Veteran Voice

Charles Einarson
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Government
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Veteran Voice, the go-to podcast for veterans, first responders, and their families. We bring you the latest news from the Veteran Administration, updates on veteran health issues, and important topics that affect the brave men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country. From benefits and policies to mental health resources and stories of resilience, we cover the subjects that matter most to our veteran community. Join us for expert interviews, inspiring stories, and practical advice to stay informed and empowered. veterannews.substack.com

  1. 6d ago

    A Watchdog, Two States and Five Reservists Did the Checking

    All four of this week’s stories started with somebody checking work that was supposed to be correct already. A VA inspector general checked a list VA had sent Congress. Two state attorneys general opened investigations into a company’s billing. University researchers checked blood samples nobody had sorted by military service before. Five reservists checked their own pay records and found a gap. The biggest miss was the list. VA told Congress in May 2025 that it had ended 446 contract actions worth about $120.9 billion. The inspector general found the real figures were 435 actions worth about $1.1 billion. A second list, sent that July, counted prosthetics, surgical implants, wheelchair ramps and nursing home orders as terminated. The report says those were never terminated at all. Nothing was cut from veterans’ care there. The count was simply wrong. The other three stories are about a gap between what is written down and what a veteran can actually get. Federal law says help with a first VA disability claim must be free, but Congress removed the criminal penalty in 2006. Federal employees who serve in the Reserve or Guard have been owed differential pay since 2009, and the Supreme Court settled the main legal question in April 2025. The government still has not paid them. Researchers reported this month that younger veterans carry more PFAS than civilians their age. VA’s own public health page says PFAS blood testing is not available at its medical centers. A VA List Told Congress It Cut $120 Billion in Contracts. The Watchdog Found $1.1 Billion. VA’s inspector general reported on Sept. 22 that VA terminated 435 contract actions for convenience, with total contract values of about $1.1 billion. The list VA sent Congress in May 2025 claimed 446 actions worth about $120.9 billion. Sixteen entries on that list were reported at $1 billion or more, and auditors found none actually topped $150 million. A second list in July 2025 included 974 supply orders and 151 health care orders that were never terminated. Those included orders for prosthetics, surgical implants, wheelchair ramps and nursing home services. A VA official told auditors the department built a dashboard to track the cancellations and the dashboard miscalculated the values. Auditors also found VA contracting staff generally complied with federal acquisition rules, and the report makes no recommendations and questions no costs. Sources: VA Office of Inspector General, Review of Contracts Terminated for Convenience (25-03033-230): https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-contracts-terminated-convenience VA OIG full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-09/vaoig-25-03033-230_final.pdf Government Executive, VA’s contracting crackdown gave some staff hours to do hundreds of reviews: https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/09/vas-contracting-crackdown-hours-hundreds-reviews/416219/ Two States Target a Claims Company That Charged Veterans Up to $20,000 The attorneys general of New York and Illinois told a federal bankruptcy judge on Sept. 8 that they have open investigations into Trajector Medical and intend to take legal action. The Florida company charges veterans as much as $20,000 for help with VA disability claims. NPR reported that Trajector acknowledges in its contracts that it is not accredited by VA. Federal law says help with a first claim must be free, but Congress dropped the criminal penalty for breaking that rule in 2006. Trajector denies the allegations, and spokesman Steve Zenofsky told NPR that the company stands behind how it operates. Trajector and 21 related companies are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The two states argue the fees were illegal, so the cash the company holds should not count as property of the estate. Free help with a first claim is available from VA-accredited representatives, including veterans service organizations. NPR also spoke with veterans who were satisfied with the help they got. Sources (the reporting on the letter originates with NPR, and the Stars and Stripes item followed it a day later): NPR, via KNKX Public Radio, Sept. 24, 2026: https://www.knkx.org/2026-09-24/states-threaten-action-against-company-profiting-off-disabled-vets-after-npr-report Stars and Stripes, 5 things to know in veterans news, Sept. 25, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-09-25/job-training-supreme-court-case-lawmakers-recognized-22952928.html Military Officers Association of America, on the accreditation rule and unaccredited claims companies, April 15, 2026: https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2026-news-articles/benefits/advocacy-in-action-states-need-support-protecting-veterans-from-claim-sharks/ Study Finds Higher ‘Forever Chemical’ Levels in Veterans Under 40. VA Clinics Do Not Test for Them. Veterans aged 20 to 39 carry more PFAS in their blood than civilians the same age, according to a Brown University study published Sept. 14 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Brown’s release on the study puts the gap at 13 to 24 percent depending on the chemical. Stars and Stripes reported wider gaps from the same paper, which is paywalled, and the study shows an association rather than a cause. Researchers found no difference between veterans over 40 and civilians their age. VA’s public health page says PFAS blood testing is not available at VA medical centers. VA also states there are no presumptions related to PFAS exposure in the military. Lead author Christian Hoover told Stars and Stripes that VHA coverage does not pay for the tests. VA spokesman Quinn Slaven told the paper that VA doctors can order them through commercial lab partners when deemed medically necessary. Sources: Brown University news release, Sept. 14, 2026: https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-09-14/veterans-pfas Stars and Stripes, Sept. 15, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-09-15/toxic-pfas-veterans-healthcare-22849768.html VA Public Health, PFAS page, last updated April 16, 2026: https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/pfas.asp Reservists Sue for Years of Unpaid Federal Differential Pay, Including at the VA Five reservists filed a class action before the Merit Systems Protection Board on Sept. 23, according to the motion they shared with Stars and Stripes and Army Times. They are federal civilian employees. Differential pay is the gap between a civilian salary and lower military pay, owed when they are called up during a declared national emergency. The case names the Departments of Defense, Justice and Veterans Affairs, and one plaintiff is a healthcare engineer at the Orlando VA Healthcare System. The Supreme Court settled the main legal question in Feliciano v. Department of Transportation in April 2025, though the service still has to happen while an emergency declaration is in effect. Federal law sets no deadline for filing that kind of complaint, and the filing argues the claims can reach back to 2009. Nothing has been decided here. The board has not certified a class, and neither news report includes a response from the three departments. Sources: Stars and Stripes, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-09-23/military-reservists-lawsuit-unpaid-compensation-22941577.html Army Times, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.armytimes.com/pay-benefits/2026/09/23/5-military-reservists-file-class-action-lawsuit-seeking-differential-pay/ Supreme Court, Feliciano v. Department of Transportation: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/605/23-861/ 38 U.S.C. 4327, Cornell Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/4327 If you work for the federal government and serve in the Reserve or Guard, pull your leave and earnings statements for every stretch of active duty since 2009. Nobody is going to run that check for you. Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

