Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 11.17.09
Posted by Terrell Frazier on November 10

 Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom.

MUST READS

1) Bills would add job help to Post-9/11 GI Bill

Key elements of the Post-9/11 GI Bill could be modified by Congress to create benefits to help veterans find jobs. The monthly living stipend, tied to local housing costs, makes attending college more affordable for people using the new education benefits program. A veterans’ bill passed by the House of Representatives on Nov. 2 and a bill introduced in the Senate try to use the same idea for job training. The House-passed veterans’ training bill, HR 1168, would pay a living stipend for up to six months to veterans taking part in a Labor Department retraining program that is aimed at veterans who have been unemployed for four months or longer. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., the chief sponsor of what is being called the Veterans Retraining Act of 2009, said living stipends would range from $275 to $2,800 a month and would be based, like GI Bill living stipends, on the military’s basic allowance for housing for an E-5 without dependents. Boozman’s bill also includes $5,000 for moving expenses, if needed, for veterans who complete the training and get a new job. Three senators, Democrats Patty Murray of Washington and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican Mike Johanns of Nebraska, introduced a bill that would add job training and apprenticeships to the types of education covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

2) Obama: Terror Networks Are Greatest Threat to U.S.

President Barack Obama told Chinese students on Monday that the greatest threat to the United States' security is terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda. On his first presidential trip to Asia, Obama is nearing a decision on whether to send up to 40,000 more troops at the request of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to fight the war in Afghanistan. Obama, taking questions from students in Shanghai, said Al Qaeda has crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan and is in contact with other organizations. He said the U.S. must stabilize that part of the world and reduce the power of extremist networks.

 3) Skills Honed to Cut Afghan Civilian Deaths

Infantry headed for Afghanistan are honing their precision with powerful weapons like mortars in a key element of the American military’s new mandate to reduce civilian deaths. The training teaches platoon leaders how to move soldiers around a battlefield while using air support and heavy artillery — in the hopes of reducing the threat to civilian populations. The Taliban and the insurgent fighters in Afghanistan “hug the population because they understand the side effects,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Vincent of 1st Battalion, 32nd Cavalry Regiment. “They know by doing that they put the civilian population at risk.” The number of NATO troop deaths in Afghanistan has reached an all-time high this year, raising questions about whether the emphasis placed on restraint is risking the lives of troops. When the current commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, issued the directive earlier this year, he acknowledged it “entails risk to our troops.” But alienating the Afghan population is a far greater risk, he said.

AFGHANISTAN

Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market northeast of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan was holding a meeting with tribal elders. The attack killed 12 Afghan civilians and wounded at least another 38, the French military said. Lt. Col. Lionel, who witnessed the attack in the town of Tagab in Kapisa province and said the target had been the meeting, known as a shura, where Brig. Gen. Marcel Druart was discussing with tribal elders a major French offensive in the Tagab Valley the previous day. No troops were reported hurt or killed in the attack.

Afghan officials have announced the launch of a force to fight corruption, amid increasing Western pressure for the government to tackle the problem. The unit will work with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the UK's Scotland Yard, and EU police trainers, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said. The move came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an Afghan "anti-corruption commission.”

IRAQ

Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms abducted and killed at least 13 people in a village west of Baghdad, in what some described as revenge against Sunnis who helped fight al-Qaida, Iraqi officials said Monday. The exact motive for the attack was unclear, but it could be a case of insurgents killing locals allied to the central government or an internal struggle among the region's fractious tribes ahead January's elections.

The United Nations is outlining a Kuwait-Iraq reconciliation plan to help Iraq end its dispute with neighboring Kuwait over war reparations, 19 years after Baghdad invaded the oil-producing Gulf state, a U.N. official said on Monday. Baghdad wants the U.N. Security Council to reduce its reparation payments to Kuwait, which it ordered Iraq to pay after the 1991 Gulf war ended Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait. Iraq says the reparations -- more than $20 billion -- are unfair and wants the amount reduced so it has more money for reconstruction and development. It has called for annulling Security Council decisions requiring the payments under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter.

