FOR RELEASE: October 17, 2000

Washington, DC – Congress has included a 23% increase to the basic education readjustment benefit for veterans, effective November 1, 2000, in legislation sent today to President Clinton. The Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) benefit will increase to $650 per month for a three-year period of service and to $528 per month for a two-year period of service. Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, the Democrat leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, led the fight to increase the GI Bill benefits. The omnibus veterans legislation Congress adopted today also includes an Evans supported provision for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nurse pay raises, and other personnel measures to recruit and retain skilled health care staff such as dentists and physicians assistants.

"This is a positive, first step in revitalizing the education benefits America’s veterans earn through honorable military service," said Evans, hailing Congressional approval today of the Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act. "This legislation will benefit the men and women who serve in uniform and it will strengthen VA’s ability to care for veterans."

Congressman Evans served as a Marine during the Vietnam era and was himself a recipient of GI Bill education benefits as a veteran. Also a member on the House Armed Services Committee, Evans has repeatedly expressed serious concern over the dwindling purchasing power of the GI Bill and difficulties the military has experienced with meeting its recruitment goals, and has led congressional action to provide a meaningful increase in GI Bill benefits. He and Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) introduced H.R.1071, a more comprehensive proposal, which gained 160 cosponsors to support a significantly greater increase in educational benefits that veterans and service advocates see as vital. This show of support for a meaningful increase in the GI Bill from veterans by one-third of the House sent a powerful message.

The VA nurse pay measure will give Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nurses the same annual pay raise other federal employees receive. "My mother was a nurse," Evans said, "so I understand the pressures nurses face as the backbone of our health care system." Nurses are the largest part of the VA workforce, and have been the only VA health professionals who work without a definite annual comparability pay raise. This legislation provides VA nurses the same predictability of a pay raise that every other VA health professional enjoys.

The bill also allows VA hospital directors who face nursing staff shortages an opportunity to raise salaries so they can compete with other local health care facilities. Today, competition for skilled health care personnel is fierce. Besides annual nurse pay increases, the legislation:

• addresses pay inequities faced by VA dentists;
• provides physicians assistants long-sought representation within VA headquarters along with better training opportunities; and,
• helps VA retain social workers, pharmacists and medical support personnel.

This legislation will address significant problems faced by the VA’s hard-working and devoted medical staff, Evans noted. "Many nurses and other skilled professionals have devoted their careers to caring for our Nation’s veterans, when they might have been able to make more money in the private sector," he said. "We need to take care of the people who take care of our veterans."

The Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act allows VA to extend its buyout authority for two additional years, to allow VA to restructure its workforce by bringing in health care professionals and others with an appropriate mix of skills to contribute to the changing needs of the system. "Buyouts are greatly preferable to employees than the reductions-in-force that VA might otherwise have to employ. They give VA flexibility in updating the skills within its workforce," said Evans.

The bill also mandates a follow-up survey of the status of the readjustment of Vietnam-era veterans advocated by veterans organizations, which was proposed earlier this year to Congressman Evans during an issues seminar he sponsored marking the 25^th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. "In addition, it calls for a new focus on military service in assessing factors that may affect a veteran’s health," said Evans. "Many members of the Vietnam Veterans in Congress Caucus supported this Veterans Health Initiative."

Evans said he is concerned that congressional reluctance to fund various VA construction projects would undermine the Department’s ability to ensure the safety and integrity of its aging infrastructure. "This legislation would allow many worthy projects to go forward, but appropriators must still fund them." The bill authorizes funding for a geropsychiatric facility in Palo Alto, a major renovation at Long Beach, and repair of an electrical plant at the Miami VA Medical Center. "These are worthwhile projects that will allow VA to perform its patient care mission in secure environments. While we are looking at options to restructure VA’s resources, some construction is necessary. Most VA facilities are over 25 years old".

The Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act also provides for assistance to the Department of Defense as it tries to meet the demand for military funeral honors for veterans. "We must honor and care for all our veterans," said Evans, "from future veterans we are currently recruiting to those we are bidding farewell." The bill includes a provision that expressly requires employers to grant reservists an authorized leave of absence for performing funeral honors duty for veterans. It also provides eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery to Filipino veterans of World War II legally residing in the United States and authorizes full-rate funeral expenses and plot allowances to their survivors. "We can never truly repay the service America’s veterans have selflessly given, but we must never stop trying."

-Summary to Follow-

VETERANS BENEFITS AND HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2000
S. 1402, as amended

TITLE: To amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the rates of educational assistance under the Montgomery GI Bill, to improve procedures for the adjustment of rates of pay for nurses employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and to make other improvements in veterans educational assistance, health care, and benefits programs, and for other purposes.

