Latest news with #VeteransBenefitsAdministration
Newsweek
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
VA Announces Major Change to Veteran Benefits
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a major three-part initiative to simplify and speed up how survivors and dependents of deceased veterans and service members access VA benefits. The reforms include relocating the Office of Survivors Assistance (OSA), launching a personalized "White-Glove" Survivor Outreach Team, and expanding automation in the benefits system. Newsweek contacted the VA and the Veterans Association of America for comment via email on Tuesday, outside working hours. Why It Matters Starting this month, the VA will move OSA from the Veterans Benefits Administration back to the Office of the VA Secretary. This reverses a 2021 Biden-era decision that, according to the VA, buried the office under layers of bureaucracy and limited its effectiveness. As stated by the VA, in 2021, the Biden administration moved OSA from the Office of the VA Secretary to the Veterans Benefits Administration, "creating a siloed system at odds with the intent of the Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 2008." The relocation is intended to restore OSA's original role as a central advisory body, giving it direct access to VA leadership. A five-person team will now advise the Secretary on survivor-related policies, programs, and legislation. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs logo marks the entrance to their headquarters building on April 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The VA has announced major survivor benefits reforms. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs logo marks the entrance to their headquarters building on April 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The VA has announced major survivor benefits reforms. To Know Also beginning this month, the VA will launch its "White-Glove" Survivor Outreach Team. Based at the Philadelphia VA Regional Benefit Office, the team will consist of trained experts who will guide survivors through the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) claims process. According to the VA, these experts will receive specialized training and guide and assist eligible survivors throughout every step of the DIC claims process with the goal of getting to "yes" on DIC claims decisions for eligible survivors. The overall objective is to close long-standing gaps in communication and ensure eligible families receive personalized assistance from start to finish. To further streamline access, the VA is expanding its use of automation in processing DIC claims. Currently, the department automates over 1,000 DIC payments or adjustments each day. Officials say new automation efforts will speed up claims, reduce delays, and make it easier for survivors to receive the benefits they deserve. The VA is also exploring additional ways automation can improve the overall delivery of survivor-related services. What People Are Saying VA Secretary Doug Collins in the VA press release announcing the reforms: "The last thing survivors need in their time of grief is frustrating red tape and bureaucracy. That's why we are creating a better system to more quickly and effectively provide survivors the services, support, and compassion they've earned." What Happens Next The new measures are part of an overall effort by the VA to modernize and improve the way it delivers support to families of fallen service members. All three reforms are set to begin immediately or within the month, with full implementation expected to continue throughout 2025.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
VA Begins Search to Fill Health, Benefits Leadership Positions Now Held by Acting Officials
The search is underway to fill two key leadership positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs: under secretary for benefits and under secretary for health. The jobs have been filled by acting leaders since the departures of Josh Jacobs, who led the Veterans Benefits Administration, and Dr. Shereef Elnahal, former head of the Veterans Health Administration, with the change in presidential administrations. The department announced Monday that Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, who also served as under secretary for benefits from 2018 to 2021, will chair the commissions tasked with recommending candidates to President Donald Trump. Read Next: Military Families Sue over Defense Department School Book Bans, Other Anti-Diversity Measures The under secretary for benefits is responsible for the segment of the VA that oversees disability compensation and benefits, including the GI Bill, home loans, and pensions for 6 million veterans and surviving family members. During Trump's first term, the position of under secretary for benefits had been vacant for more than a year when he took office in 2017. Lawrence was nominated for the post in 2018 and served until Trump's departure on Jan. 20, 2021. Currently, the duties of the job are being fulfilled by Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits Michael Frueh. The under secretary for health manages the bulk of the VA's workers, responsible for more than 370,000 employees at 172 medical centers and roughly 1,100 health clinics, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers across the country. The position also oversees medical research at the VA as well as training and education for its medical professionals. In the coming years, the under secretary of health will play a major role in deploying a new electronic health record system at VA health facilities nationwide, a process that will restart in 2026 under an accelerated plan that will roll it out at 13 new sites across the country. The candidate also will help lead the Trump administration's efforts to ensure that community care -- medical services paid for by the VA but provided by civilian health providers -- is accessible to veterans as stipulated in the Mission Act, a law that expanded eligibility for the program. During his confirmation hearing as deputy secretary, Lawrence said he would tightly manage much of the work of the VHA and VBA. "I pledge to work with you to get VA's electronic health record modernization effort back on track; ensure VA provides veterans with the health care choices and options Congress promised them as part of the Mission Act; properly and faithfully implement the PACT Act; and put veterans at the center of everything the department does," Lawrence said during his confirmation hearing Feb. 19. During Trump's first term, the under secretary for health position was never filled by a permanent leader. Dr. David Shulkin, the under secretary for health appointed by President Barack Obama in 2015, vacated the post after he was nominated by Trump as VA secretary. Deputy Under Secretary for Health Steven Lieberman is currently serving as the acting under secretary for health. Lieberman previously held the job as acting under secretary, from July 2021 to July 2022. The VA is amid efforts to reduce its workforce as directed by Trump. The department laid off 2,400 probationary employees and is now preparing for a reduction in force that could