VCS in the News: Committee Approves HR 952 – Bill to Streamline PTSD Claims

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VCS in the News: Committee Approves HR 952 – Bill to Streamline PTSD Claims

Written by Rick Maze

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 14:45

June 22, 2009 - A House Committee a bill making it easier for women and support troops in combat theaters to be approved for service-connected disabilities, but the measure may go nowhere.

The problem facing HR 952, a bill that clarifies the definition of combat to make it easier to prove a physical and mental condition is service-connected is the $4.8 billion cost estimate put on it by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

While the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved June 10 by voice vote, it will not be taken up by the full House until supporters come up with a way to pay for it.

Representative John Hall (D-NY), chief sponsor of the bill that he calls the “Compensation Owed For Mission Based Activities in Theater” Act – the COMBAT Act – said that he is committed to finding the money and believes he can make a case that providing disability and health benefits to people who served in a combat theater is a war-related cost that the government must cover.

Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense said that nearly $5 billion price tag seems too high considering that most claims that would be processed under the relaxed rules for combat “are going to be paid anyway. This [bill] just has them paid a little faster.”

Sullivan he thinks in the end that the money will be provided. “Americans are going to pay for this,” he said.

Some lawmakers, however, wouldn’t mind were derailed, including Republicans Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) before it passed.

Rep. Lamborn said he fears that relaxing rules for people who don’t fit the traditional definition of combat veteran would result in cutting benefits for other veterans who did see combat.

Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), the Committee Chairman, says that is untrue. “It is not required that we reduce the benefits of other veterans,” Filner said.

Rep. Stearns raised a more fundamental issue, saying that easing the rules for receiving benefits is a disservice who people who saw direct combat. “I think we need to be careful out of respect to veterans who were actually in combat,” he said.

He cited one example of potential unfairness: a supply clerk suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome would end up getting the same preferential treatment as a combat veteran with a bullet wound.

Army Times