Please put this out, we need everyone to call their Senator before Wednesday and urge them to vote NO on SB 250 (Appropriations for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs). Senator Valde Garcia, Sen. Alan Cropsey and Senator Jim Barcia are the Senators who approved this as they serve on the Appropriations Committee for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. We ask that you call your Senator and ask them to defeat this bill.
I HAVE ATTACHED A COPY OF THIS BILL. THE PART THAT DIRECTLY AFFECTS US IS SEC 707 BEGINNING ON PAGE 19
This bill would permit the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to create an office of Veterans Affairs using 50% of the VSO Budget for the second half of FY-2009-2010 that is currently given to the 11 VSO’s. It would permit them to hire individuals to do veteran counseling and allow them to work with counties to provide at least one trained Service Officer to write claims. The bill does not state who the individuals but it could possibly open this up to law students, law firms, etc. who today know nothing about the work we perform. One thing for sure is that it would be a move to eliminate the VSO’s from service work and close our offices down by pulling our funding.
Currently the 11 VSO’s go into over 85% of the County Offices today doing the same thing, writing claims and advising veterans and their dependents. There are only about 7 counties with full time County Service Officers. VSO Service Officers visit the remainder of the 83 Counties in the State. A Majority of the County Offices do not want to do claims work as they are busy with other duties and are against this. However, the few officers of their association are trying to force this issue. DON’T LET THEM DO IT !!
This change was inserted into what we call the boilerplate language of the Senate Bill. It was done behind the backs of the VSO Directors and was only done to create a few positions for some folks who otherwise would be out of a job in the next few years. The 11 VSO’s have been operating successfully the current way since the 1920’s. We are very successful at what we do and are required by the VA to train annually to maintain our accreditation. The 11 VSO’s receive an annual grant of just over 4 million per year which is divided between all of the organizations. Your Marine Corps League VSO receives $346,000 per year to operate our office. Last year all organizations in their annual report to the state reported recoveries (Money back to Veterans and their dependents from the Federal Government) $331,305,715.00 or $85.00 for every $1.00 given to us by the state.
This move is nothing more than a power play by a few individuals to establish themselves in a job securing their future, We ask that all Marine Corps League Detachment, Auxiliaries and Devil Dogs as well as Young Marine Units telephone their Senator and defeat the passage of this bill.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND ASK HIM TO VOTE AGAINST THE PASSAGE OF SENATE BILL 250 (S-1)
Thanks for your support,
Semper Fi
Jim Tuohy, Director
Marine Corps League
Veterans Service Office