With 2023 coming to an end, we want to take some time to thank you for your amazing work and to highlight all that advocates have accomplished. Although it was a slow year in terms of passage of legislation on our priorities, we did see significant movement on several key PVA priorities, including improving access to air travel for passengers with disabilities, increasing home and community-based services for disabled veterans, and helping the surviving spouses of veterans with ALS.
Year in Review
In January 2023, we published our legislative priorities for the year. A couple of months later, PVA members arrived in DC for our Hill advocacy event and PVA’s National President’s testimony on Capitol Hill to talk about our top priorities. We had a great turnout with over 70 PVA representatives from 32 chapters coming from across the nation to speak with their Representatives and Senators about issues of concern to our community.
Throughout the year, we had 16 new campaigns on congressional bills important to PVA. We had a total of 1,946 actions sent out to Congress this year alone. Each action equals as many as three messages to members of Congress. Our campaign with the most messages for 2023 came as no surprise with the FAA Reauthorization/Air Carrier Access Amendments Act with 2,233 messages sent. Following the FAA Reauthorization is the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act, with nearly 900 messages. Close behind, we had our Justice for ALS Act campaign with over 650 messages. Almost every state in the country reached out to Congress this year.
Starting in April 2023, PVA started pushing out our advocacy webinar series to help advocates learn the basics of advocating to Congress. We started out going over the basics with “The Fundamentals of Government” and followed with the "Legislative Process". Then, we went into more detail covering the "Stakeholders of Advocacy" and who that entails. We then went a step further by looking into "Understanding the Issues and Becoming a Change Agent", learning from a prior congressional staffer and seasoned advocate. Finally, we rounded everything out by "Connecting the Dots" with closing advice from our CEO, Carl Blake. It’s not too late for you to jump into the action and learn about advocacy. Anyone who completes all five webinars will receive a certificate from our Government Relations team. You can view a list of all of our webinars here along with the accompanying PowerPoints and resources.
On July 26, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the long-awaited rule on accessible lavatories on larger single-aisle aircraft. The release of the final rule represents decades of advocacy by PVA and other disability organizations to require a wheelchair-accessible lavatory on single-aisle aircraft. Twin-aisle aircraft are already required to have such a lavatory. It will still be a while before we start to see a significant number of accessible lavatories on single-aisle aircraft, but we finally have dates mandating access in the future.
New Action Needed
Did you know that many catastrophically disabled veterans still experience disability-related barriers when it comes to accessing the care and benefits they have earned?
The Veterans Accessibility Act (S. 2516) aims to address disability access concerns across the VA. This bill would authorize an Advisory Committee to focus on improving the accessibility of VA's infrastructure, websites, and benefits and services. The committee would also review accessibility barriers to care in the community. The bill would also allow the committee to review the acquisition process to ensure it results in VA having products, services, and equipment that meet accessibility requirements.
Finish 2023 with action for Paralyzed Veterans and reach out to your members of Congress to let them know that fair access to the VA is a right all veterans have earned.
Reach out to your legislators on the Veterans Accessibility Act
