
of BVA’s National Advisory Committee; and John E. Mattingly,
Past National President. The newly elected National President
at the time was Robert A. Bottenberg, current secretary/treasurer
of the South Texas Regional Group.
The Act of Congress making possible the charter listed by name
and city some 164 members of BVA, and is worded in such a way
as to include all others who were members in good standing on
the date of enactment, thus making the entire Association a "body
corporate" in the eyes of the law.
A piece in the September-October 1958 BVA Bulletin summarized
as follows both the privileges as well as the responsibilities
resulting from the charter: "There
is no question but what it also provides recognition by all of
the States and gives BVA increased stature with other organizations.
However, the Act is quite plain in stating that BVA shall be non-political
in nature and cannot support any political party or candidate
for public office. It can raise funds, hold property, pay salaries
to its employees, and reimburse the expenses incurred by employees
and elected officers. The charter further empowers BVA to contribute
to the aid of those blinded as a result of service in the Armed
Forces of the United States, and their widows and children. A
report of the financial condition of BVA was to be made to Congress
by March 1 of each year thereafter." Read
the BVA Charter.
The Bylaws and Resolutions Committee approved 44 resolutions
at the BVA 58th National Convention. The general membership in
turn approved 41 of the 44 during the Saturday morning business
session. Read 2003 Resolutions
Each year Blinded Veterans Association is asked pertinent resolutions
to the Department of Veterans Affairs for comment and response.
Each year these responses are reviewed and decisions are made
by the BVA Board of Directors to resubmit the resolutions for
the Convention. Read VA
responses.
Meetings of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors began
August 10, three days before the opening general session. Field
Service Representatives, regional group officers, the Rules Committee,
the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee, and the general membership
gathered throughout the week.
A total of 35 resolutions were
presented for consideration to the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee.
The Committee determined to recommend 23 of the 35 as a block.
The remaining 12 resolutions were also recommended for consideration
by the general membership. BVA members approved all 35
resolutions, in record time, during the Saturday business
session. Read Resolutions.
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