February 25, 2014 - The Senate is preparing to tackle a major veterans bill this week, a process that will test whether the chamber is still stuck in a feud over a rules change last fall that reduced the power of the Republican minority.The Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014 would greatly expand aid and other programs to America’s veterans by increasing eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care, opening new facilities, restoring full cost-of-living increases to military retiree pensions, expanding education programs and even offering reproductive treatment and adoption assistance for severely wounded veterans, among other things.
The legislation comes at a time when the VA has been plagued by backlogs that have only increased since the start of President Obama’s administration. According to an annual report from the VA, it took an average of 378 days in 2013 for the department to process a claim to completion. A claim is considered backlogged if it has been pending for longer than 125 days. The bill will take steps to deal with the backlog.
As of Monday evening, the bill had 23 Democratic co-sponsors, according to the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the author of the bill and chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. He’s currently working to find Republican support for the measure, which will cost approximately $21 billion over the next decade. read more>>>
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