Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 8.12.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on August 12 2010

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 or subscribe at www.IAVA.org/DailyNewsBrief.

MUST READS

1) VA care for women too restrictive, group says
 
The creation of health clinics specifically for female veterans at Veterans Affairs Department hospitals may be having the unintended effect of limiting women's access to routine medical care.  Women may have a harder time than men being seen by their primary care physicians because of a policy that restricts women to being seen only when those physicians rotate through the women's health clinics.
 
2) Bean inspires Senate bill for vets' services
 
Members of both the House and Senate have now proposed legislation in hopes of reducing the numbers of suicides among returning veterans. Two initiatives would improve mental health support services for all veterans, as well as provide suicide prevention outreach.
 
3) VA adopts standard identifier for vets in health and benefits programs
 
The Veterans Affairs Department has adopted a standard identifier for all veterans to use in all its systems, including one to build electronic health records that will follow them from enlistment to death.  The identifier will apply to the department's entire universe of beneficiaries and will support data exchange for a joint project with the Defense Department.
 
AFGHANISTAN

• American military officials are building a case to minimize the planned withdrawal of some troops from Afghanistan starting next summer, in an effort to counter growing pressure on President Obama from inside his own party to begin winding the war down quickly.
• The UN report that concluded that insurgents have killed more civilians than NATO forces have has been drawing strong protest throughout Afghanistan.

IRAQ

• President Barack Obama convened his national security team Wednesday to discuss the situation in Iraq, with just three weeks to go before the official end of the US combat mission there.
• A US Army Captain in Iraq discussed the proper way for the US to move forward in Iraq without a military presence and with professional civilians helping to rebuild the country.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Marine Corps General James Mattis officially assumed control of U.S. Central Command at a ceremony on Wednesday.
• More than a third of the 1,200 National Guard troops being sent to the Southwest border are either at the border or in training to go there soon.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Three Virginia congressmen wrote to Defense Department Secretary Robert Gates regarding the Base Realignment and Closure Act and its expected impact on transportation in Northern Virginia.

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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