Blumenthal Leads Senate Passage of Bipartisan Veterans Reform Package

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, applauded Senate passage of legislation – the Miller-Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Act – to improve veterans’ access to health care, disability benefits, education and homelessness assistance, among other important benefits for our nation’s veterans. The bill passed the House earlier this week, and now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

“This bipartisan, comprehensive legislation continues our progress toward leaving no veteran behind,” Blumenthal said. “With 76 separate provisions, it is broad in scope and scale. Hiring more mental health counselors and emergency room doctors will mean more veterans receive quality healthcare. Expanding eligibility for homelessness prevention programs will provide critical support to veterans at risk of homelessness. Extending critical education benefits to surviving family members will further our promise of education. Beginning work to help descendants of veterans exposed to toxic substances will help heal the residual wounds of war. But on these issues and so many more, we are only taking another step in what must be a journey toward ensuring our veterans receive the benefits they need and deserve.”

The measure is named after Blumenthal and retiring chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) in tribute to their years-long commitment to serving veterans in Congress. Blumenthal spoke on the Senate Floor earlier this week calling on the Senate to pass the bill, reflecting on the accomplishments he achieved as Ranking Member, and looking forward towards challenges yet unmet.

“Our bipartisan success here sets a model for doing more and doing better for our veterans – and they deserve both,” Blumenthal said. “We need to do more to help veterans cope with opioid addiction, combat homelessness, protect veterans against identity theft, and make sure that our health care system for veterans continues to improve. We owe every veteran—regardless of the war or the conflict, regardless of the era—the basic guarantee that they will never be left behind. This body owes them the obligation to summon the political will to cross partisan lines to make sure that we keep faith with them.”

The Miller-Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Act includes 76 bipartisan provisions that address a variety of areas in veterans’ services that are in need of reforms or improvements. It incorporates language from a number of previously introduced House and Senate bills, including several provisions from the Veterans First Act, which unanimously passed the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in May.

The legislation is supported by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Volunteers of America, National League of Cities, Community Solutions, Vietnam Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust.

Specifically, the Miller-Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Act will:

• Streamline portions of the process for veterans, their families and their survivors to obtain disability compensation and benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA);

• Expand the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims from seven to nine judges to help address the large backlog of veterans’ appeals that may soon arrive at the court;

• Make changes to the VA’s burial benefits and interment policies, including expanding eligibility for presidential memorial certificates to certain individuals who served in reserve units of the Armed Forces, among others;

• Provide a much-needed extension of education benefits for surviving spouses who lost a loved one on September 11, 2001, or during the early years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq;

• Improve how the VA administers and approves education benefits for veterans and allow mobilized reservists to keep their GI Bill eligibility when a deployment interrupts their schooling;

• Modify ownership requirements for small businesses participating in the VA contract assistance programs and require the Department of Labor to conduct a five-year study of job counseling, training, and placement service for veterans;

• Make improvements to the VA’s health care services and benefits to include:

• Ensuring preventative health services for veterans include access to adult immunizations for veterans who wish to receive them;

• Prioritizing access to care for medal of honor recipients;

• Ensuring veterans who served in classified missions can access mental health care without disclosing classified information;

• Requiring the VA to submit an annual report to Congress regarding the provision of hospital care, medical services and nursing home care by the Veterans Health Administration;

• Expanding the qualification criteria to make it easier to hire qualified mental health care professionals;

• Enhancing research on the potential health effects from toxic exposures to veterans and their descendants.

• Increase access to benefits for homeless veterans.

A section-by-section summary of the legislation is available here.

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