Hoyer feted by PVA for congressional service
Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) awarded retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) with its 2026 Gordon H. Mansfield Congressional Leadership Award on June 10, honoring his career-long pursuit of equal access and opportunity for people living with disabilities. The award was established by PVA to recognize those who show strong leadership and constant support for disability civil rights, as well as veterans’ health care and benefits.
Hoyer’s participation was critical for the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as the ADA Amendments Act in 2008. The congressman also helped push through legislation regarding voting access for people with disabilities via the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Omnibus package will benefit veterans
On June 10, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) introduced the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237/S. 4744), legislation that contains about 60 bills relating to veterans. Several of PVA’s most urgent legislative priorities are addressed within the package.
Those priorities include raising of baseline rates of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) by nearly 3% under Special Monthly Compensation for veterans rated R1, R2 and T, and assuring that surviving spouses of veterans who die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis receive the DIC kicker; the addition of language to codify the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) existing Bowel and Bladder program; the assurance of constant medical evaluation of existing veterans with SCI/D for beneficial new technologies that might improve their quality of life; improved support for caregivers; easier access to care for veterans with SCI/D; and a modified version of the Major Richard Star Act, which seeks to eliminate the offset of military retired pay for VA disability compensation that some face.
One catch for some organizations involved is that, in order to pay for the provisions, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act would fully establish a change proposed in 2022 to the VA ratings schedule for tinnitus and sleep apnea.
VA’s budget estimation process passes inspection
In the wake of the VA’s request for an additional sum of $6 billion on top of that which has already been appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 2025, a review of the VA’s health care cost estimates by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was conducted. While the GAO survey concluded that the overall methodology used by the VA is sound, certain areas of the process could be strengthened to ensure the accuracy of budget estimations in the future. The review focused on the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Enrollee Health Care Projection Model.
Among the findings were that VHA has no formal process when it comes to incorporating new data into its projections once an initial model exists, leading to potentially fuzzier projections. Also noted by GAO were inconsistencies in the way data-quality limitations were communicated to VHA’s actuarial contractor, as well as a tendency for VHA oversight to focus too heavily on the completion of required tasks, versus constant quality assessment for the analysis and predictions.
While none of the failings were recognized as fatal flaws in the process, GAO did conclude that better data governance, clarified oversight responsibilities and tougher inspection of contractor work would improve health care estimates going forward.
OIG report identifies flaws in Veterans Crisis Line services
Flaws in the Veterans Crisis Line’s (VCL) processes for dispatching emergency services and facility transportation plans were the focus of a new report from the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG). The concern was that the problems in these processes were leading to lower quality of care and reduced timeliness for veterans in crisis.
The OIG report affirmed the claims, finding that the efforts under scrutiny were in fact not maximizing use of social service assistant (SSA) staff and resources. Challenges facing the VCL’s processes include department leaders not collaborating efficiently, as well and nights and weekend staffing issues leading to operational risk.
OIG’s findings included recommendations for the VCL executive director to both take action to facilitate better communication between leaders within the VCL and SSA ranks and frontline staff, and to strongly consider using SSA-specific workload data to determine SSA staffing levels rather than relying on a fixed ratio of responders to SSAs.
VA infrastructure roundtable hosted by Senate
A group including PVA Associate Legislative Director Jennifer Hunt, as well as leaders from the VA acquisition and construction offices and related industry leaders, attended an infrastructure roundtable on June 9 hosted by the majority staff for the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. The topic was pending legislation that would update rules and regulations to modernize the process and steps the VA can take to make improvements without legislation.