Iraq’s Anbar province holds its breath as the U.S. draws down. In recent weeks suicide bomber attacks have intensified in Anbar and there have also been dozens of attacks on checkpoints and, in the last two months, nearly daily attacks on police across the province as well as assassinations of influential tribal leaders and destruction of vital infrastructure. “In the last few months you have had an attempt by A.Q.I. to regain a foothold here,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, using the military’s term for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely homegrown Sunni militant group thought to have foreign support.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Major Nidal Malik Hasan's military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open criminal prosecutions of soldiers he claimed had confessed to "war crimes" during psychiatric counseling, according to investigative reports circulated among federal law enforcement officials.  His supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry, Captain Naomi Surman, told investigators that Hasan raised similar issues with her in conversations in October, according to documents reviewed by ABC News. Captain Surman told investigators that Hasan had formally contacted military prosecutors to report patients he was evaluating, according to people briefed on the exchange. Legal analysts say psychiatrists are strictly bound by the rules of patient confidentiality except in cases where they might become aware of crimes about to be committed.

The Air Force announced plans on Monday to cut 3,700 airmen, saying the mix of a poor economy and good retention has swelled its ranks beyond manageability. The service will cut 2,074 officers and 1,633 enlisted airmen through “voluntary and involuntary early separation and retirement programs,” an Air Force news release said. The reduction process to last into the next fiscal year, according to the release.

Modern Healthcare reports, "Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has pledged to issue an implementation plan by January for several recommendations contained in a new report on the affiliation between the VA" and US "medical schools, including a recommendation to create a federally chartered, standing committee to help ensure that these affiliations realize their full potential." The report, "issued by the 'Blue Ribbon Panel on VA-Medical School Affiliations,'" which was formed in 2006, "urged the creation of a permanent committee tasked 'with developing mechanisms whereby VA-academic medical center partners could form local or regional strategic alliances and/or joint ventures.'"

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Rep. Walt Minnick says he intends to introduce a bill this week in the U.S. House that would require the government to reimburse veterans for health care related travel costs. The Idaho Democrat says veterans should be allowed to live anywhere and not be penalized in the pocketbook if they live hundreds of miles from a VA hospital or clinic. Minnick's legislation would mandate travel cost reimbursement to veterans traveling more than 150 miles.

CQ reports, "The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on final passage of the fiscal 2010 Military Construction-VA spending bill after votes on several contentious amendments, including one to bar funds to construct facilities to hold Guantánamo Bay detainees."

The Senate Armed Services Committee postponed its Monday briefing on the deadly Fort Hood massacre at the behest of the White House, despite calls from some lawmakers to press forward with a congressional investigation into the shooting rampage that killed 13 and wounded 29. An aide to committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Fox News that the meeting is delayed "at the request of the administration." Army Secretary John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen George Casey were to have briefed committee members privately on the shooting.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m.

SENATE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

Following Morning Business, the Senate will resume consideration of HR3082, Military Construction/ VA Appropriations. We expect up to 3 roll call votes in relation to amendments to begin around 11:15am, depending on how much Leader time is used.

The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15pm to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

At 2:15pm, the Senate will proceed to vote in relation to the Inhofe amendment #2774 (Guantanamo) to be followed by a vote on passage of HR3082, as amended.

COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

No issues today

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

No issues

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES



 The House will convene at 10:30 a.m.

HOUSE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

H.Res. 891 - Expressing the gratitude of the House of Representatives for the service to our Nation of the Coast Guard and Marine Corps aircraft pilots and crewmembers lost off the coast of California on October 29, 2009 (Rep. Loretta Sanchez - Transportation and Infrastructure)

HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



No issues today

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



November 19, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health Hearing:  Review of VA Contract Health Care: Project HERO  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon

November 19, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Hearing:  Adaptive Housing Grants  1:00 p.m.; 334 Cannon

December 2, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing:  VA Health Care Funding: Appropriations to Programs  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB

December 3, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Roundtable  1:00 p.m.; 334 Cannon HOB

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA

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