S. 1402, as amended would:

TITLE I – EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROVISIONS

Subtitle A – Montgomery GI Bill Educational Assistance

1. Increase the All-Volunteer Force Educational Assistance Program basic benefit (commonly referred to as the Montgomery GI Bill or MGIB) to $650 per month for a three-year period of service and $528 per month for a two-year period of service.
2. Repeal the requirement that a servicemember obtain a high school diploma or equivalency certificate prior to the completion of the initial period of active duty as a condition of eligibility for MGIB benefits.
3. Set forth the initial period of active duty requirements needed to earn basic educational assistance entitlement under the MGIB as not less than 30 months of continuous active duty under an obligated period of service of at least three years.
4. Permit certain post Vietnam Era Educational Assistance program (VEAP) participants to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill program.
5. Permit servicemembers to "buy up" their MGIB basic benefit by making an after-tax contribution of up to $600 which would provide up to $5,400 in additional benefits over 36 months of entitlement, or an additional $150 per month.

Subtitle B – Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance

1. Increase the basic educational allowance for survivors and dependents to $588 per month, with annual cost-of-living adjustments.
2. Allow children eligible for survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance to choose the beginning date of their eligibility period between the date on which a rating decision is signed or the date of death and the date on which the Secretary first finds the death service connected.
3. Permit the award of survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance payments to be retroactive to the date of the entitling event, that is, the service-connected death or award of a total and permanent disability rating.
4. Allow use of the survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance for preparatory courses for college and graduate school entrance examination requirements.

Subtitle C – General Educational Assistance

1. Allow monthly educational assistance benefits to be paid between term, quarter, or semester intervals of up to 8 weeks.
2. Allow veterans’, survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance to be used to pay for up to $2,000 in fees for civilian occupational licensing or certification examinations; establish requirements regarding the use of such entitlement and requirements for organizations or entities offering licensing or certification tests; and establish a seven-member, organization-specific, VA Professional Certification and Licensing Advisory Committee.

TITLE II - HEALTH PROVISIONS

Subtitle A – Personnel Matters

1. Authorize annual "national" comparability pay raises for VA nurses on par with that of other federal employees.
2. Make optional annual locality survey processes for VA nurse pay. Define "triggers" that indicate the need for Directors to perform locality pay surveys for nurses such as turnover, lag time, looming nurse shortage, to be defined in criteria of Secretary; require communication to peer and senior management of intent to survey; and report to Congress.
3. Eliminate sole discretion vested in facility directors to make pay decisions; clarify that absence of nurse recruitment or retention problem not be a basis for failure to provide pay increases; prohibit "negative pay adjustments"; authorize use of independent survey results; and provide, to extent practicable, for pay surveys to collect actual salary and benefits data.
4. Provide for nurse participation in policy and decision-making at network and medical center levels.
5. Revise and increase rates of special pay provided to dentists employed by the Veterans Health Administration.
6. Add pharmacists to occupations that are exempt from statutory caps on special salary rates.
7. Require the Under Secretary for Health to designate physician assistants (PAs) to serve as consultants to the Under Secretary and seek advice of PA consultants on all matters relating to employment and utilization of PAs within VA.
8. Authorize temporary appointments of up to two years for PAs who have successfully completed full course of training and are pending certification.
9. Authorize temporary extensions of term appointments for medical support personnel in VA-funded research.
10. Authorize the Secretary to waive state licensure requirements for VA social workers while completing training.
11. Extend and modify employee "buyout" legislation through December 31, 2002.

Subtitle B – Military Service Issues

1. Provide a Sense of Congress Resolution urging VA to document pertinent military experiences and exposures that may contribute to a veterans’ health status.
2. Require that VA enter into a contract with an appropriate entity to carry out a new study on post-traumatic stress disorder independent of VA, to follow up the study conducted under section 102 of Public Law 98-160.

Subtitle C – Medical Administration

1. Authorize VA to furnish veterans and others accompanying veterans with temporary lodging (such as "Fisher Houses") in connection with treatment or other services.
2. Clarify VA establishment of VA outpatient clinics in State veterans’ homes.
3. Provide a Sense of Congress Resolution encouraging expanded joint procurement of medical items to include prescription drugs.
4. Facilitate enactment of the Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act with technical and conforming changes.

Subtitle D – Construction Authorization

1. Authorize the Secretary to construct and authorize appropriations of $120.9 million in fiscal year 2001 or 2002 for major construction (gero-psychiatric care building at the Palo Alto, CA VA Medical Center [$26.6 million]; nursing home at the Beckley, WV VA Medical Center [$9.5 million]; utility plant at the Miami, FL VA Medical Center [$23.6 million -- for 2001 only]; and seismic improvements project at the Long Beach, CA VA Medical Center [$51.7 million]).
2. Authorize a previously appropriated [$14 million], but not authorized, long-term psychiatric care facility at Murfreesboro, TN VA Medical Center; and extend through 2002 a previously authorized long-term care project at Lebanon, PA VA Medical Center [$14.5million].

