Based in D.C., Cary and other members of VMFP’s Capital Region Chapter lobbied Congress for more than a year to ensure passage of the act which:
· Creates the Wounded Warrior Resource Center to serve as the single point of contact for service members, their families, and caregivers to report issues with facilities, obtain health care, and receive benefits information;
· Requires semi-annual inspections of housing facilities for recovering service members;
· Requires the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to jointly develop a comprehensive policy on the care and management of members of the armed forces, including the development of fully interoperable electronic health records;
· Mandates the establishment of new standards for: processing disability evaluations to reduce discrepancies between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, training for disability evaluation personnel, rating disabilities that take into account all medical conditions, as well as requiring a pilot program for improving the disability evaluation system;
· Mandates the establishment of new standards for processing medical evaluations, training and qualifying those performing the evaluations, and assigning independent medical advisors to assist recovering service members and families;
· Requires a comprehensive policy to address traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other mental health conditions, establishing DOD Centers of Excellence on PTSD and TBI to improve treatment, research, training and rehabilitation, requiring enrollment and registry of TBI patients to ensure continuity of care, guaranteeing veterans a VA mental health assessment within 30 days of request, expanding hiring to address shortage in mental health professionals, and strengthening DOD training for better detection of PTSD; and
· Requires a DOD study of the support services provided to families of recovering service members, and a National Academy of Sciences study on the physical and mental health needs of those deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
VMFP, along with partners-in-advocacy Ralph Parrott and Paul Sullivan, directors of Empowering Veterans and Veterans for Common Sense respectively, frequent the halls of Congress and attend most Veterans Affairs and Armed Services committee meetings to remind lawmakers that veterans, service members and their families have a 21st century voice in Congress.
VMFP mentored four other pieces of much-needed legislation for veterans into public law in the first session of the 110th Congress and has a list of some 20 other bills it intends to see passed in the future, including the Post-9/11 GI Bill which won overwhelming bipartisan victories in the House and Senate and is in the final stages of preparation for submission to the President for his signature.
In addition to sponsoring legislation, VMFP endorses and works to elect candidates who support its mission to educate and legislate on behalf of veterans, those currently serving, and military families. During the 2006 election cycle, the organization saw 16 of its endorsed candidates elected to the House or the Senate.
Veterans and Military Families for Progress (www.vmfp.org) is a 501(c)(4) non-partisan, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. This 21st Century organization is made up of members located in all parts of the country, and from across the breadth of rank and military services, who served, are serving, or are family members of those who have heeded the call to serve their country in the U.S. military.
