Confusion and Outrage: What the Government Shutdown Really Means for Veterans

kdvr.com

With the government on the brink of shutting down for who knows how long, America's veterans are trying to make sense of the conflicting and confusing information spewing from inside the Beltway. And the national media isn't helping much. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been sending out painfully mixed messages. Last week, the department announced that under its contingency plan, 95 percent of VA employees would be either fully funded or required to perform excepted functions during a government shutdown. 

VA stated that all payments to veterans would be made. No worries, right? No problem, right? Wrong. Later in the week, VA dropped its “all is well” façade like a hot potato and bluntly acknowledged that if a government shutdown occurs and lasts more than a few weeks, the agency will run out of money for compensation and pension checks to more than 3.6 million of our former warriors.

One would think that VA would post something prominently on its website homepage that helps explain this dire situation. But clicking on VA's home page right now, I see nothing. OK, there it is. I had to dig deep to find this VA guidance page, released Friday. 

The department's reversal on the government shutdown's impact on veterans came only after staff members of the House and Senate veterans affairs committees hounded VA suits for more information. It's a familiar scenario: getting VA to release vital information is like pulling teeth.

Meantime, some national media reports have been blurry and lazy. Some reporters got a copy of an internal VA memo that said a government shutdown could force as many as 62,000 VA employees to take temporary furloughs. And they ran with it. Trouble is, the memo was incorrect. VA officials now say that only about 14,000 employees would be sent home.

Significantly, though, more than half of these 14,000 workers - about 7,200 - will come from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which means the shutdown, if it lasts more than a few weeks, will have a profound impact on veterans who rely on this money to survive.

Benefits from VBA are provided through appropriated mandatory funding, and "that funding will run out by late October,” VA spokeswoman Victoria Dillon told CNN. “At that point, VA will be unable to make any payments.”

VA says medical care, prescriptions, and home loan processing will continue during a shutdown. The Veterans Crisis Line and insurance processing departments will also remain operational. 

But the Human Resources Center that helps veterans find jobs will be shuttered, and the Board of Veterans Appeals will not issue any motions. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) queries reportedly won't be processed, and internments at National Cemeteries will be "conducted at a modified rate," according to VA.

The VA will also suspend its Consumer Affairs, Inspector General and Whistleblower Reprisal hotlines.

There are bills floating around Congress right now that would fund VA under a shutdown, including one that is awaiting a floor vote in the House and a committee vote in the Senate. We'll see if these bills advance. 

Meanwhile, as this political mess unfolds, veterans across the country watch and wait. And some pols grow increasingly frustrated. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., told reporters on Friday, "The idea that a veteran should have to wait for his disability check, because some Washington politician is acting like a third-grader and engaged in an ideological stunt, is really insulting."