Subtitle E – Real Property Matters

1. Change the enhanced-use lease Congressional notification period from 60 "legislative" days, to 90 "calendar" days. It would also shorten the length of time VA waits before entering into enhanced-use lease.
2. Release reversionary interest to State of Tennessee in Johnson City (Mountain Home VA Medical Center) property previously conveyed to Tennessee. (State has committed to transfer the land for public park and recreation but cannot do so without recision of government’s reversionary interest.)
3. Transfer land at the former Allen Park, MI VA Medical Center to Ford Motor Land Development Corporation. It would also allow for environmental cleanup by VA (remediation of hazardous material, etc.), and restoration of property to precede transfer.
4. Transfer land at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center, Dublin, GA, to the State of Georgia.
5. Permit the land conveyance of Miles City, MT VA Medical Center to Custer County, Montana. (Transfer will save VA $500,000 for maintenance of facility, and provide funds to expand veterans’ access to care.)

TITLE III – COMPENSATION, INSURANCE, HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT, AND MEMORIAL AFFAIRS PROVISIONS

Subtitle A – Compensation Program Changes

1. Provide that a stroke or heart attack that is incurred or aggravated by a member of a reserve component in the performance of duty while performing inactive duty training shall be considered to be service connected for purposes of benefits under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
2. Make women veterans eligible for special monthly compensation under section 1114(k) of title 38, United States Code, due to the service-connected loss of one or both breasts, including loss by mastectomy.
3. Provide compensation and health care benefits to veterans injured as a result of participation in a VA compensated work therapy program.
4. Increase the amount of resources an incompetent veteran with no dependents may retain and still qualify for payment of benefits from $1,500, to five times the benefit amount payable to a service-disabled veteran rated as totally disabled while being provided institutional care without charge at VA’s expense.
5. Require the Department of Defense to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to carry out periodic reviews of the dose reconstruction program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The review would last 24 months and culminate in a report detailing NAS’ findings and recommendations, if any, for a permanent review program.

Subtitle B – Life Insurance Matters

1. Cap Service Disabled Veterans’ Life Insurance (SDVI) premiums at the age 70 renewal rate; require VA to report to Congress, not later than September 30, 2001, on plans to liquidate unfunded liability in the SDVI program over the next ten years.
2. Increase the maximum amount of coverage available through the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance program and the Veterans’ Group Life Insurance program from $200,000 to $250,000.
3. Allow members of the Individual Ready Reserve who are subject to involuntary call-up authority to enroll in the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance program.

Subtitle C – Housing and Employment Programs

1. Allow VA to make non-reducing grants for specially adapted housing in cases where title to the housing unit is not vested solely in the veteran, if the veteran resides in the housing unit.
2. Add recently separated veterans (veterans who have been discharged or released from active duty within a one-year period) to the definition of veterans to whom Federal contractors and subcontractors must extend affirmative action to employ and advance.
3. Require employers to grant a leave of absence for employees to participate in honor guards for funerals of veterans.

Subtitle D – Cemeteries and Memorial Affairs

1. Extend eligibility for burial in national cemeteries to those Philippine Commonwealth Army veterans who die after enactment of section 341 of this legislation who 1) have either become citizens of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and 2) who reside in the United States.
2. Provide a full-rate burial benefit and plot allowance to Philippine Commonwealth Army veterans who, at the time of death, 1) are naturalized citizens of the United States residing in the U.S. and 2) are receiving compensation for a service connected disability or would have been eligible for VA pension benefits had their service been deemed to have been active military, naval, or air service.

3. Authorize VA to pay a plot allowance for burials in State veterans’ cemeteries for certain members of the Armed Forces not eligible for burial in national cemeteries.

TITLE IV – OTHER MATTERS

1. Provide health care, vocational training, and monetary allowances to the children of women Vietnam veterans who suffer from certain birth defects.
2. Extend temporary authorities through fiscal year 2008 that would otherwise expire on September 30, 2002, including: VA-enhanced loan asset authority guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on VA-issued certificates or other securities; VA home loan fees of ¾ of one percent of the total loan amount; procedures applicable to liquidation sales on defaulted home loans guaranteed by VA; VA/Department of Health and Human Services income verification authority through which VA verifies the eligibility for, VA needs-based benefits and VA means-tested medical care by gaining access to income records of the Department of Health and Human Services/Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service; limitation on payment of VA pension to veterans without dependents who are receiving Medicaid-covered nursing home care; VA’s special committee relating to the care of the seriously chronically mentally ill; and extend through 2005 VA’s authority to establish nonprofit foundations to foster research, education, or both, in VA medical centers.
3. Reinstate the requirements that the Secretary provide periodic reports concerning equitable relief granted by the Secretary to an individual beneficiary (expires December 31, 2004); work and activities of the Department; programs and activities examined by the Advisory Committees on (1) former prisoners of war and (2) women veterans (expires after biennial reports submitted in 2003); operation of the Montgomery GI Bill educational assistance program (expires December 31, 2004); and activities of the Secretary’s special medical advisory group (expires December 31, 2004). The Secretary shall include with any report that is required by law or by a joint explanatory statement of a Congressional conference committee an estimate of the cost of preparing the report.

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