February 16, 2023

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Breaking News

Vets Groups Push For Another Hefty Increase To VA's Budget Next Year

These Projects Won $3 Million From The VA For Suicide Prevention

DoD Pulls Back Tricare Contract In West Region For 'Corrective Action'

AFSA on the Hill

Shortly Approaching Expiration: AFSA 2023 Total Force Survey!

The Total Force 2023 survey will expire soon on the HQAFSA.org website, just in case you missed it or haven't caught up. Please take the time to complete the survey so that our Military and Government Relations Team can best assist you. The survey this year is thorough and covers a variety of vital subjects for our members, such as an Active Component, Reserve Component, and more! Have any inquiries? Contact our M&G team by sending an email to milgov3@hqafsa.org.

To complete the survey, please visit https://www.hqafsa.org/takeaction.html

VA And NFFE Reach Key Agreements To Better Serve Vets And Support VA Employees

By: VA Public Affairs | VA.Gov

This month, VA reached three key agreements with the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) that will help VA better serve Veterans and support VA’s employees. Specifically, VA and NFFE agreed to memorandums of understanding that will:

Significantly expedite the hiring process for NFFE’s bargaining unit employees, which will help VA implement The PACT Act and deliver toxic exposure-related care and benefits to millions of Veterans;
Allow NFFE’s bargaining unit employees to use an additional 160 hours of unpaid leave related to the birth of a child, adoption, or foster care;
Allow the President of NFFE to delegate official time, which will help NFFE grow and develop future leaders and successors.

These new agreements are part of VA’s broader efforts to support bargaining unit employees and execute President Biden’s Executive Order on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. More than 9,000 of VA’s public servants are represented by NFFE, including VA nurses, medical officers, pharmacists, and social workers.

“These new agreements provide critical support for VA’s public servants – which, in turn, helps us better serve our nation’s Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “A unionized VA workforce is a strong VA workforce, and we at VA are proud to work with NFFE to continue delivering for Vets.”

More than 79% of all VA public servants are bargaining unit employees, and VA is committed to supporting them as they serve our nation’s Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.

Over the past two years, VA has taken several key steps to support these employees, including 1) reestablishing the National Partnership Council, a forum for open communication between labor leaders and VA leadership; 2) restoring official time for Doctors, Nurses, Physician Assistants, and other Title 38 employees, meaning that these employees can use work hours to conduct union business and advocate on behalf of their coworkers; 3) reestablishing yearly and Semi-Annual Labor Management meetings with VA union partners; and 4) including the unions in the decision-making process for critical employee-centric decisions, such as the creation of the VHA REBOOT Task Force to address employee burnout.

Legislative Action Center

Introduced By The 118th Congress

Several historic events occurred on Tuesday, the first day the 118th Congress met. Despite being a long list, these legislation addresses a larger variety of public policy objectives that fall under the purview of the seven main emphasis groups of our legislative platform. The bills are currently being introduced, and AFSA is striving to provide more details on the following:

H.R.254 – To amend title 10 United States Code, to improve the administration of the TRICARE program in Puerto Rico, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon [R-PR-At Large]
Committees – House Armed Services

H.R.236 – To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to designate a week as “Battle Buddy Check Week” for the purpose of outreach and education concerning peer wellness checks for veterans, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sheila Lee Jackson [D-TX-18]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.234 – To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide a burial allowance for certain veterans who die at home while in receipt of hospice care furnished by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sponsor: Jack Bergman [R-MI-1]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.228 – To amend title 10, United States Code, to include a single comprehensive disability examination as part of the required Department of Defense physical examination for separating members of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Robert J. Wittman [R-VA-1]
Committees – House Armed Services, House Veterans Affairs

H.R.226 – To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program to promote and encourage collaboration between the Department of Veterans Affairs and nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher learning that provide administrative assistance to veterans.
Sponsor: Robert J. Wittman [R-VA-1]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.221 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand eligibility for participation in the Federal Pell Grant program to certain trade schools.
Sponsor: Robert J. Wittman [R-VA-1]
Committees – Education and Labor

