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Please Help Us
The Association lost many records in the fiasco of the Virginia Beach office. Several recipients of the Non Sibi, Sed Patriae award have expressed an interest on forming a Non Sibi, Sed Patriae Society as a part of the Association. Unfortunately we no longer have the records of who has received the award. We ask the membership to help us out in this matter.
 The e-WORD July 2009 |
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As the Congress rushes to an August recess, there has been considerable activity on matters affecting Marines, Active, Reserve, retired, veterans, the combat disabled, and family members. The Senate approved Senator Bill Nelson’s amendment to the defense bill to eliminate the SBP-DIC offset by voice vote on 21 July 2009. The Senate voted 92-0 on 22 July 2009 to create a new Federal crime to attack U. S. service members or their f amilies because of their status. Introduced by Senator Jeff Sessions, he said, "It makes it a crime to knowingly assault or batter a serviceman or immediate family member, or knowingly destroy or injure their property." There is no like bill in the house, so we will have to see what happens in the negotiations on the final bill. This would be a good time for those of you who want to do your part to contact your Congressional Representative regarding this matter. On 23 July 2009 the Senate approved the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, known as the MOVE Act, as a part of the 2010 defense authorization bill. The Act would require states accepting federal funds to set up a streamlined process for service members to register to vote as well as request, receive and return absentee ballots. Two points in particular are designed to prevent states from declaring servicemember votes disqualified for lack of timeliness. Point one would require states to deliver ballots at least 45 days before a federal election and to count ballots that are postmarked on election day or earlier even if they arrive up to 10 days after election day. Point two would bar states from requiring that a military ballot be notorized in order to be counted. Once again there is no similar provision in the House version of the defense bill, however one of the House committee members, Duncan D. Hunter, a freshman lawmaker and Marine Corps veteran who served two combat tours in Iraq and one in Afganistan, is pushing for a change in procedure in the House. Once again, contact your Congressional Representative regarding this matter. The Military Spouse Residency Relief Act sponsored by Senator Richard Burr was approved by the Senate and added to the defense appropriations bill. Under current law, military spouses are required to register to vote, get new driver's licenses, pay income taxes in the state where they live with their spouses, et cetera. This act would give the spouse the same rights to claim state residency as enjoyed by the servicemember. Once again, the House version of the defense appropriations bill does not contain a similar provision, however, it appears likely this provision will be included in the final bill. The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1016, a bill that would allow for advanced funding for Veterans Affairs medical accounts one year in advance. This would assure funding for the medical needs of veterans without delays in funding bills each year in Congress. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate as S. 423. Senator Max Baucus of Montana along with 16 co-sponsors has introduced S.711, a bill requiring professional mental health screening before deploying to a war zone, after returning from a war zone and before deploying again. This bill was prompted by the suicide of a Montana National Guard member who took his own life after returning from Iraq. Investigative evidence indicates that the suicide rate among combat veterans in their early twenties is approximately double that of the general population in the same age group. Studies by the U.S. Army as well as studies by the Department of Veterans Affairs indicate a high incidence of PTSD and TBI in returning combat veterans. A key factor in preventing the high suicide rate among veterans is the identification of veterans suffering mental health problems, and many veterans fail to recognize or refuse to admit that they are suffering from a mental health problem. A looming battle over the House National Health Care bill is "what happens to both military and VA health care?" The first issue has to do with taxes on employer provided health care. The current proposed bill will include the value of health care (insurance) provided by employers in the taxable income of employees. As it presently stands the bill contains no special provision exempting military members, military retirees, or veterans receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration from taxes on health care benefits. The second issue is the possible imposition of limits on the cost of care that could apply to both direct care from military hospitals and from the Tricare health plan, as well as to direct care from the veterans health care system. Many Vietnam veterans are victims of exposure to Agent Orange. The most common disease associated with Agent Orange is diabetes and it carries the risk of kidney failure. Will the government deny kidney dialysis treatment for these combat veterans as too costly, because you are going to die anyway? Not only would denying treatment save the cost of treatment, but it would also hasten death and save the government in Social Security benefits and VA disability benefits. Another disease associated with Agent Orange is prostate cancer, and recent studies show that Agent Orange caused prostate cancer is considerable more aggressive than would be predicted by Gleason scoring, and thus more likely to recur. As the cancer continues to recur, are these victims going to be denied treatment for the advanced stages of the disease because it is too costly? The June issue of the e-WORD identified the introduction of H.R. 1478 also known as the Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act of 2009. Another recent case of medical malpractice shows the injustice of the current Ferres Doctrine. An airman undergoing a routine gallbladder operation lost both legs because the surgeon cut a major artery providing the blood supply to the legs and then failed to recognize what occurred. As a result no action was taken to repair the artery. The military opposes any change to the Ferres Doctrine, proposing that medical boards should discipline offending doctors. What I have observed in one prominent case of a heart surgeon who had an unusually high mortality rate among his patients was quite simple. The offending doctor was simply transferred from one military hospital to another military hospital and to another. It reminds me of the solution of Catholic bishops when a pedophile priest was identified in a parish. The solution was simple. Just transfer the offending priest to another parish. In research sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, researchers from the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Science, say there may be a link between exposure to Agent Orange and an increased chance of developing serious heart problems and Parkinson's disease. In the case of heart disease, researchers reviewed several studies that showed links between higher exposure levels to Agent Orange and greater incidence of ischemic heart disease, a condition involving reduced blood supply to the heart. The Parkinson's connection is less certain because the reviews of previous studies lacked specific investigations of Parkinson's disease among Vietnam veterans. It remains to be seen what the VA will do with results of the research they sponsored. |
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