LIVE CHAT 6 PM to 9 PM EST Live Chat 6 PM to 9 PM EST ONE VOICE Chat Community Hazardous Contamination Issues of Fort McClellan Ala. Veterans Senate Hearing Photos from Delivery of Commission Report (Personal Album)
Live Chat 6 PM to 9 PM EST ONE VOICE Chat Community Hazardous Contamination Issues of Fort McClellan Ala. Veterans Senate Hearing Photos from Delivery of Commission Report (Personal Album)|
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| _______________________________ Well the good news is, there are no more public hearings for the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission. There will be other closed door meetings between the Commission itself and either the House or Senate as things do come up. The next stage of this process is the full adoption and ratification of the report itself. The Senate hearing was more complicated than the House was because it was held in tandem with the Dole-Shalala Commission, which does have it's flaws by the way, and may not have the clout that some have been hoping for. Donna Shalala herself comes in as an underdog, who had the official chance to do something about the VA crisis while she was in office, and then chose not to. Now all of a sudden she is some kind of an "authority" on what has happened to all of us. Yeah right. Where she does come in with a unified voice is the new issue of taking on the entire VA process into a call to action --- I personally lobbied hard on that voice and was more than glad to hear it come across the podium in the room. As Commissioner and Navy Veteran Jennifer Carroll pointed out some months ago, the Shalala Commission really does have to develop their studies and surveys the way the VDBC has done, and it will easily take her another 2 years to do that. Working with existing information that is tainted and not new in approach, is only a sad and slow road to been there, done that in this entire national message of VA change. The VDBC school of thought will likely prevail on national issues because they took the time to go out and activate the necessary national studies to push through their findings. Bob Dole, because of his age, is very much a broken record of my life story recountments and small useless anecdotes which do nothing to sort out the issues at hand. It's time for ole Bob to go home. General Terry Scott was strong, organized, and much better rehearsed than his first run at the House hearings. Unfortunately PTSD dominated both hearings, not because it was the issue of the day, but because both Congresspeople and Senators are themselves civilians and really don't know what else to talk about in the face of these reports. Call it Parrot Head syndrome if you will ---- they all get into a room and now here comes PTSD even though nobody else in the room even brought it up. They had underestimated the crowd size which showed up for the Senate review, and because of that, we were jammed into the hearing room like sardines in a can. There was literally no place to move around in the area, and those of us who got seats really knew how lucky we were because rows upon rows of people were forced to stand. In some ways, the Dole-Shalala Commission is less adequate than the VDBC, and has only served to complicate things. I had floated an opposition to the new Commission at the time their Bill was voted on, saying that the jurisdiction was too closely drawn against the VDBC which had already been in session for nearly a year at that point. Nobody listend, now there is a multi-commission crisis of too many chefs in one kitchen, and nobody wants to use the same recipe. It's gourmet Veterans and the VA -- who knows what will come next out of such a mess. Luckily the other issues do stand a very good chance of passing through with few problems: concurrent receipt, hazardous exposure groups, the new presumptive system, and the all new VA Rating system. These will be the trophies of victory for Veterans everywhere. Here are some of the photos I took from this compelling session, crowded room and all. click on the little ICON in the upper right hand corner of the photo below to enlarge the photo to full screen viewing. Sue Frasier, army veteran Albany NY VFJ staff blogger This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet, |
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LIVE CHAT 6 PM to 9 PM EST Live Chat 6 PM to 9 PM EST ONE VOICE Chat Community Hazardous Contamination Issues of Fort McClellan Ala. Veterans Senate Hearing Photos from Delivery of Commission Report (Personal Album)
Live Chat 6 PM to 9 PM EST ONE VOICE Chat Community Hazardous Contamination Issues of Fort McClellan Ala. Veterans Senate Hearing Photos from Delivery of Commission Report (Personal Album)Copyright 2004
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