President of the United States (POTUS), Barack Obama, will be attending this year’s Disabled American Veterans convention in Atlanta to address his administration’s progress on veterans matters.
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He said it’s his final major address to veterans as president. He also highlighted five areas in which improvements need to continue: access to health care, more resources, access to claims, homelessness and veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce.
In 2014, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness with the goal of accelerating progress toward the ambitious national goal of ending veteran homelessness.
Obama says there are still too many suicides among veterans.
More than a half-million veterans have donated their health and genetic data to a research database that Obama said eventually will benefit not just former military members, but all Americans. He also expressed concern, shared by the White House, over a backlog of appeals but said that overall, veterans appreciate the support they have received from Obama.
Obama, speaking at the Disabled American Veterans convention in Atlanta, did not mention the missed goal but described veteran homelessness as a “tragedy, travesty”, and said his administration “will not stop” until all veterans have homes. “From the Asia-Pacific, to Africa, to the Americas, the United States and our armed forced will remain the greatest force for freedom and security and peace that the world has ever known”, Obama said. Since 2010, he’ll announce, the Obama administration has worked with state and local governments to cut veteran homelessness nearly in half.
Augustine said he’d like to see VA establish an approved network of private doctors who know how to treat veterans.
Republican Donald Trump has made an overhaul of the VA one of his signature campaign proposals, vowing to make the agency’s health care system more privatized.
He called on veterans to keep pressuring Congress to reform the “broken” claims appeals process. “I think that a lot of people that are doing a dishonest service to our veterans are going to lose their jobs”.
“The fact is, VA will never be fixed until we have a president who is dedicated to solving the department’s No. 1 problem – its widespread and pervasive lack of accountability”, Miller said in a statement. A staggering backlog of disability claims has been whittled from more than 600,000 three years ago to below 80,000, but some 450,000 appeals are pending. The White House said the situation was “unacceptable”. For veterans with post-traumatic stress, we made it easier to get the VA care you need – no matter what war you served in.
“We feel the president’s been very supportive during his administration and we appreciate that”, he said.
VA Secretary Bob McDonald, an Army veteran and former Procter & Gamble president and CEO who succeeded Shinseki, told The Associated Press in an interview that under Obama, funding for the department has increased 85 per cent.
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“Don’t just talk about standing with veterans, don’t just talk about me” the president said to GOP lawmakers.