    A Watchdog, Two States and Five Reservists Did the Checking

  2. Sep 21

    A Missed Payment in October Can Cost a Veteran a Life Insurance Policy

    Four of this week’s six stories turn on a date. Nov. 1 decides who gets a three-month break on life insurance premiums. Oct. 14 brings the last piece of data behind next year’s disability raise. Oct. 1 starts $1.17 billion moving toward groups that house homeless veterans and keep others from losing their homes. Oct. 2 is the day ten House members want answers about a VA committee that has not met since December 2024. The insurance date is the one that can cost somebody real money. VA is skipping three months of premiums on Veterans’ Group Life Insurance. To get the break, the policy has to be active on Nov. 1. If a veteran is already behind on payments, the holiday does not erase what is owed. VA says the balance still has to be paid or coverage lapses in February. Somebody could go three months without a bill and lose the policy anyway. The other two stories are about what a number counts. The VA inspector general reported 4,712 severe staffing shortages across all 139 VA medical centers. That is not a count of empty jobs. It is a tally of survey answers from facility officials, and the OIG says it did not check them. In the House, a bill would nearly triple the fee veterans pay to refinance a VA loan. The $4 billion in savings attached to that language covers two separate fee changes, not just the refinance one. None of this changes a payment or an appointment today. What it changes is what is worth watching over the next six weeks. VA Will Skip Three Months of VGLI Premiums, but the Policy Has to Be Active on Nov. 1 VA will stop collecting premiums on Veterans’ Group Life Insurance from Nov. 1, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027, and coverage stays in force. No one has to apply, though veterans who pay through their bank’s own bill pay service have to stop and restart those payments themselves. VA says about 457,000 veterans hold VGLI policies, and puts the waiver at nearly $150 million, or roughly $330 for a typical policyholder. The condition sits in VA’s frequently asked questions page, updated Sept. 15. Coverage has to be active on Nov. 1, so a cancellation or a lapse on or before Oct. 31 leaves a veteran out. The holiday also does not erase a past-due balance, and VA’s FAQ says failing to pay it makes coverage lapse once the holiday ends. The break covers VGLI and nothing else. SGLI, family SGLI, traumatic injury protection, VALife and Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance are all unaffected. Sources (every detail here comes from VA’s own announcements, so there is no independent check on the participation and savings figures): VA press release, Sept. 16, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-announces-insurance-premium-holiday-that-will-save-veterans-nearly-150-million/VGLI Premium Holiday Frequently Asked Questions, Veterans Benefits Administration: https://www.benefits.va.gov/insurance/vgli_premium_holiday_faqs.aspVeterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) program page, VA.gov: https://www.va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/vgli/ The 2027 VA Disability Raise Is Tracking Near 3.3 Percent The yearly cost-of-living raise for VA disability pay is tracking at about 3.3 percent for 2027, based on inflation readings through August. One more month of data has to come in before the number is set. The government averages a price index called the CPI-W for July, August and September, then compares that average to the same three months of 2025. BLS publishes the September index on Oct. 14, and the Social Security Administration says the official figure comes in October. A cooler September pulls the number down, and a hotter one pushes it up. Nothing changes for anyone right now. Whatever gets announced takes effect Dec. 1, 2026, and the raise in effect until then is 2.8 percent. VA’s rate page says the department has to match the percentage Social Security uses, though Congress still passes a bill each year to authorize it. Stars and Stripes reported in May that this year’s version went to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Those bills pass every year without much argument. Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary, August 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htmSocial Security Administration, Latest Cost-of-Living Adjustment: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/latestCOLA.htmlVA, Current Veterans disability compensation rates: https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/Stars and Stripes, Payments to disabled veterans, eligible family members would increase under inflation-fighting bill (May 14, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-05-14/bill-increases-payments-disabled-veterans-21674163.html VA Awards What It Calls a Record $1.17 Billion to Fight Veteran Homelessness VA announced $1.17 billion in homelessness grants on Sept. 14, going to 680 organizations. The money starts moving Oct. 1. About $855 million runs through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program as one-year grants. That money pays for case management, helping veterans keep the home they have or get re-housed fast. Another $318 million goes through the Grant and Per Diem program as three-year grants. It pays for transitional housing and service centers. Some of it is set aside for women veterans and for veterans who are elderly, chronically ill or raising children. VA had not published a state-by-state breakdown of this round as of Sept. 18. Last year’s smaller version sent $818 million nationwide, and Washington’s share was $35.5 million split among eight organizations. A bigger national total does not promise a bigger local one. Providers should learn in the next few weeks whether they got more, the same, or less. VA used the same announcement to say it housed 51,936 homeless veterans last year. VA also said it cut its disability claims backlog by more than 70 percent since January 2025. That backlog figure is the department’s own, with no outside audit attached. Sources (all three are VA describing its own spending, so the housing and backlog figures are the department’s own count): VA News, VA awards $1.17 billion in grants to fight Veteran homelessness (Sept. 14, 2026): https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-awards-1-17-billion-in-grants-to-fight-veteran-homelessness/VA Homeless Programs, FY 2027 Grant Awards (updated Sept. 14, 2026): https://department.va.gov/homeless/fy-2027-grant-awards/VA Puget Sound Health Care, VA awards nearly $36 million in grants to fight Veteran homelessness in Washington (Sept. 25, 2025): https://www.va.gov/puget-sound-health-care/news-releases/va-awards-nearly-36-million-in-grants-to-fight-veteran-homelessness-in-washington/ A VA Committee on Women Veterans Has Not Met Since December 2024 Ten House Democrats wrote to VA Secretary Doug Collins on Sept. 17 asking why the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans has not met in more than 21 months. Congress created the committee in law, and the charter Collins signed in October 2025 says it is expected to meet at least twice a year. VA’s own public page for the committee lists minutes through December 2024 and nothing after. The lawmakers wrote that they understand the most recent chair, Col. (Ret.) Wanda A. Wright, resigned in April 2026 in protest. We found no separate public confirmation of that account. They asked five questions and want answers by Oct. 2, including whether the committee’s estimated operating budget and staff were redirected while it sat idle. That estimate, about $360,000 a year in the charter, is VA’s own projected cost rather than a documented amount spent. The lawmakers are raising questions. They have not shown that VA broke any rule. No woman veteran’s appointment, enrollment or disability claim changes because the committee did not meet. The committee advises. It does not deliver care or decide benefits. The one outlet that covered the letter, KVIA in El Paso, did not include a response from VA. Sources (the letter and the congressional press release come from the same office, so they count as one source. VA’s committee page and charter are the independent check): Rep. Maggie Goodlander and Rep. Veronica Escobar, letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins (Sept. 17, 2026): https://goodlander.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026.09.17_letter_to_secva_for_the_inactivity_of_the_advisory_committee_on_women_veterans.pdfVA Advisory Committee Management Office, Advisory Committee on Women Veterans (minutes and reports list): https://department.va.gov/advisory-committee-management/advisory-committee-on-women-veterans/VA, Charter of the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans, signed Oct. 6, 2025: https://department.va.gov/advisory-committee-management/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2025/12/advisory-committee-on-women-veterans-20251006.pdfKVIA, Members of Congress demand info on VA Advisory Committee on Women Veterans (Sept. 17, 2026): https://kvia.com/news/military/2026/09/17/members-of-congress-demand-info-on-va-advisory-committee-on-women-veterans/ All 139 VA Hospitals Reported Severe Staffing Shortages, and the Report Does Not Count Vacancies Officials at all 139 VA medical centers told the department’s inspector general this year that they have severe staffing shortages. The count came to 4,712 shortages across 389 occupations, in a report issued Sept. 11. That is up from 4,434 last year. The number is not a count of empty positions. The OIG sent a questionnaire to each facility in late March and early April. It wrote that the answers represent officials’ input at a single point in time. It also wrote that it did not validate their accuracy. A facility can flag an occupation whether it has zero openings or 100. Practical nurse was the most commonly reported shortage occupation, at 59 percent of facilities, and police was the most common nonclinical one at 57 percent. VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven said the report is not based on actual vacancies and is not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages. Slaven put VA-wide vacancy rates at 15 percen

