VFW’s 2007 Legislative Priority Goals

VA Budget

• Ensure full, timely funding for VA health care to meet the growing demand for services, particularly as more vets return from overseas.

• Establish a new funding mechanism that matches dollars with demand and arrives on time, unimpeded by political conflict.

VA Benefits and Compensation

• Ensure the VA disability compensation program is preserved in its current form to protect the needs of current and future veterans.

• Oppose any change to current definitions of “line of duty” or “programs for disability and survivors benefits.”

• Oppose fee-for-service attorneys at the initial level of claims processing.

Education

• Secure authority and full funding for a GI Bill for the 21st century that covers the full costs of tuition, fees and living expenses for attendance at any educational institution for which the veteran is eligible.

Military Retirees

• Ensure that Congress authorizes and fully funds a law that allows all disabled military retirees to immediately receive their full military retirement pay and full disability compensation without offset.

Veterans Employment

• Oppose attempts to reduce or circumvent veterans preference in government hiring.

• Support an effective and efficient Veterans Employment and Training Service.

• Urge national standardization of licensing and certification.

• Support programs that ensure National Guard and Reserve members and their families have access to education and training to provide opportunities in the occupation of their choice.

• Support reauthorization and full funding for the Service Members Occupational Conversion and Training Act program.

• Support expansion of the Defense Department’s Pre-separation Counseling and the Labor Department’s Transition Assistance Program.

Homeless Veterans

• Fully fund all homeless vet programs and enhance community-based efforts.

• Require that federally funded homeless vet programs offer a full continuum of services, including outreach, medical rehabilitation services, sheltered transitional housing and employment assistance.

War on Terrorism/Homeland Security

• Support U.S. troops fighting the Iraq War.

• Call for increased resources to fight and win the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

• Support U.S. government efforts to take decisive and offensive action in the global war on terror.

• Secure U.S. borders, shorelines and all ports of entry.

• Halt the flow of illegal immigration.

Defense/Foreign Affairs

• Increase defense spending to fund all needed weapons’ programs, personnel initiatives and troop end-strength requirements.

• Urge the continued development of a ballistic missile defense system.

• Monitor the activities and halt the development and/or proliferation of nuclear weapons or materiel by North Korea.

• Secure Europe through the continued expansion of NATO.

Military Affairs

• Seek to improve the quality of life for all active-duty, National Guard and Reserve members and their families.

• Increase military base pay to equal that of private-sector workers.

• Provide affordable health insurance coverage for all members of the National Guard and Reserves.

• Support efforts to lower National Guard and Reserve retirement pay age to 55.

POWs/MIAs

• Achieve the fullest possible accounting of all U.S. POWs/MIAs from all wars.

• Ensure the U.S. government keeps the POW/MIA issue elevated as a national priority.

• Urge the President and Congress to fully fund the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command through a dedicated single-line item appropriation in the Defense Department budget.

• Support all POW/MIA public awareness initiatives.