I sure wish the VA would hurry up with my rating, im still waiting after 8 months.

Fact Sheet: President Obama Signs Executive Order to Improve Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama will sign an Executive Order directing key federal departments to expand suicide prevention strategies and take steps to meet the current and future demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment services for veterans, service members, and their families.

Ensuring that all veterans, Active, Guard, and Reserve service members and their families receive the support they deserve is a top priority for the Obama Administration. Since September 11, 2001, more than two million service members have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan with unprecedented duration and frequency. Long deployments and intense combat conditions require optimal support for the emotional and mental health needs of our service members and their families. The Obama Administration has consistently expanded efforts to ensure our troops, veterans and their families receive the benefits they have earned and deserve, including providing timely mental health service. The Executive Order signed today builds on these efforts.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-offi...access-mental-h

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee, announced that an as yet unnamed Senate Republican has blocked a traditionally non-controversial bill that would provide over 3.9 million veterans and their survivors with a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for the benefits they receive. The COLA increase, which is designed to offset inflation and other factors that lead to the rising cost of living, was brought to the Senate floor by Senator Murray last Thursday. The bill was cleared by all Senate Democrats but was blocked by at least one Senate Republican that has not come forward to claim responsibility.



“This is stunning” said Senator Murray. “Particularly because we still don’t have any indication why someone would block a cost-of-living adjustment for veterans and their surviving spouses, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. This adjustment for our disabled veterans is hard earned and well deserved. My hope is that whichever Senator has decided to hold up this bill will at least come forward to own up to it. That way we can move forward to overcome their opposition and get our veterans the support they need.”


http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/inde...sabled-veterans

Forty members of the United States Senate betrayed veterans today when decided that denying President Obama a victory was more important than spending $1 billion to create jobs for vets.

The Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012 would have spent $1 billion over five years to put veterans to work tending to federal lands, and in the nation’s police and fire departments. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) based her plan of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), but Republicans opposed the bill because they said there is no proof that it would work.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn claimed that there is no evidence that jobs for vets will work, “What we have is a bill that’s brought to the floor that has good intentions behind but shows the absolute laziness of congress in terms of really digging things out. issued their duplication report on the job training programs for veterans, four of them do exactly the same thing. None of them have a metric. So we don’t know if they’re working, and we haven’t held a hearing to find out if they’re working. But what are we doing?”

snip

Here are the 40 who voted to keep America’s veterans unemployed,

Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lee (R-UT)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Mark Kirk and James Inhofe did not vote.

If any two on this list would have decided to put our veterans first, this bill would have moved forward. Instead, Senate thanked veterans by denying them jobs.

Senate leaders actually fled from the media and refused to take questions at their weekly press conference today. If you are represented by one of these senators, take the time to attend one of their events and ask them why they don’t want veterans to have jobs.

Between Mitt Romney’s secret videotape and today’s Republican Senate vote, it is clear where the Party stands. I guess our returning veterans are also part of the deadbeat 47%, and the Party decided to honor our obligation to those who served their country by denying them access to employment.

Does anybody know or heard of a higher rate of pay over the 100% rate if you have an accumulation of 150% or more?

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150

Rewriting Senate's Day of Shame
there vote record and support for DAV.