  3. Sep 14

    Washington Spent the Week Deciding What a Service Record Is Worth

    Every story in Veteran Voice this week runs through a file. Three of them turn on what the government does with that file. The fourth turns on which line of it you read. Court transcripts say five hard drives of Marine Corps muster rolls can place Camp Lejeune claimants on that base on specific dates. The Justice Department turned those drives over after months of delay. Then, according to the transcripts, it refused to let claimants use them in settlement talks, and said it would consider the records only in active litigation. About 5,000 veterans and family members are answering 30-day letters while that gets sorted out. President Trump pushed the other way on Sept. 8. His executive order gives the Pentagon 30 days to start sending discharge records to VA the moment a person leaves the service. In those first two stories, the file is the case, and the wait is the injury. The third is different. A new Office of Personnel Management rule took effect Sept. 2, and it changed how much of a federal worker’s personnel file counts in a layoff. Performance ratings come first now, and veterans’ preference is a fixed number of points added on top. Nothing there is missing or late. What changed is the weight. The week’s fourth story is a different kind of problem. Veteran unemployment fell from July to August, and it also rose compared with a year ago. Both numbers come out of the same monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Which one you hear depends on which line someone reads to you. Transcripts Show the Justice Department Won’t Let Claimants Use the Camp Lejeune Records Court transcripts released in September describe five hard drives of Marine Corps muster rolls, more than three million files. The transcripts say those monthly logs can put a named person at Camp Lejeune on a given date. That is exactly what about 5,000 pending claimants, veterans and family members both, are being asked to prove on a 30-day clock. The Justice Department turned the drives over after months of delay. But the transcripts show it will not allow the records in settlement talks. It will consider releasing them only once a case is in front of a judge, which almost none of these are. A four-judge panel has ordered both sides to reach a mass settlement framework by Oct. 30. The court says it may rebuild the plaintiffs’ legal team or impose fines and other sanctions if they miss it. Four years after the first hearing, not one Camp Lejeune case has gone to trial out of more than 400,000 claims filed. Money has moved, though. Stars and Stripes reported in March that the department had paid about $708 million to more than 2,500 people. Those claimants took a faster preset payment instead of a full case review. Advocacy groups will hold a third mass rally at the Capitol on Sept. 14 and 15. They are backing a bill called the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act. Sources (everything here except the March payment figure comes from one outlet, Public Radio East, which obtained the court transcripts): Public Radio East, Feds hold records as Camp Lejeune deadlines loom for 5,000+ veterans (Sept. 11, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-09-11/feds-hold-records-as-camp-lejeune-deadlines-loom-for-5-000-veterans Public Radio East, Camp Lejeune water victims heading back to Capitol for third mass rally to demand legal fix (Sept. 10, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-09-10/camp-lejeune-water-victims-heading-back-to-capitol-for-third-mass-rally-to-demand-legal-fix Public Radio East, Federal court imposes October deadline for lawyers from both sides of Camp Lejeune water litigation to reach settlement (July 1, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-07-01/federal-court-imposes-october-deadline-for-lawyers-from-both-sides-of-camp-lejeune-water-litigation-to-reach-settlement Stars and Stripes, Justice Department speeds up Camp Lejeune toxic water payments as lawyers urge government to do more (March 16, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/branches/marine_corps/2026-03-16/camp-lejeune-toxic-water-payments-21088217.html Trump Order Gives the Pentagon 30 Days to Start Sending Discharge Records to VA President Trump signed an executive order Sept. 8 on veterans’ benefits and records. It gives the Pentagon 30 days to start sending a service member’s military and medical records to VA at the moment of discharge. A White House fact sheet released with the order says that handoff now averages 90 to 180 days. That is the administration’s own figure, and the fact sheet cites no study behind it. VA says the change could cut another 20 to 30 days off claim processing for people who just left the service. That is a projection, not a measured result. This does not touch eligibility rules or payment amounts, and it does not change anyone’s disability rating. A veteran who has been out for years sees nothing change. The order sets two more deadlines. Agencies have 120 days to review existing technology contracts and require that the systems work together. They have 180 days to build systems that would share records continuously from the day a person enters service. That last piece is a goal for March, not something that starts in October. The order carries no money. Its text says it is subject to the availability of appropriations, and it creates no right enforceable in court. Stars and Stripes reported that neither the order nor the fact sheet put a price on the technology work. The first real test comes in early October. Sources (three of these four are the government describing its own action, so the 90-to-180-day baseline and the 20-to-30-day projection are the administration’s own numbers): The White House, Executive Order Accelerating Access to Veterans’ Benefits and Employment Opportunities (Sept. 8, 2026): https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/accelerating-access-to-veterans-benefits-and-employment-opportunities/ The White House, Fact Sheet on the executive order (Sept. 8, 2026): https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/09/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-accelerates-veterans-access-to-benefits-and-employment-opportunities/ Department of Veterans Affairs press release (Sept. 8, 2026): https://news.va.gov/press-room/president-trumps-executive-order-means-faster-access-to-va-healthcare-benefits-than-ever-before/ Stars and Stripes, President signs executive order for faster delivery of VA benefits (Sept. 9, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-09-09/trump-order-faster-delivery-va-benefits-22798981.html A New Federal Layoff Rule Turns Veterans’ Preference Into Points New rules for federal layoffs took effect Sept. 2. Under the old system, an agency ranked workers by appointment type, then veterans’ preference, then length of service. Performance came last. Under the Office of Personnel Management’s new rule, performance comes first. An agency adds up a worker’s three most recent performance ratings. A top rating is worth 7 points, so the ceiling is 21. Then preference points go on top. A veteran with preference who is rated 30 percent or more disabled adds 5. Other workers with preference add 3. Everyone else gets none. Preference was not removed, but it can now be outscored. A commenter raised that during the rulemaking, using a veteran with 40 years of service who ranks below a non-veteran with three top ratings. OPM answered that the example shows preference working inside a performance-centered system rather than being erased. Scott Hope is national service director for Disabled American Veterans. Task and Purpose reported his public comment on the proposed rule. He wrote that it lets a non-veteran displace a veteran with far more service over small rating differences. Office of Personnel Management data reported by Task and Purpose put about 621,700 veterans in federal jobs in 2024. Timing decides which rules apply to you. A layoff notice issued before Sept. 2 follows the old rules. A notice issued on or after Sept. 2 uses the new ones. None of this touches VA disability pay, VA health care, or the preference a veteran gets when applying for a federal job. Sources: Federal Register, Office of Personnel Management, Reduction in Force final rule, published Aug. 3, 2026, effective Sept. 2, 2026 (doc. 2026-15665): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/03/2026-15665/reduction-in-force Task and Purpose, How an overhaul of federal layoffs could affect veterans (Apr. 15, 2026): https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/veterans-opm-rule-layoffs-2026/ Veteran Unemployment Fell From July but Rose From a Year Ago The Bureau of Labor Statistics published August jobs figures Sept. 4. Nothing in the report changes a VA benefit, an eligibility rule or a payment, but it is worth reading carefully anyway. The unemployment rate for all veterans was 3.4 percent, down from 4.2 percent in July. For post-9/11 veterans it fell from 4.7 percent to 3.5 percent. The same government release tells the other half. BLS publishes veteran figures in Table A-5 as an August-to-August comparison, and on that measure the rate went up. All veterans were at 3.1 percent in August 2025 and 3.4 percent last month. Post-9/11 veterans went from 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent, and the count of post-9/11 veterans out of work rose from 130,000 to 155,000. Both readings are correct, because they measure different things. Table A-5 is not seasonally adjusted, unlike most headline figures in the report. Seasonal adjustment smooths out predictable swings, like summer hiring, so one month can be compared with the next. Without it, a July-to-August change mixes real movement with normal noise. The veteran sample is also small enough that single months jump around. One more line is worth reading. The rate for post-9/11 women veterans fell to 2.3 percent from 3.1 percent a year earlier. Over that same year their labor force shrank by about 78,000 people. The share of them working or looking for work fell from 75.0 percent

  4. Sep 7

    VA's Watchdog Found Warnings That Went Nowhere

    The VA's inspector general published two reports on back-to-back days this week. In one, people inside the department spotted the problem early and said so out loud. In the other, they flagged a slice of it and then let it go. What the audits describe is what happened next. One report says VA paid about $11.2 million for a Veterans Crisis Line backup center that never took calls. The OIG found that crisis line leaders and the official who certifies the invoices knew within about six weeks that the contractor could not do the work. VA renewed the contract for another option year anyway. The other report looked at cases where VA moved to cut or end a veteran's disability compensation. VBA's own Compensation Service had flagged one piece of that problem in a March 2024 quality call. Quality staff told the auditors that nobody followed up with the regional offices. The week's other two stories are the opposite shape. Nothing has gone wrong in them, because nothing has been decided. The Pentagon agency that recovers America's war dead says it is ready to search North Korea again and has put that offer in front of the White House. Next year's VA disability raise is still a guess. Two of the three months of inflation data that set it have not been published. Congress has not passed the bill that applies it either. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington is one of its 15 cosponsors. If you have a claim in progress, the ratings audit is the one worth reading closely. It spells out what a proposal letter has to contain, and it estimates that about 4,000 letters in 2024 fell short. VA Paid $11.2 Million for a Veterans Crisis Line Backup That Never Took Calls A VA Office of Inspector General review issued Sept. 1 found the department paid about $11.2 million for a crisis line backup center that never took calls. The payments covered mid-July 2022 through June 2023. The replacement subcontractor had not obtained an authority to operate, the security sign-off a system needs before it handles VA data, and it never reached planned staffing. Crisis line officials and the invoice-certifying official knew within about six weeks, the report says, and VA renewed the contract before terminating the backup work in June 2023. VA has agreed only to ask its lawyers whether it can pursue the money, and no claim has been filed. The report does not find that any veteran in crisis went unanswered, and VA's own responders kept taking the calls. The ways to reach the line have not changed. Sources (this story rests on one primary document, the OIG report): VA Office of Inspector General, Review of Contracted Backup Services for the Veterans Crisis Line, Report 23-03464-146: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-contracted-backup-services-veterans-crisis-line Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig-23-03466-146_final.pdf A Third of VA Cases That Proposed Cutting a Veteran's Disability Rating Had Errors, Watchdog Finds The VA Office of Inspector General released a review Aug. 31 of cases where the department moved to cut or end a veteran's disability compensation. From a sample of 229 files, auditors estimated at least one processing error in about 9,300 of 27,100 cases closed in 2024, or 34 percent. The true rate could fall anywhere between 27 and 42 percent. In an estimated 4,000 of those, the required warning letter was defective, sometimes leaving out the right to a hearing or naming the wrong reason. The OIG put improper payments at a conservative floor of $16.9 million, a total that mixes underpaid veterans with overpaid ones. This was a review of process, and it changes no veteran's rating by itself. Sources (this story rests on one primary document, the OIG report): VA Office of Inspector General, Review of VBA's Processing of Adverse Actions for Service-Connected Disability Compensation, Report 25-01011-154: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-vbas-processing-adverse-actions-service-connected-disability-compensation Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig-25-01011-154_final.pdf Pentagon Agency Offers to Resume Searching North Korea for the Korean War Missing Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said Aug. 31 that his agency is ready to send recovery teams back into North Korea. He said the offer is with the White House, and that a resumed program would work the Unsan and Chosin areas four times a year. About 5,300 of the roughly 7,400 Americans still missing from the Korean War are believed to be in North Korea, McKeague said. No American team has worked inside the country since 2005, nothing has been agreed to, and no summit has been announced. DPAA also classifies hundreds of the unaccounted for as non-recoverable, meaning it believes the man died but does not believe his remains can be brought home. For families waiting on a case, nothing changes today. Sources (the offer, the 5,300 figure and the proposed schedule come from a single Stars and Stripes report of McKeague's remarks): Stars and Stripes, "US ready to search North Korea for war dead if Trump-Kim diplomacy advances": https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2026-09-01/korean-war-remains-recovery-trump-kim-22726456.html Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Korean War Accounting: https://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/Korean-War/ No One Knows the 2027 VA Disability Raise Yet The 2027 VA disability increase does not exist yet, and every number circulating now is a projection. Stars and Stripes reported Aug. 28 that the raise is expected to be 3.7 or 3.8 percent, citing the VA Disability Group, a claims firm. VA's rate page says the department is required by law to match Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment, which is calculated from July, August and September inflation data. Only July has been published. Social Security announced last year's 2.8 percent increase on Oct. 24. Congress also passes a bill each year to apply the increase. This year's Senate version, S. 4487, has not moved since May, when Sen. Jerry Moran introduced it with 15 cosponsors including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. Congress has passed that bill every year, nothing suggests a fight this time, and veterans do not have to file anything once it passes. Sources: Stars and Stripes, "5 things to know in veterans news: 2027 disability pay rate increase": https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-28/new-cookbook-epilepsy-treatment-disability-pay-increase-22675800.html Bureau of Labor Statistics, Schedule of Releases for the Consumer Price Index: https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/cpi.htm Social Security Administration, "Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026": https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-10-24.html U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans disability compensation rates: https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/ S. 4487, Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119s4487is Public Law 119-42, Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025: https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ42/PLAW-119publ42.htm Two of this week's stories are about a decision nobody has made yet. The other two are about people who saw a problem early and did not stop it. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Aug 31

    The Week the Files Decided

    Five of this week’s six stories come back to the same thing. Someone had already met the standard. Then a record decided what they actually got. Sometimes the record was never created. Sometimes it never moved. Sometimes it said the wrong word. The VA’s own inspector general published two audits a day apart. One found that VA facilities mishandled about one in four of the enrollment applications auditors reviewed. At some sites, 14 percent were never logged or date-stamped. Its sharpest finding is about its own blind spot. Quality checks only looked at applications that made it into the system, so the cases most likely to hurt a veteran were the cases least likely to get caught. The other audit found the benefits side of VA cannot reconcile its PACT Act spending against the claims work it did. Questioned costs came to zero. That one is about proof, not missing money. The human version showed up twice. Soldiers wounded in the March 1 drone attack on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, said a military hospital in Germany refused them inpatient beds over the kind of flight they arrived on. They already held Purple Hearts, awarded for exactly the thing the hospital said had not happened. About 1,300 Navy family members who left Bahrain at the start of the war are being told to pick a new home base in the United States. One family is out close to $40,000 because they left on ordinary move orders instead of an evacuation authorization. The fifth story is the oldest one here. Veterans groups want the VA to give Gulf War Illness its own disability rating, because no category for it exists and claims run through symptom labels instead. The sixth is not a paperwork story at all. The VA opened a psilocybin trial for veterans whose depression has not responded to anything else, with VA Puget Sound in Seattle as one of five sites. Six Months After Fleeing Bahrain, Navy Families Are Told to Find a New Home Base The Navy has told about 1,300 family members who evacuated Bahrain that they will not be going back for now. Officials asked them to choose a new permanent duty station in the United States. Safe-haven allowances for Defense Department civilian employees were set to run out at the 180-day mark, which fell on Aug. 25. Veteran Voice could not confirm whether the State Department extended them. Vice Adm. Curt Renshaw, who commands U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told families the group is “really in uncharted territory right now.” One family had been scheduled to leave before the war and departed on ordinary move orders rather than a safe-haven authorization. That difference locked them out of per diem. A Navy spouse told Stars and Stripes the family has paid close to $40,000 and still does not know if it will be repaid. The Pentagon’s casualty count for the war reached 775 killed or wounded. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2026-08-21/bahrain-evacuation-military-families-navy-22618186.html https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-08-21/iran-war-casualty-increase-22617896.html VA Watchdog Finds Problems With One in Four Veterans’ Health Care Sign-Ups The VA Office of Inspector General reported on Aug. 21 that staff correctly processed only 75 percent of the 420 health care enrollment applications auditors sampled. At some facilities, 14 percent of those reviewed were never kept or date-stamped, so there is no way to tell whether they were handled on time. Another 10 percent got the wrong eligibility or priority group answer, which changes what a veteran pays for care and medication. The audit does not estimate how many veterans nationwide were affected. VA agreed to all eight recommendations. If you are waiting: do not assume silence means denial. Check your status at VA.gov, or call the enrollment office at your nearest VA medical center and ask for the date your application was received. Sources: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/audit/audit-healthcare-enrollment-program-va-medical-facilities https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-welcomes-200000-new-healthcare-enrollees-so-far-in-2026/ Veterans Push the VA to Give Gulf War Illness Its Own Disability Rating Veterans groups want the VA to add Gulf War Illness to the schedule it uses to rate disabilities. Today the VA treats it as an undiagnosed illness and pays for individual symptoms. Anthony Hardie of Veterans for Common Sense told Stars and Stripes that claims filed that way are denied at a high rate. The CDC gave the illness its own diagnostic code in October 2025, but a code is not a rating, and the VA has not followed. Advocates have no estimate of what a rating would cost, which is usually the number that decides how fast Washington moves. Nothing has changed for anyone filing now, so hold on to the medical records that show how long your symptoms have lasted. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-25/veterans-push-gulf-warn-illness-designation-22658298.html https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp Auditors Say VA Cannot Match Its PACT Act Benefits Spending to the Claims Work A second inspector general audit, released Aug. 20, examined the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund. VHA and VBA together spent about $51.7 billion from it between fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2025, and Congress added $52.7 billion more for fiscal 2026. The health care side built ways to estimate, track and reconcile what it spends. The benefits side never built the reconciliation piece. Questioned costs came to zero, so the finding is about proof rather than missing money. None of it changes the presumptive conditions, the filing process or the evidence a veteran needs today. Sources: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/audit/audit-vha-and-vba-controls-over-toxic-exposures-fund https://department.va.gov/financial-policy-documents/financial-document/chapter-06-toxic-exposures-fund/ Soldiers Wounded in the Kuwait Drone Attack Say They Waited Months for Care Four Army Reserve soldiers wounded in Iran’s March 1 drone attack on Port Shuaiba told The War Horse they waited months for care they needed within days. All four spoke anonymously because they are still on active-duty orders. One, an Army colonel, said there was “absolutely no evacuation plan” at the port. Soldiers said staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center told them they did not count as wounded in action. The reason given was that they had not arrived on a formal medical evacuation flight. They already held Purple Hearts. Military medicine experts told The War Horse that is not what the term means. Landstuhl did not answer questions about it. One soldier said her military records were never transferred into the VA system, which blocked her referrals to neurology and orthopedics. The VA did not dispute any specific claim about her care. Sources (one investigation, published in two places): https://thewarhorse.org/iran-war-wounded-healthcare/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/27/they-survived-an-iran-war-drone-attack-six-months-later-theyre-struggling-to-get-care/ VA Opens a Psilocybin Trial for Treatment-Resistant Depression, With a Seattle Site The VA has launched PIVOT, a trial that will give psilocybin to about 240 veterans whose depression has not responded to standard treatment. It runs at five VA hospitals through June 2031, including VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle. Veterans get two doses a month apart, each with a therapist in the room. There is no placebo group. The comparison is a smaller dose of the same drug, which is a weaker test than a placebo would give. Psilocybin is not available at VA clinics, and VA officials said veterans should not self-medicate or trade proven treatment for psychedelics on their own. The study is listed as NCT07226232 on ClinicalTrials.gov. Ask your VA mental health provider about screening. If you are struggling right now, the Veterans Crisis Line is 988, then press 1, or text 838255. You do not need to be enrolled in VA care to use it. Sources: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07226232 https://www.va.gov/philadelphia-health-care/news-releases/the-philadelphia-va-healthcare-system-named-as-one-of-five-va-sites-to-test-efficacy-of-psilocybin-as/ The decisions in these stories were made months ago. What is still missing is the delivery. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Aug 24

