_________________________________

UPDATE NOTE: Having just returned
from a trip to Washington and
an hour long meeting at the Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee, I
have been told that this Defense
Authorization Act will be rescued
at the start of the 2008 session
without having to be reissued
a new Bill number. It will undergo
a compramise revision, possibly
back to Committee for a time,
and then rather quickly to a
floor vote.

___________________________________



A HUGE and complicated legislative
troops and veterans Bill package
has been passed at the Senate
and has the early pledges in the
news media by the White House to
sign it into law.

The Defense Authorization Act largely
sits under H.R. 1585, and then this
is spawned out to a Senate Omnibus
Act S. 1233 which appears to tag
onto the H.R. portion of the Bill.

These 2 pieces of new law for 2008
are massive in scope and are still
under review but will carry updates
here at VFJ over the next few days.

Several features of the Dole-Shalala
Commission as well as the VDBC Commission
are implemented in this Bills package.
While in hearings before the Senate,
General James Terry Scott of the VDBC
stated that he estimated an overall
5 year "phase in" of the entirety
of the VDBC recommendations, so taking
that to heart, this 2008 implementation
would be 1 Of 5 yet to come.

There are major goodies in this
Bills package both mostly for new
and current generation troops
right now.

Nearly $2 BILLION has been allocated
to the Seamless Transition Project
to get the electronic technology features
up and running to pass DOD records
directly to VA and vice verse on
veterans disability claims of the
future.

There is a RURAL Study funded to
partner Medicare Services from the
Dept. of Health and Human Services
with VA to deliver services to
Veterans in Rural Communities.
This is supplemented by an authorization
to use TeleMedicine which was covered
in the Senate confirmation hearing
of Dr. James Peake as the VA's new
and incoming Secretary.

The funds are mostly for studying
and drafting a plan and submitting
it later on for review by Congress
so look for this new Rural Services
idea to get more headlines in 2008.

There is a large emphasis on new
benefits and funding to support
Traumatic Brain Injury cases, and
this includes homelessness prevention
and a special grant progam that can
be used for Veterans transitioning
from homeless status to regular
housing. Amen, I say.

Somehow I am not quite as optimistic
with the rest of the Homeless features
of the Bill because we've all been
there before only to have the homeless
hang onto their walls of excuses.
If this new Bills package works,
then I say everybody get behind it
because Washington of all places,
has every single urban park in the
downtown part of this beautiful
crown jewel of a city, totally littered
with bums and hobos who refuse to
go inside a house like a regular
human being. It's the scourge of the
city, and no I don't know how many
are Veterans nor do I care, but I do
know that the hobos have been destroying
the DC urban parks since I worked there
in the 1970's and anything that takes
back those beautiful parks has
my vote and support every step of
the way. Amen.

If they don't fix the homeless matter
in THIS bills package, that I am
guessing that nothing at all will
ever accomplish that objective and
at that point I say bring out
the dart guns from the animal shelters
and start shooting away. (joking)

There are other Tweeking features
to the Bills package such as altering
and expanding time limits for mental
illness applications from current
generation troops, and additional
funding for new VA staff in certain
operations, and so on.

Update Insert: There is a $2 million increase for the Court of Appeals to
squander away to help them perpetrate
against Veterans even faster, and there
is a $10 million increase to the VA Inspector Generals Office so they can refuse to assist Veterans griping about their documents being falsified even moreso than before. If either
of these increases does anything at all for Veterans, please bring it here to Vets for Justice so we can know about it.

I have sent email questions out
about other features of both
the Defense Authorization Act
and the Omnibus Acts together
and will get back to this report
on updates and revisions into
the holiday.

In a FAX release out just yesterday
at both the House and Senate Committees,
it just so happened coincidentally
that I had loaded in arguments
getting their attention on the
existing Backlog population emphasizing
the need to address the rest of us
out here as well as the current
generation Vets. So if this kickoff
package of legislation is any indication
of what's to come next in 2008
regarding the rest of us, then
I say keep it tuned right here
at Vets for Justice because it
will likely be a banner year
because the early indications
are that their hearts and minds
are in the right place at Congress
to get this done at the VA.

UPDATE #1: The entire text of the
new revisions for Concurrent Receipt
is now posted under the FORUM titled
"Vet Topics Of The Day" on this chat
page. This is the actual 2008 language
revisions by the Defense Act of 2008.
These are only excerpts from the
adopted version of the Bill, and
are selected as the most interesting
changes to Veterans effected by these
revisions. Other changes exist, but are
less dramatic in outcome.