Veterans' claim program under Pentagon review

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio recently wrote Teresa McKay, director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service expressing his concern over a veterans' claim program where millions of dollars in payment errors allegedly occurred, according to the Associated Press.

Tom LaRock, a spokesman for the Pentagon financing office said McKay "has expressed her commitment to ensure that the veterans receive the benefits they are due. If mistakes were made we will take appropriate steps to correct them."

Kucinich's office has calculated that close to 2,000 disabled vets were wrongly denied payments in a program extending benefits for retired vets whose disabilities were related to military service or combat.

He also mentioned overpayment and underpayment inaccuracies for an additional 2,500 vets receiving benefits in excess of $2,500.

Kucinich said the cost of the errors in the VA Retro program totaled around $12 million and requested McKay recalculate the claims in the program.

The article explains action currently being taken:

Kucinich blamed the errors on a weakening of quality control checks prompted by a rush to shrink a backlog of unprocessed claims.

LaRock said his office started a review of the program after the House Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy that Kucinich chairs held hearings on the issue last July. He said they have reprocessed about 10 percent of the 133,000 claims originally considered eligible for the program, and hoped to complete the review by early spring of next year.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Troops to get Pay Raise as Bush Signs Defense Bill

President Bush signed a $612 billion defense spending bill for the 2009 budget year Tuesday that includes a 3.9 pay raise for troops as well as providing tuition assistance, money for family housing and other programs.

Nearly $70 billion of the passed legislation is set aside for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also requires greater oversight and more information on contractors involved with Iraqi operations.

It also includes a provision allowing a new missile defense system to be built in Eastern Europe, a proposal adamantly opposed by Russia.

The AP article tells how lawmakers came to compromise with the President:

In reaching a deal, House and Senate negotiators left out language that Bush opposed. Eliminated was language barring private interrogators from U.S. military detention facilities and giving Congress a chance to block a security pact with Iraq.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Military Related Headlines 10/10

• Gen. Petreaus: "I Do Think You Have To Talk To Enemies" [Digg]

• AP: U.S. nears removing N. Korea from terrorism blacklist [USA Today]

• U.S. Allegedly Eavesdropped On GI's Calls [CBS News]

• Gov't probes US defense contractor over payments [AP via Newsvine]

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Costs Increase for Revamping Nation Guard

The AP reports that overhauling the U.S. Army National Guard training program, allowing for soldiers to spend more time at home, will cost $128 million this year and nearly double that next year to equip and train their troops, say officials.

The Guard has been trying for over a year and half to shorten the training process. Leaders have managed to shave months off the time these citizen soldiers are required to spend away from home due to deployments in Afghanistan or Iraq.

From the article:

Until early 2007, Guard combat brigades were training for up to six months — much of it away from home — and then would spend 12 months to 15 months in the war zone. The average time has been slashed to a bit more than 13 months, including about a month of training at home, another 40 to 70 days at the formal Army training center and roughly 10 months on the battlefront.

Spurred on by the Pentagon's promise that Guard deployments would be limited to one year, military leaders pledged to spread some of the required pre-deployment war preparation into the soldiers' routine weekend and week-long training exercises each year.

The boost in funding will pay for the roughly 2,000 Guard trainers to ensure Guard members will receive as much training as possible while at home for much of the year before deploying to one of the 10 mobilization centers for their final, prewar training.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Veterans Possibly Shortchanged Say Democrats

The AP is reporting that according to a new congressional report at least 28,283 vets may not have been paid money owed to them by the government because the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) were working frantically to clear a backlog of claims resulting from changes in the law allowing vets to claim both military retirement and disability at the same time.

This evaluation was carried out by the House Oversight and Government Reform's domestic policy subcommittee, headed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.

From the AP article:

In mid-2006, DFAS had hired Lockheed to help it work through the long list of cases. The government identified some 133,000 veterans who were eligible for money through its "VA Retro" program. The list quickly grew by another 84,000 names because newly retired veterans or those with a changed disability status were being added.

Officials finally cleared the backlog last June, seven months after the original deadline.

According to the House investigation, officials reached their goal only after lowering their standards. . .

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Disabled Vets' Costs to Surge while Number of Vets Decrease

The AP has obtained internal documents from the VA showing that despite the declining number of vets, the government expects to spend $59 billion a year in 25 years to compensate injured troops, up from today's $29 billion.

Today's total vets number nearly 24 million. The VA expects that number to drop to below 15 million by 2033.

Reasons for the spike in cash include:

• Inflation
• More vets are aware of their benefits and are quick to file
  
• Modern medicine returns troops with injuries that may have killed them in past wars
• Certain medical conditions may worse with age and require higher payments

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Headline Roundup: Money Time

• US resumes Thailand military aid [BBC]
• Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches: U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices [WashPo]
• FBI Preps Award for Biometric Database: Lockheed, Northrop, IBM Vying for Multibillion-Dollar Contract for FBI Biometric Database [ABCnews.com]
• Redesign the U.S. White House [BoingBoing.net]
• U.S. rebuilding aid in Iraq winding down [USA Today]
• Senate Deal on Economic Bill Closer [NY Times]

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Court Says Current Currency Not Fair for Blind

A federal judge ruled yesterday that keeping all U.S. paper currency the same size and feel discriminates against blind people.

Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with a way to tell the bills apart.

Robertson said the Rehabilitation Act -- a law prohibiting discrimination of people with disabilities in government programs -- is being violated.

He didn't say how to rectify the issue only that they begin working on the problem within 10 days. The American Council of the Blind -- bringers of the lawsuit -- have suggested using foil, holes, raised dots or ink, or printing different sized bills.

Scatablog would put up with the bill for the sake of the blind:

Every other country in the world has different sizes for different denominations. When I travel, I find that a bit of a pain, since I have a wallet that's just fine for U.S. bills but won't hold the larger foreign bills unless I fold them various ways. While I would be perfectly happy to put up with the inconvenience if it helps the blind, I suspect there will be a lot of guys (Rush Limbaugh comes to mind) who will object.

Anthony at Oh, the Humanity believes no changes ought be made:

Ok, I'm all for fairness, but really. C'mon. Do we really need to reprint, redesign, and reconfigure all of our monetary notes to favor the blind? I can understand if your the Republic of Totowannabee and have never had money before, so it's easy to design and print currency that is favorable to all social groups. Sure, you can create meat-free vegan style bills with braille bumps that are printed with organic hemp ink and quietly murmur the value of the bill. But, if you already have trillions of dollars in currency out in the public hands, it becomes a bit more of a hassle.Has anyone, including the idiot judge, considered how much it would cost to do this? Of course not. He handed down some arbitrary verdict based on a PC culture epidemic.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation