Here’s what veterans want Congress to prioritize

From expanded health care access to reducing suicide rates, veterans groups are preparing to lobby the 119th Congress on a host of issues affecting retired service members.

Veterans groups are highlighting long-standing issues, like mental health care and exposure to toxins, but also emerging problems, such as veterans who are incarcerated and don’t have access to health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

As America marks Veterans Day on Monday, Congress is sitting on two bills that veterans groups want prioritized in the lame-duck session before January: the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act and the Major Richard Star Act.

Both have been introduced in the House, which comes back into session this week after a long election recess.

The Elizabeth Dole act will greatly expand veterans' ability to access care for mental health, dentistry, community and nursing home care, as well as more educational, employment, disability and housing benefits.

The Richard Star bill will ensure veterans who have been severely injured and medically discharged can receive Defense Department retirement and VA compensation benefits. Currently, only veterans who served at least 20 years are eligible for both.

If those bills are not signed into law in the next two months, veterans groups say they are a must-pass in the 119th Congress.

Julia Mathis, a Marine veteran and the legislative director at the American Legion, said the Dole act is an important step toward addressing their No. 1 priority: reducing veteran suicide rates, which remain disproportionately higher than those of the average population.

“Improving the care that veterans are provided [and] ensuring that the sense of community care, belonging, all of that is important for our veterans,” she said. “A properly funded VA will ensure that their suicide-prevention programs are wide-reaching and effective.”

And Jose Ramos, vice president for government and community relations at the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), said the Richard Star bill is a priority for his organization.

“They're two distinct pays for two distinct reasons,” he said of Defense Department retirement pay and VA benefits. “I lost my arm in 2004 after six years of service. My goal was to serve 20 years of service ... and there's a lot of individuals like that. ... I think we're unjustly punishing these individuals.”

Ramos explained WWP is also focused on several other issues, including making more toxins and illnesses covered under the 2022 PACT Act, which expanded treatment for toxic exposures during military service.

Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), said some members of Congress have discussed cutting down the toxin exposure fund in the PACT Act, and she was concerned that a GOP-dominated Washington might take steps to slash it.

Camp Lejeune victims

Eric Flynn, a lawyer with Bell Legal Group, one of the primary firms working on Camp Lejeune litigation, is also looking to next year’s Congress.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 allowed service members exposed to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., from Aug. 1, 1953, to Dec. 31, 1987, to sue for damages.

But Flynn said the bill needs an update, pointing to new legislation that will tweak language to ensure a jury trial can move ahead for Camp Lejeune victims. The Department of Justice has prevented jury trials because the language is ambiguous on the matter.

The new bill, Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act, will also expand cases to cover all district courts in the 4th Circuit Court jurisdiction instead of just the one federal court in North Carolina in a bid to speed up cases.

Flynn said he is pushing for the bill to be passed in the lame-duck session but will continue to advocate for it in the next Congress if needed.

“A lot of this comes down to a sense of justice on the part of these men and women who have suffered so extraordinarily,” he said. “What people want is [to] have a jury hear their stories.”

So far, around 200 veterans have been compensated under a quick payment program, but more than 500,000 are awaiting relief.

Reproductive health care

Jaslow also said she was watching and waiting to see how Republicans would move on issues such as reproductive health care and gender-affirming care for service members.

Under President Biden, the VA created opportunities for abortion counseling and, in rare cases, abortion services for rape and incest victims or for those whose lives may be threatened by a pregnancy.

Republicans have attacked the VA measures as violating the Hyde amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funds from going toward abortion services.

A push for change is likely with President-elect Trump taking the White House in January and Republicans capturing the Senate and likely the House as well.

The GOP-controlled House passed an appropriations bill for military construction and veterans affairs this year that would ban abortions at the VA in most cases and would also block hormone therapy and surgery for transgender veterans at the department. The VA currently allows for hormone therapy for veterans and supports gender-affirming care, though it does not carry out those surgeries.

“One of the biggest things we're watching is like, what are we going to have to fight back against?” Jaslow said. “Everybody's taking stock right now of what the new landscape is going to be.”

Other priorities

IAVA is also supportive of efforts to expand alternative treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, including psychedelics, and repealing the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force (AUMF) against global terrorism and Iraq. The Senate passed AUMF repeals in 2023.

A new issue is also being brought to Congress: veterans who are incarcerated and can’t get the VA treatment they need to improve their lives.

Jim Seward, director of the Veterans Justice Commission, has been working on this issue for the past two years. His commission was created in 2022 by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice.

The VA had previously provided incarcerated veterans with care but stopped doing that in 1999 as a way to cut costs. The updated rule at the time specifically said veterans in the care of another government institution are no longer eligible for VA medical benefits.

Seward said veterans without adequate access to care are stuck in a dangerous feedback loop.

“We train our troops when they're in combat and they face violence, they respond with violence,” he said. “Many veterans say when they come home, they feel like they're expected to just turn off the switch, and they have no mission, and they kind of get lost in their head."

“They often cope with substances, and those co-occurring disorders can lead to their criminal justice involvement and then once inside, if they're not getting treated,” he added, “it's harder [to treat] post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Veteran representation

Veterans groups and advocates may have some luck when it comes to getting their priorities passed in the next Congress, as the incoming class will include at least 78 veterans in the House and 18 veterans in the Senate. Several more veterans are in races that have yet to be called, but those figures already mean former service members can see themselves well represented on Capitol Hill.

Seth Lynn, a founder of the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign, an organization that trains veterans running for office, told The Hill that as the numbers are, veterans account for nearly 20 percent of all members.

"It’s a really healthy number,” Lynn said. “It looks like we're going to have eight women veterans in Congress, which is the highest number ever.”