trim roughly 80,000 additional workers from its ranks. Critics have said that the cuts will reduce services to veterans and delay care and benefits processing. But during a visit Monday to the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, Georgia, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the cuts are necessary to improve VA services and that reductions will come from administrative ranks, not from jobs that are "forward facing" and directly serving veterans. "We still have a lot of doctors and a lot of nurses in our system who are pushing paper and not helping patients," Collins said in a report from 13WMAZ News in Macon, Georgia. The search committees will be made up of VA appointees, community representatives and industry experts. While the committees are responsible for the search and vetting process and making recommendations to Trump, the president may accept or reject any recommendations. Any presidential nominee to come from the process then will undergo confirmation in the Senate, an effort that could take months. Related: VA Watchdog: Misdated PACT Act Disability Decisions Costing Government, Veterans Millions
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats' US tour gathers support in fight against Trump: ‘Get angry, man'
A Minnesota veteran who found work at the Veterans Benefits Administration after suffering two traumatic brain injuries on overseas deployments stood in front of hundreds of people and five Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday night and recalled the moment she learned she lost her job. 'All I was given was a Post-it note,' Joy Marver said, inspiring gasps and boos from a raucous crowd. 'The Post-it note contained just the HR email address and my supervisor's phone number. This came from an external source. Doge terminated me. No one in my chain of command knew I was being terminated. No one knew. It took two weeks to get my termination email sent to me.' The firing was so demoralizing she said she considered driving her truck off a bridge but instead went into the VA for crisis care. 'Don't fuck with a veteran,' she concluded. The story was one of many shared by former federal workers and others impacted by the Trump administration's policies during a town hall in St Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday, part of a national tour that has offered an avenue for grievances against Donald Trump's first two months, but also a way to gather evidence for ongoing lawsuits, totaling about 10 so far, that Democratic attorneys general have filed against the Trump administration. Related: Trump's order to dismantle education department sparks outrage: 'See you in court' 'Everybody's putting in double duty. But the point is, we're absolutely up to it. We got four and a half years of gas in our tanks, and we're here to fight for the American people all the way through,' Ellison told reporters before the event began. The community impact hearings, as they're calling them, kicked off in Arizona earlier this month and will continue in Oregon, Colorado, Vermont and New York, the attorneys general said. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Kris Mayes of Arizona, Letitia James of New York, Matthew Platkin of New Jersey and Kwame Raoul of Illinois attended the event in Minnesota on Thursday, where the crowd filled a high school auditorium and spilled into an overflow room. Attendees were given the opportunity to take the mic and share their stories. Another veteran who worked at the Veterans Benefit Administration was fired via email by Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency', she said. She was part of the probationary employee purge, and her supervisors didn't know she was let go. She recalled that her boss' response to her firing was: 'WTF'. A probationary employee at an unnamed federal agency said she was also let go. She interviewed and did background checks for 11 months to secure her federal role. 'Now we are forced to put our plans of starting a family, of owning a home on hold indefinitely, and I feel that this disruption of this dream will be felt for the rest of our lives,' she said. A former employee of 18F, the federal government's digital services agency, said they were laid off in the middle of the night on a weekend. 'I'm grieving. We didn't deserve this,' they said. A former USAID worker said she watched as Doge moved through the agency, accessing files and threatening employees if they spoke up, before she was fired. After several probationary employees shared their stories, Arizona's Mayes cut in to ask whether the Trump administration or their agencies had reached out to rehire them. The Democratic attorneys general secured a win in a lawsuit over these firings, and a judge ruled they needed to be reinstated. If that wasn't happening, Mayes said, they needed to know. 'We can bring a motion to enforce,' Ellison explained. 'We can bring, perhaps, a motion for contempt. There's a lot of things. But if we don't know that, we certainly can't do anything.' Before the town hall began, the attorneys general said that they had secured temporary restraining orders halting or reversing Trump administration directives in nearly all of their cases so far. In several instances, they have had to file additional actions to get the administration to comply with the orders. In a case that ended a 'pause' on federal grants, for example, the pause was ended – but some programs still were not restarted. James said they had to file a motion to enforce to get those programs running again. Trans people shared how the Trump administration's disdain for their community was affecting them. A young trans athlete was kicked off her softball team, her mom shared. A trans veteran was worried about her access to life-saving healthcare. Doctors who treat trans youth said their patients are on edge. Related: 'Not for sale': USPS workers hold day of action to warn of Trump's 'illegal takeover' Immigrants and people from mixed-status families talked about the specter of deportation and how the threat loomed over their day to day. One woman said her mother's partner was deported, as was her husband's uncle. She worries daily whether her mom is next. 'The Trump administration has impacted me deeply during these past two months alone, but more than ever, we have to come together organized because I'll be damned if they keep hurting my family,' she said. Suzanne Kelly, the CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches, said her organization, which helps resettle refugees, is losing $4m in federal funds that would go directly to their clients, an amount that can't be replaced with local dollars. She has had to lay off 26 employees, most of whom are refugees or asylees themselves. Refugees they were expecting to help are now stranded overseas in refugee camps, she said. People already here will lose rental aid and other assistance. 'Whatever your faith tradition, please pray with us for those individuals, and pray with us for this country. We're better than this,' Kelly said. After two hours of testimony a Minnesota activist stood up and shared their vision of the way forward: 'The first step of that call to action is just to get fucking angry, man.'