    Promised on Paper, Missing at the Clinic

    Six stories ran this week, and five of them turn on the same gap. Something exists on paper. A fund, an FDA approval, a discharge plan, a funding target, a benefit Congress already wrote into law. Then you follow it down to the veteran waiting on it, and it is not there yet, or it never arrived at all. The VA announced $29 million for homeless veterans on Aug. 14. That is real money, and it is more flexible than most VA money. The goods do not start moving until October, and the ride contracts are not signed. A VA mental health official explained that FDA approval does not put a treatment in a VA clinic, and the example she offered took close to two decades to reach veterans. The Pentagon admitted it had been cutting off six months of free health coverage to Guard and Reserve troops because of how their orders were coded in a database. It admitted that only after a Navy reservist sued. Watchdogs did most of the reporting. The VA Office of Inspector General laid out how a Richmond hospital sent a veteran with severe dementia home to a spouse who had said plainly that she could not manage the care. The Government Accountability Office counted about $285 billion in deferred repairs on the buildings troops live and work in. GAO also checked the Veterans Crisis Line and found it holding steady, answering calls in under nine seconds through a year of federal staffing cuts. That is the good news in the pile, and it is worth saying out loud. Two of these reach into the Pacific Northwest directly. More than 160,000 Reserve and Guard members were authorized for active duty orders in fiscal 2026, and Washington and Oregon units are inside that number, so the new TRICARE reimbursement window is open here too. GAO’s maintenance review covered Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force installations across the country, which is the same backlog that shows up in an old barracks anywhere. VA Sets Aside $29 Million to Buy Homeless Veterans Food, Phones and Rides The VA announced a $29 million fund on Aug. 14 for homeless veterans and veterans in HUD-VASH. About $11 million buys goods that clinicians can hand out, including food, clothing, blankets, hygiene items and phones. The other $18 million pays for rides to medical appointments, counseling, housing searches and stores. The authority comes from Section 403 of the Elizabeth Dole Act and runs through Sept. 30, 2027. The catch is timing, because the transportation contracts are not awarded yet and the goods do not start until early fiscal 2027, which begins Oct. 1. Sources VA News: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-launches-new-program-to-help-homeless-veterans-with-emergency-supplies-transportation/ Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/29/2026-15301/implementation-of-section-403-of-the-senator-elizabeth-dole-21st-century-veterans-healthcare-and FDA Approval Does Not Mean the VA Will Offer It. Here Is Why. Dr. Ilse Wiechers, a VA mental health official, told Military Times how the department decides what treatments veterans can actually get. FDA approval is only the start. The VA also asks whether the research holds up for veterans, whether it has the staff and space, and whether adding the treatment would pull resources from other care. Drugs face the National Formulary and its Criteria for Use on top of that. One device treatment for depression was approved by the FDA in 2008 and took close to two decades to reach more than 60 VA facilities. Sources Military Times: https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/08/18/who-decides-what-works-inside-vas-mental-health-treatment-playbook/ National Center for PTSD, VA/DoD 2023 Clinical Practice Guideline: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/txessentials/cpg_ptsd_management.asp Watchdog Faults VA Hospital for Sending a Veteran With Dementia Home Despite the Family’s Warnings The VA inspector general found that the Central Virginia VA Health Care System in Richmond did not arrange a safe discharge for a veteran with severe dementia. Community nursing homes turned the veteran down over the behavior, so a psychiatrist sent the veteran home instead, with a 14 day supply of medicine and 30 hours a week of aide help. The spouse had asked repeatedly for long term care. No one evaluated whether the plan was safe, and no one called the ethics team. The report, issued Aug. 14, carries six recommendations, and the health care system director agreed to five of them. Sources VA Office of Inspector General: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/hotline-healthcare-inspection/review-patients-discharge-central-virginia-va-health-care Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig_-_25-04450-218_final.pdf Pentagon Reverses Rule That Cost Guard and Reserve Troops Six Months of Health Coverage A memo signed Aug. 10 drops the requirement that a reservist’s orders be coded as tied to a war or named operation to qualify for the Transitional Assistance Management Program. That program gives 180 days of premium-free TRICARE to a service member and family after active duty ends. Two troops could serve the same tour and only one would keep coverage, depending on how the orders were entered in DEERS. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Gontarz served 1,400 straight days and lost his coverage a month after separating, then sued in April. Anyone denied on or after April 24, 2020 can now ask the Defense Health Agency to pay back premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Sources Task and Purpose: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/reserve-national-guard-healthcare-expansion/ Federal News Network: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2026/08/dod-changes-transitional-health-care-eligibility-for-reservists-following-lawsuit/ The Veterans Crisis Line Held Steady Through the Staffing Cuts. The 988 System Around It Did Not. GAO found the Veterans Crisis Line answered 89 to 99 percent of contacts each month through fiscal 2025, with an average wait of 8.6 seconds for calls. Staffing barely moved, from 1,162 people in October 2024 to 1,149 in April 2026. The wider 988 network is a different story. The federal office that coordinates 988 fell from 24 people to 18, contacts rose about 23 percent, and a JAMA survey found 71 percent of local 988 center leaders called their center understaffed. Veterans reach VA responders by dialing 988 and pressing 1. Sources GAO-26-109046: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-109046 Government Executive: https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/08/national-crisis-and-support-hotline-operations-remained-consistent-despite-staffing-cuts-watchdog-found/415474/ Pentagon Falls $285 Billion Behind on Base Repairs, Watchdog Finds GAO reported Friday that the Defense Department is roughly $285 billion behind on maintaining the buildings service members live and work in. The department told itself in 2014 to fund routine maintenance at 90 percent or more of what its own cost model recommends. The Army, Navy and Air Force asked for about 80 percent. The Marine Corps dropped from 80 percent to 40 percent over five years. GAO also found bases cannot hire and keep repair workers, especially at remote installations, and that their work order data is generally unreliable. The report carries 13 recommendations, and the department agreed fully or partly with 12. Sources Military Times: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/08/21/some-military-barracks-chronically-neglected-due-to-285-billion-in-maintenance-backlogs-gao-finds/ GAO-26-107255: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107255 Announcements travel fast and aid travels slow, and this week the dates in the fine print were the whole story. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Aug 17