H.R.214 – To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide eligibility for TRICARE selected for veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Gregory W. Steube [R-FL-17]
Committees – House Armed Services, House Veterans Affairs

H.R.196 – To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modify the information technology systems of the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide for the automatic processing of claims for certain temporary disability ratings, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Matthew M. Rosendale Sr. [R-MT-2]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.129 – To require the Secretary of Defense to ensure drop boxes are maintained on military installations for the deposit of unused prescription drugs, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Vern Buchanan [R-FL-16]
Committees – House Armed Services

H.R.105 – To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to furnish Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to veterans with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sponsor: Andy Biggs [R-AZ-5]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.104 – To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to formally recognize caregivers of veterans, notify veterans and caregivers of clinical determinations relating to eligibility for caregiver programs, temporarily extend benefits for veterans who are determined ineligible for the family caregiver program, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Andy Biggs [R-AZ-5]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

H.R.41 – To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure the timely scheduling of appointments for health care at medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: James R. Baird [R-IN-4]
Committees – House Veterans Affairs

If you have any additional questions on this specific issue, please e-mail our Military and Government Relations team at milgov3@hqafsa.org.

AFSA Membership Information

Have You Read The Latest AFSA Magazine?

This edition features Port Mortuary and America’s Missing Heroes, Living with Bipolar Disorder in the Military, Fly-By Wire Defense and AFSA’s American Award Recipient – Don Ward. Read, download, print and share: https://www.hqafsa.org/fallmagazine.html

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And that's the way it is...

In sum, on Monday, representatives from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, and Paralyzed Veterans of America presented their annual Independent Budget, which calls for $161 billion in discretionary funding for VA operations in the upcoming fiscal year.

If Congress approves the proposal, the department's budget will increase for the fourth consecutive year by more than 10%, making it one of the few organizations that consistently receives greater funding from lawmakers each year, regardless of which party controls the majority.

In addition, The Black Box Project of Stop Soldier Suicide and Project Hózhó of Televeda will each get $3 million from the VA's Mission Daybreak initiative to continue their development. Five third-place projects will receive $500,000 apiece, and three other projects took home the second-place prize of $1 million. The VA started Mission Daybreak last year in an effort to find novel solutions to the suicide epidemic, which, despite a recent drop, still claims the lives of about 17 veterans on average every day.

In the competition, more than 1,300 applications competed for a share of $20 million in funding. This was reduced to 30 finalists in September, who then demonstrated their work to judges, VA representatives, members of the press, and other attendees at a "Demo Day" in November.

In an effort to establish behavioral patterns that artificial intelligence could use to identify other warriors in danger of suicide, Stop Soldier Suicide's Black Box Project has been searching through the mobile phones, computers, tablets, and other electronic devices of veterans who have died by suicide. According to Chris Ford, the organization's CEO, the initiative has already discovered "significant changes" in sleep habits and "a strong rise in rage" in conversations prior to the veterans' deaths.

And lastly, it was unclear at the time if this would alter the timeframe for the most recent Tricare contracts or whether it would also affect the new contract for the East Area. Those two new contracts might be worth a total of $136 billion over a period of nine years when combined. The Tricare health care program, which provides coverage for service members, retirees, and their families, has around 9.4 million enrollees.

The Tricare contract for the West Region, which was given to the Phoenix-based TriWest Healthcare Alliance Inc. in December, could be worth more than $65.1 billion over a nine-year period. The current Tricare administrator for the West Region, Health Net Federal Services LLC, protested to the Government Accountability Office on January 17 after losing its bid to carry on managing Tricare in that area.

According to Kenneth Patton, managing associate general counsel for procurement law at the GAO, on February 9 the GAO rejected the Health Net protest "because the Department of Defense opted to take remedial action to resolve problems in the acquisition."

And that's the way it is for Thursday, February 16, 2023.

Stay tuned for our next M&G-B, where we will continue to keep you in the loop on all things pertinent to the coronavirus, veterans, active-duty members, guards and reservists, and military family members. Stay happy, and stay healthy!