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Democrats' US tour gathers support in fight against Trump's actions: ‘Get angry, man'
A Minnesota veteran who found work at the Veterans Benefits Administration after suffering two traumatic brain injuries on overseas deployments stood in front of hundreds of people and five Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday night and recalled the moment she learned she lost her job. 'All I was given was a post-it note,' Joy Marver said, inspiring gasps and boos from a raucous crowd. 'The post it note contained just the HR email address and my supervisor's phone number. This came from an external source. Doge terminated me. No one in my chain of command knew I was being terminated. No one knew. It took two weeks to get my termination email sent to me.' The firing was so demoralizing she said she considered driving her truck off a bridge, but instead went into the VA for crisis care. 'Don't fuck with a veteran,' she concluded. The story was one of many shared by former federal workers and others impacted by the Trump administration's policies during a town hall in St Paul, Minnesota on Thursday, part of a national tour that has offered an avenue for grievances against Donald Trump's first two months, but also a way to gather evidence for ongoing lawsuits, totaling about 10 so far, that Democratic attorneys general have filed against the Trump administration. 'Everybody's putting in double duty. But the point is, we're absolutely up to it. We got four and a half years of gas in our tanks, and we're here to fight for the American people all the way through,' Ellison told reporters before the event began. The community impact hearings, as they're calling them, kicked off in Arizona earlier this month and will continue in Oregon, Colorado, Vermont and New York, the attorneys general said. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Kris Mayes of Arizona, Leticia James of New York, Matthew Platkin of New Jersey and Kwame Raoul of Illinois attended the event in Minnesota Thursday, where the crowd filled a high school auditorium and spilled into an overflow room. Attendees were given the opportunity to take the mic and share their stories. Another veteran who worked at the Veterans Benefit Administration was fired via email by Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency', she said. She was part of the probationary employee purge, and her supervisors didn't know she was let go. She recalled that her boss' response to her firing was: 'WTF'. A probationary employee at an unnamed federal agency said she was also let go. She interviewed and did background checks for 11 months to secure her federal role. 'Now we are forced to put our plans of starting a family, of owning a home on hold indefinitely, and I feel that this disruption of this dream will be felt for the rest of our lives,' she said. A former employee of 18F, the federal government's digital services agency, said they were laid off in the middle of the night on a weekend. 'I'm grieving. We didn't deserve this,' they said. A former USAID worker said she watched as Doge moved through the agency, accessing files and threatening employees if they spoke up, before she was fired. After several probationary employees shared their stories, Arizona's Mayes cut in to ask whether the Trump administration or their agencies had reached out to rehire them. The Democratic attorneys general secured a win in a lawsuit over these firings, and a judge ruled they needed to be reinstated. If that wasn't happening, Mayes said, they needed to know. 'We can bring a motion to enforce,' Ellison explained. 'We can bring, perhaps, a motion for contempt. There's a lot of things. But if we don't know that, we certainly can't do anything.' Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Before the town hall began, the attorneys general said that they had secured temporary restraining orders halting or reversing Trump administration directives in nearly all of their cases so far. In several instances, they have had to file additional actions to get the administration to comply with the orders. In a case that ended a 'pause' on federal grants, for example, the pause was ended – but some programs still were not restarted. James said they had to file a motion to enforce to get those programs running again. Trans people shared how the Trump administration's disdain for their community was affecting them. A young trans athlete was kicked off her softball team, her mom shared. A trans veteran was worried about her access to life-saving healthcare. Doctors who treat trans youth said their patients are on edge. Immigrants and people from mixed-status families talked about the specter of deportation and how the threat loomed over their day to day. One woman said her mother's partner was deported, as was her husband's uncle. She worries daily whether her mom is next. 'The Trump administration has impacted me deeply during these past two months alone, but more than ever, we have to come together organized because I'll be damned if they keep hurting my family,' she said. Suzanne Kelly, the CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches, said her organization, which helps resettle refugees, is losing $4m in federal funds that would go directly to their clients, an amount that can't be replaced with local dollars. She has had to lay off 26 employees, most of whom are refugees or asylees themselves. Refugees they were expecting to help are now stranded overseas in refugee camps, she said. People already here will lose rental aid and other assistance. 'Whatever your faith tradition, please pray with us for those individuals, and pray with us for this country. We're better than this,' Kelly said. After two hours of testimony a Minnesota activist stood up and shared their vision of the way forward: 'The first step of that call to action is just to get fucking angry, man.'