    The Paperwork Decides Who Gets Paid

    Four of this week’s seven stories came down to paperwork. Not medicine. Not whether a veteran was hurt. A bill that would restore full retirement pay to combat-injured veterans has nearly 80 Senate cosponsors and still cannot get a vote, because of how one sentence was written. A federal court threw out an Air Force screening step that kept thousands of injured airmen out of the medical retirement system. Submarine veterans cannot prove what they breathed on patrol, because the records are classified. And a computer system that moves benefits claims will not be finished until 2034, seven years late. The pattern is worth naming. In each of those cases, nobody argued about whether the veteran was sick or injured. The argument was about whether the right form reached the right office. That is a different problem than a doctor shortage or a funding fight, and it does not fix itself. It also tends to move slowly, which is why the same stories keep coming back around. The health news ran the other way this week. A German trial found a prescription THC pill ended trauma nightmares for more than a third of patients. A five-year study of 466 VA patients found an electrical armband let veterans skip migraine drugs in three out of four attacks. Both are options for veterans who cannot safely add another prescription to what they already take. Both come with limits the researchers named themselves, and neither is proven in combat veterans yet. The Pacific Northwest shows up in the submarine story. The bill submariners want would name Bangor, Washington as one of four sites where the VA has to recognize base contamination. Naval Base Kitsap homeports the Navy’s West Coast ballistic missile submarines, and a lot of those crews stayed in Kitsap County after they took off the uniform. Combat-Injured Retirees Lose About $20,000 a Year, and the Fix Is Stuck The Major Richard Star Act would stop VA disability pay from cancelling out military retirement pay for veterans whose careers ended in combat injuries. About 54,000 veterans are affected, and the average reduction was roughly $1,650 a month last fall, which is close to $20,000 a year. For many of them the retirement check disappears entirely. The bill has nearly 80 Senate cosponsors, more than 330 House backers, and the Defense Secretary’s support, and it still has not reached a floor vote. A drafting question pushed the cost estimate from about $13 billion to $78 billion, and Congress has not settled which reading of the text is correct. Sources: https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/08/06/their-military-careers-were-cut-short-in-combat-now-theyre-fighting-congress-for-their-full-benefits/ https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62237 https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2102/all-actions Court Strikes Down an Air Force Screening That Kept Injured Airmen Out A federal court in Virginia ruled Friday that the Air Force had no authority to run its own screening step in front of the military’s disability evaluation system. The court found the step pushed thousands of injured and sick airmen away from a process Congress created, going back to at least 2019. The stakes are plain. A combined rating of 30 percent or higher means medical retirement and a check every month for life, and 20 percent or less means one lump sum. The screening is still running while both sides propose a remedy, so nothing has changed yet for the airmen the ruling covers. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-10/court-ruling-air-force-disability-evaluation-22510658.html https://nvlsp.org/federal-court-strikes-down-air-forces-unlawful-disability-screening-system/ The VA Is Mailing 3.8 Million Postcards, and They Are Real The VA started mailing “Choose VA” postcards on Aug. 13 to about 3.8 million veterans who are not enrolled in VA health care, and the mailing runs through Sept. 11. The agency says its own June warning about fake “Veterans Savings Program” postcards may have worked too well, and that veterans are now tossing unexpected VA mail. Real VA outreach points people to va.gov or to a phone number they can look up on their own. It does not demand a callback within five days, and it does not ask for a Social Security number or a bank account over the phone. Sources: https://news.va.gov/148601/official-choose-va-postcards-are-coming-soon/ https://news.va.gov/147334/veterans-savings-program-postcard-scam/ A THC Pill Ended PTSD Nightmares for a Third of Patients in a German Trial Researchers in Berlin published results on Aug. 5 in Nature Medicine for dronabinol, a prescription pill that contains THC. Over 10 weeks, nightmares stopped completely for 37 percent of the 87 patients who took the drug, compared with 15 percent of the 84 on a placebo, and another 21 percent had their nightmare burden cut at least in half. The catch is who was studied. About 79 percent of participants were women, most reported assault trauma, and only 19 percent had PTSD tied to war or captivity. The lead author said more work is needed before anyone applies this to American veterans, and he warned against treating it as permission to self-medicate. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-10/thc-cannabis-drug-study-nightmares-22507404.html https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04546-9 A VA Claims System Will Not Be Modernized Until 2034 The VA Office of Inspector General reported Tuesday that the Benefits Enterprise Platform, which moves information behind pension and vocational rehabilitation claims, will not be modernized until fiscal 2034. The work was supposed to finish this month under a $1.1 billion contract awarded in May 2021. Auditors blamed weak oversight, no real program schedule, no reliable cost estimate, and security assessments the IT office skipped, and the VA agreed with all five recommendations. The department also says its claims backlog is down more than 70 percent since January 2025, which means the front counter can move faster while the wiring behind the wall runs seven years late. Sources: https://www.govexec.com/technology/2026/08/vas-benefits-system-overhaul-running-some-familiar-problems/415366/ https://www.nextgov.com/modernization/2026/08/oversight-and-program-management-gaps-slowing-vas-benefits-processing-system-modernization-oig-says/415356/ Submarine Veterans Want Presumptive Benefits, and the Bill Does Not Exist Yet The Submariners’ Advocacy Group is asking Congress for a law that would grant presumptive VA benefits to anyone with a DD-214 showing submarine sea duty, and no member has introduced any text. The group’s argument is about evidence, not illness, because the patrol records and atmosphere logs that would prove exposure are classified, so claims fail on proof rather than on medicine. Its November report documents more than 150 substances found inside a sealed hull, including benzene, asbestos, and the chemical used to scrub carbon dioxide from the air. The proposed bill would name four places where the VA has to recognize base contamination, and one of them is Bangor, Washington. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-07/brain-injuries-disability-payouts-former-submariners-benefits-22475827.html https://submarinersadvocacygroup.org/2025/11/08/unseen-burden.html Veterans Skipped Migraine Drugs in 3 of 4 Attacks Using an Armband A study in Military Medicine followed 466 VA patients through 28,274 migraine treatments with Nerivio, a prescription armband that sends mild electrical pulses instead of drugs. Veterans used no prescription migraine medicine in 77 percent of those treatments, and two hours after treatment about two thirds reported relief. Starting within an hour of onset worked much better than waiting. It was an observational study with no placebo group, and staff from the device maker co-authored it, so the numbers are promising rather than settled. The device is already on the VA Federal Supply Schedule, and any certified clinician can prescribe it. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-14/migraines-remedy-florida-housing-rosie-the-riveter-22542666.html https://academic.oup.com/milmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/milmed/usag341/8746270 None of this week’s news changes a payment right now. The parts worth watching are the remedy the Air Force court orders, whether the Star Act moves this fall, and whether anyone actually files the submarine bill. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Aug 10

