I received this today:
I thought you would be interested in knowing about yesterday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, which I chaired, to review the actions taken over the last year to improve the care, management and transition of our wounded service members.
Our nation has a moral obligation to provide quality health care to the men and women who put on our nation’s uniform and are injured and wounded fighting our nation’s wars. On February 18, 2007, the headlines of the Washington Post read: “Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army’s Top Medical Facility.” This series of articles served as a wakeup call regarding the care and treatment of our wounded warriors. They described deplorable living conditions for service members living in an outpatient status at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a bungled, bureaucratic process for assigning disability ratings and a clumsy handoff from the Department of Defense to the Department of Veterans Affairs as these injured soldiers tried to move on with their lives. We also learned that these problems were not limited to the Army or to Walter Reed. A lot has been accomplished in the wake of these articles, but much more needs to be done.
On March 6, 2007, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing to address the shortfalls in the care of our wounded warriors. At that hearing, we concluded that it would require the coordinated efforts of the Senate Veteran’s Affairs and the Senate Armed Services Committees to address the issues in a comprehensive manner. This led to a rare joint hearing of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Veterans Affairs on April 12th. The Committees continued to work together to pass the “Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act” on July 25, 2007. This comprehensive, bi-partisan legislation to address the care and management of our wounded warriors passed by the Senate expeditiously. This Act, enhanced by some provisions from the House-passed Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, was recently enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.
The Wounded Warrior Act represents a major reform of the system. It advances the care, management and transition of recovering service members, enhances health care and benefits for families, and begins the process of fundamental reform of the disability evaluation systems of the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. It requires the DOD to use the VA’s standards for rating disabilities and the VA’s presumption of sound condition in determining whether a disability is service-connected. Additionally, it increases disability severance pay for certain service members, requires the DOD and the VA to jointly develop a comprehensive policy on improvements to care and management of recovering service members, establishes Centers of Excellence for traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic eye injuries. It also authorizes respite care for seriously injured service members.
The Wounded Warrior Act addresses nearly all of the findings of the various commissions that have examined the issues regarding the care and treatment of our wounded warriors. The most significant exception is the recommendation of the Dole/Shalala Commission to restructure the VA Disability Compensation System. This falls primarily under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees, both of which are examining it. The Department of Veterans Affairs has recently awarded a contract to develop information regarding changes in the composition of disability payments as recommended by the Dole-Shalala Commission. Working together in an approach consistent with the Wounded Warrior Act, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have established a high-level Senior Oversight Committee, co-chaired by the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to oversee the analysis of and changes to the DOD and VA systems to improve the care and treatment of our injured and ill service members.
The American people were rightly deeply angered by the shortfalls in care for our wounded warriors. Americans may disagree about the war in Iraq, but the cause of supporting our troops unites us all. We will continue to work toward improving the care our service members receive, so that these benefits accurately reflect their honorable service.
Sincerely,
Carl Levin