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Congress may abandon vets’ legislation

Congress appears to be on the verge of abandoning major veterans’ issues in a rush to leave town to run for re-election, charges the legislative director of one of the nation’s largest veterans’ organizations.

Joseph Violante, legislative chief for 1.3-million-member Disabled American Veterans, said partisan disagreements kept Congress from passing major veterans’ health and benefits bills last year, and the situation appears to be repeating this year.

With congressional leaders talking about wrapping up the legislative session by Sept. 26 and not returning to work until January, Violante said he wished he had more confidence important legislation would pass.

“They keep saying they are working on something, but time is running out, and all we see are problems,” Violante said Tuesday in an interview. “They cannot seem to do much of anything these days.”

Veterans’ benefits legislation is tied up over a dispute about whether to increase pensions to Filipino Scouts and other World War II veterans, Violante said, while health care legislation is bogged down, in part, over gun-ownership restrictions for veterans diagnosed with or being treated for mental health issues.

“Congress seems to be good at finding problems,” Violante said. “I wish they were as good at fixing them.”

Congress has passed a veterans’ cost-of-living adjustment bill and a major improvement in GI Bill education benefits, but it has failed to pass legislation to improve mental health programs, expand health care for women veterans, improve diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries, and help families who are caring for severely disabled veterans, he said.

Delay on veterans’ legislation is never a good thing, Violante said, but work on the bills is even more important with tens of thousands of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are at war and making additional disabled veterans every day,” he said.

Aides on the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees said lawmakers are trying to work out a compromise on a large pile of bills, but they would not predict when or even if agreement could be reached.