Alert for Chicago Area Veterans: You Can Question VA Chief About VA Disability Benefits
Illinois veterans will have a chance to quiz Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson about the agency’s disability pay disparity on Friday at an open town hall meeting in Chicago.
Unlike previous visits to Illinois in which veterans were hand-picked by their organizations to attend Nicholson’s functions, the town hall meeting at Wilbur Wright Community College, 4300 N. Narragansett, will be open to all Illinois veterans and their family members.
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, starting at 1:30 p.m. The session is scheduled from 2:45 to 4 p.m. The first 250 people will be seated in the atrium with Nicholson. Others will be seated in overflow rooms with live video feeds. All will have an opportunity to submit questions to the secretary.
Hosted by Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both of Illinois, the meeting is intended to address the disability pay disparity first revealed by the Chicago Sun-Times last December.
Wounded veterans from Illinois have received among the lowest disability pay in the nation for the past 70 years.
Nicholson agreed to address Illinois veterans about the disparity in January before he was confirmed to his post in February. This will be his third visit to Illinois but the first time he has met with a large group of veterans in Chicago.
