From Military.com:
“Biden
Signs Wide-Ranging Veterans Bill that Includes Improvements to Veteran
Caregiver, Homelessness Programs”
More support
for home caregivers of aging and disabled veterans and bolstered services for
homeless veterans are now law after President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging
veterans bill. Biden signed the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans
Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act into law on Thursday evening, the White
House said in a news release. The bill was the most comprehensive piece of
veterans legislation approved by Congress in its 2023-24 session and combined
several smaller measures on caregiver programs, homelessness, community care,
job training, education benefits and more into one package. "The men and
women who have served have earned access to a VA that puts them -- not
government bureaucracy -- at the center of its operations," House Veterans
Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., said in a statement after Biden
signed the bill. "From expanding job training opportunities for
transitioning service members and veterans, to improving mental health care for
caregivers, to protecting veterans' health care options for day-to-day services
to more elderly care options, and much more in between -- I know this
legislation will make a difference for veterans and their families."
The marquee
provision in the bill, which is named after former senator and veterans
caregiver advocate Elizebeth Dole, aims to make home nursing care more
affordable for veterans by increasing the Department of Veterans Affairs' share
of covering the costs of the care from 65% to 100%. That change is one of
several in the bill related to caregivers programs that were long pushed by
advocates who say that veterans should be able to live out their final days at
home if they choose. Another key change in the bill is a new grant program for
mental health care for veteran caregivers.
While the
final bill received widespread bipartisan support, the legislation got bogged
down in politics over the summer amid a partisan fight over the future of the
VA's community care program, which allows veterans to see non-VA doctors using
VA funding. Ultimately, negotiations stripped the bill of one controversial
community care provision but left another in. The provision that is now law
bans VA administrators from overriding a VA doctor's referral for their patient
to get outside care.
On veteran
homelessness, the bill will increase the per diem rate the VA can pay to
organizations providing short-term transitional housing from 115% of costs to
133%. It will also give the VA flexibility to provide unhoused veterans with
bedding, shelter, food, hygiene items, blankets and rideshare services to
medical appointments.
Other changes
in the bill include extending a high-tech job training program for veterans
through 2027; allowing GI Bill beneficiaries to continue getting a housing
allowance even if they are only part-time students in their final semester; and
requiring the VA to reimburse ambulance costs for some rural veterans. The bill
was sent to Biden's desk after a 382-12 vote in the House on Dec. 16. It was
the second time the House approved the bill after the Senate approved a version
of the legislation that fixed some drafting errors.
^ This is much
needed. ^
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