News & Opinion

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bipartisan bill that provides health benefits to veterans and their families exposed to contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Read more »

Better 30 years late than never. Monday, the House of Representatives sent a widely supported bill to the president that would grant health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs to all troops and family members affected by chemical water contamination aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune during a period stretching from the 1950s to the 1980s–a pool that could include up to 750,000 people. Read more »

An omnibus veterans bill chock-full of two years’ accumulation of health, benefits, education and administrative provisions is on its way to the White House for President Obama’s signature. Read more »

Legislation penned by Rep. Jon Runyan to help reduce the Department of Veterans Affairs’ backlog of more than 900,000 pending disability and pension claims is headed to the president’s desk Read more »

The day after Janey Ensminger would have celebrated her 36th birthday, the House of Representatives passed a historic bill in her honor that would help thousands of sick Marine veterans and their families who were exposed to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Read more »

The U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee has opened an investigation into the use of a video camera disguised as a smoke detector in a veteran's room at James A. Haley VA Medical Center. Read more »

The possibility that sequestration could lead to an additional reduction of 100,000 active-duty troops has been seized upon by a key House Republican as the newest reason why the Defense Department needs special protection from across-the-board cuts. Read more »

We noted yesterday that the president’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention was promptly undercut by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He wasn’t the only Cabinet member to contradict the president. Read more »

Military suicides are at their highest levels in more than a decade, with an average of one suicide occurring every day so far this year. The subject dominated the discussion at a joint House committee hearing with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta & Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki. Lawmakers said the Defense & Veterans Affairs Departments are taking too long to combine their systems for tracking veterans returning to civilian life. Read more »

The U.S. military is experiencing a suicide “epidemic,” with as many as 206 service members having taken their own lives this year, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told lawmakers today. Read more »