    The Fine Print Takes It Back

    Two of this week’s biggest stories were about money the government hands a veteran and then quietly takes back. A RAND study found that VA disability pay can push veterans out of food stamps and housing help, because those programs count the check as income. A separate fight opened in the Senate over separation pay, which the VA claws back out of disability checks decades after a veteran leaves the service. Different rules, same result. The benefit on paper is bigger than the benefit in the bank. The week also showed how much of veteran life runs on rules nobody explains up front. A federal technology director was put on leave after complaining that veterans’ preference was blocking his hiring, and the argument that followed was really about a law written after World War II. Veterans facing separation pay recoupment say their transition classes never mentioned it. In both cases the rule is old, the rule is real, and the people it touches find out late. There was health news too. A study of nearly 10 million veterans found that Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy veterans are diagnosed with ALS at higher rates than Army and Marine veterans. Researchers do not know why yet. The one steady piece of ground here is that the VA already presumes ALS is service connected for anyone with 90 continuous days in uniform, which means a diagnosis is enough to open a claim. Closer to home, wildfires forced the Spokane VA hospital to evacuate every patient and close with no reopening date. That single campus anchors records, pharmacy and specialty care for VA clinics across Eastern Washington, so the closure reaches far past its own 46 beds. And in Washington, D.C., Gulf War veterans finally have a memorial opening Oct. 24, more than 35 years after the war. Recognition took a long time. So did most of the rest of this list. GSA Puts a Tech Official on Leave After He Blamed Veterans’ Preference for Hiring Delays The General Services Administration placed FedRAMP director Pete Waterman on administrative leave after he wrote on LinkedIn that veterans’ preference was keeping his team from hiring the engineers it needs. GSA Administrator Edward Forst said the agency categorically and completely disagreed with remarks denigrating veterans’ preference, and noted that veterans make up about 30 percent of the GSA workforce. The argument underneath the post is older than the post. Hiring experts say the preference rules have gone largely unchanged since Congress wrote them after World War II, and that thin human resources staffing slows federal hiring more than any veteran does. Sources: https://www.govexec.com/technology/2026/07/gsa-official-put-leave-social-media-post-saying-veterans-preference-federal-hiring-hampering-tech-recruiting/415122/ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/vets/programs/vetspref Gulf War Veterans Will Get a National Memorial in Washington This October The National Desert Storm and Desert Shield Memorial is about 90 percent finished and will be dedicated Oct. 24. It sits near Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street NW, a short walk from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and honors the nearly 700,000 Americans who served in the Persian Gulf War. Visitors enter from the left, a deliberate nod to the left hook maneuver that cut off Iraqi forces in Kuwait, and a coalition shield at the center carries the names of every country that joined the fight. Getting it built took 16 years and more than $40 million, with Kuwait giving over $25 million of that. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/history/2026-07-31/gulf-war-memorial-opening-october-22422098.html https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/hazardous-materials-exposure/gulf-war-illness-southwest-asia/ Wildfire Forces Spokane VA Hospital to Evacuate and Close With No Reopening Date Staff at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center moved every patient out on Saturday afternoon as the Spokane Complex Fire burned to within a third of a mile of the campus. The hospital, its outpatient clinics and the nearby VA business operation centers are all closed, and VA officials say future operations are to be determined. As of Monday, 27 patients were under the care of VA staff at area shelters, and some hospital employees had lost their own homes. Veterans in the region can still use VA clinics in Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Wenatchee and Libby, and VA Spokane is answering questions at 1-800-325-7940. Sources: https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/08/03/va-medical-center-clinics-in-spokane-evacuated-for-wildfire/ https://www.va.gov/spokane-health-care/locations/mann-grandstaff-department-of-veterans-affairs-medical-center/ Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard Veterans Have Higher ALS Rates, New Study Finds Researchers reviewed the records of more than 9 million men and 780,000 women treated at VA facilities between 2000 and 2024 and found about 14,400 ALS diagnoses. Compared with Army veterans, Air Force veterans had a 29 percent higher rate, Coast Guard veterans 26 percent and Navy veterans 15 percent, while Marine veterans came in 22 percent lower. Officers in every branch had higher rates than enlisted troops, and the gaps were widest among men 61 and younger. The cause is still unknown, but the practical point has not changed. A diagnosis plus 90 continuous days of service is enough to open a claim, and the VA rates ALS at 100 percent. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-05/military-branches-higher-rates-als-22466125.html https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000218303 VA Disability Pay Can Cost Veterans Food Stamps and Housing Help, a New Study Finds RAND published a report on July 28 showing that VA disability compensation counts as income for Section 8 housing vouchers, Supplemental Security Income and heating assistance, but not for Medicaid or Social Security. Households with a working-age member drawing VA disability were 10 percent less likely to report using food stamps, and disabled veterans under 62 were 3 percent less likely to get housing help than non-veterans. One finding points straight at the cause. Veteran households without disability compensation apply at about the same rate as similar non-veteran households, so the gap only opens once the VA money starts, and it widens as the payment grows. Sources: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-08-05/disabled-veterans-public-assistance-22463126.html https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4405-5.html The VA Takes Back Separation Pay From Disabled Veterans. Two Senators Want That Stopped. Sen. Ruben Gallego and Sen. James Risch each filed a bill this week aimed at recoupment, the rule that halts a veteran’s disability check until old separation pay is repaid in full. From 2013 to 2023 the VA recovered $2.44 billion from 112,834 veterans, and the collection letters often arrive decades after separation. Gallego’s Restore Veterans Compensation Act would bar the VA from collecting separation pay from veterans approved for disability compensation, while Risch’s Veterans Earned Benefits Access Act leaves the practice in place but caps monthly collection at 25 percent of a check. A similar House bill died in committee in 2022, and Gallego has said the obstacle is cost. Sources: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/08/06/senator-introduces-bill-to-stop-va-from-recouping-military-separation-pay-from-disabled-vets/ https://www.military.com/money/personal-finance/you-took-separation-pay-years-ago-now-va-wants-it-back-your-disability-check.html Most of what happened this week is still waiting on a committee vote or a fire line. The one thing a veteran can act on right now is a question, because each office counts a VA check differently. Get full access to Veteran Voice at veterannews.substack.com/subscribe

    The Fine Print Takes It Back
See All (31)

About

Welcome to Veteran Voice, the go-to podcast for veterans, first responders, and their families. We bring you the latest news from the Veteran Administration, updates on veteran health issues, and important topics that affect the brave men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country. From benefits and policies to mental health resources and stories of resilience, we cover the subjects that matter most to our veteran community. Join us for expert interviews, inspiring stories, and practical advice to stay informed and empowered. veterannews.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Charles Einarson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Charles Einarson
  • Show Website
    Veteran Voice