Charlie Brown, national president of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), spoke on the importance of long-term care and assistance for disabled veterans at a Joint House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on March 1.
“In order to be here today, I had to have help from my paid caregiver,” said Brown, who sustained a massive spinal cord injury in a diving accident in 1986 while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in Cherry Point, N.C.
“He helped me get dressed, get out of bed and into my wheelchair. He helped me take my medicine. He helped me groom. My story’s not unique.”
Issues of Key Importance to Veterans
Robert Thomas, Tammy Jones, and Josue Cordova are, like Brown, paralyzed veterans; they also serve with Brown on the PVA executive committee.Charlie Brown delivered his testimony at the “Legislative Presentation of the American Legion and Multi VSOs.”
VSOs stands for veterans service organizations.
The hearing was the second of three that the House and Senate Veterans’ committees hold every session of Congress to provide representatives of VSOs the opportunity to present to and field questions from lawmakers on their organizations’ public policy and legislative concerns and priorities.
As well, members of Congress ask the representatives questions on how government can better assist and support VSOs and the veterans they serve.
House Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), a Marine Corps veteran, and Senate Chairman Jon Tester (R-Mont.) presided over the hearing.
In addition to the American Legion, the nation’s largest VSO by membership, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the following organizations participated in the hearing: Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), Veterans Committee for the National Congress of American Indians, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Black Veterans Empowerment Council, National Guard Association, National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs (NASDVA), Fleet Reserve Association (FRA), and Student Veterans of America (SVA),
VSO reps and committee members discussed a wide range of veteran issues and concerns.
The veterans and lawmakers gave particular focus to the staffing, level of services, and the physical and upkeep and conditions at Veterans Affairs Department (VA) hospitals; assisting and supporting active duty service members in their transition to civilian life; mental health services and suicide prevention; disability payments and compensation; the aging of the veteran population; veteran housing and homelessness; and education benefits.
Protections From Predatory Law Firms
Another issue that received considerable attention in the hearing was the matter of unscrupulous businesses and attorneys representing veterans seeking compensation for injury and illness resulting from contact with toxins.Congress passed, on Aug. 2, and President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 10, the Sergeant First Class (SFC) Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act.
The PACT Act increases and expands healthcare options and benefits—including $300 billion in new financial benefits—for those who while serving in the U.S. armed forces were exposed to toxins.
Law firms have paid for a massive wave of advertising in search of clients.
Some of the firms are charging veterans they represent a fee of 40 percent or more of any payout secured.
Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve colonel who has served in multiple deployments overseas, became emotional when talking about lawyers and companies exploiting the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, legislation folded into the PACT Act, to prey on veterans.
The Camp Lejeune Act compensates service members who became ill due to exposure to contaminated water at the Marine Corps base in North Carolina.
As many as 1 million veterans could have been affected.
Sullivan has lamented the influence of trial lawyers in establishing the Camp Lejeune Act, and the high fees that the lawyers charge veterans.
He is the co-sponsor of the Protect Camp Lejeune Victims Ensnared by Trial-lawyers’ Scams (VETS) Act, legislation that would cap fees lawyers can charge for benefits they secure for vets from the Camp Lejeune Act fund. The bill stalled in the previous senate, but Sullivan, along with Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), reintroduced the act last month.,
Sullivan, pitching for his bill, said, “For those who don’t know what this is about, all you got to do is turn on the TV. It’s really disgusting in my view. You got the trial lawyers of America who are working to rip off the veterans and families of sick Marines.
“It’s a choice. My bill is a choice between taking care of sick Marines and their families or enriching trial lawyers.”
