IAVA Daily Brief 11.04.09

 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 [1].

MUST READS

1) VA Secretary Vows to Fight Veteran Homelessness, $3.2 billion to fix problem [2]

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Tuesday unveiled a plan to end veterans' homelessness in five years, saying that without action the improvements of recent years could be lost because of the bad economy. Shinseki said the VA will spend $3.2 billion next year to reduce homelessness among veterans and is working to strengthen partnerships with other government agencies and service organizations. He said he recognizes that a goal of zero homeless veterans is ambitious but that he wants a high target so that everyone puts in their best efforts. Government officials and homeless experts worry that the number of homeless veterans could climb another 10 to 15 percent in the economic downturn. "The economy's hitting our people very hard. Unemployment rates are over 12 percent now," IAVA Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff told the Washington Post [3]. "Mortgage foreclosure rates around military bases is four times the average. And it's hard to keep a job if you're getting deployed every 12 months if you're a national guardsman."

2) GAO Sees Challenges in Iraq Withdrawal [4]

The ongoing withdrawal of U.S. troops and equipment from Iraq is on or ahead of schedule but faces six “crucial challenges” that must be overcome in order to meet agreed-upon timelines, the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a new report. The report finds that the Pentagon has made “significant progress” in implementing its drawdown plans but that a large amount of personnel, equipment and bases remain to be drawn down or closed to meet two deadlines: the Aug. 31, 2010, presidential deadline for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces, and the agreed-upon Dec. 31, 2011, deadline for complete U.S. withdrawal.

3) Coburn Named as Senator Holding up Vets Bill [5]

Thirteen major military and veterans groups, including IAVA, have joined forces to try to force one senator — Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill. Coburn has been identified by Senate aides as the lawmaker preventing consideration of S 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009, by using an informal but legal practice of putting a hold on a bill. Coburn’s staff did not respond to questions, but Senate aides said the first-term senator has expressed concern about creating new and unfunded benefits and wants the opportunity to amend the measure.

4) Analysis: Afghanistan More Lethal for U.S. Troops than Iraq [6]

Afghanistan has always been a dangerous place to serve, even before the recent surge in lethal attacks on American forces, as demonstrated by a Huffington Post analysis of the ratio of troop deaths in both wars. To calculate our ratio, Huffington Post took the number of soldier fatalities in a month divided by the boots-on-the-ground troop levels for that month and multiplied by 100,000. The charts demonstrate the stark reversal that has taken place in both countries over the last three years. In August 2009, a soldier in Afghanistan was more than 16 times as likely to get killed as a soldier in Iraq. So far this year, 242 soldiers have died in Afghanistan compared to 128 in Iraq though there are just over half as many troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN

In a New York Times news analysis [7], with the White House’s reluctant embrace on Sunday of Hamid Karzai as the winner of Afghanistan’s suddenly moot presidential runoff, President Obama now faces a new complication: enabling a badly tarnished partner to regain enough legitimacy to help the United States find the way out of an eight-year-old war. Now, administration officials argue that Mr. Karzai will have to regain that legitimacy by changing the way he governs, at a moment when he is politically weaker than at any time since 2001.

On the record, government sources say that there are no underage soldiers or officers in the Afghanistan National Police and Afghanistan National Army. But speaking anonymously, many admit that in fact there are soldiers [8] and police officers under the age of 18 serving in both security forces.  In interviews, these teen soldiers say that they need jobs to provide for their families and the police or army are more than happy to hire them, even providing the teens with fake National Identity Cards (NIC). In a matter of weeks, Afghanistan's boys can go from high school students, to uniformed soldiers.

President Barack Obama will not travel to Afghanistan [9] prior to making his decision about whether to deploy more troops there, the White House revealed Tuesday. Nevertheless, the president is likely to announce that decision in some form of speech to the American people, press secretary Robert Gibbs added during Tuesday's press briefing, though he did not reveal whether that meant the president planned to address the country or a joint session of Congress in prime time.

IRAQ

Iraqi politicians are dueling with new hostility [10] over the fate of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city that both self-ruled Kurds in the north and Iraq's central government want to control. The dispute has caused a deadlock over an election law, threatening to delay Iraq's nationwide elections set for mid-January. Any vote setback could, in turn, disrupt American plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, scheduled to ramp up after the vote. The head of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission [11] warned that Thursday is the deadline for parliament to adopt an electoral law if January's general election is to be held on time.

KBR, the largest contractor in Iraq, is pulling out of that country so slowly [12] that it could end up costing American taxpayers $193 million more than expected, according to a new Pentagon audit. Furthermore, during a hearing Monday by the Commission on Wartime Contracting, a legislative body set up to study contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Commissioner Charles Tiefer said the company’s plodding exit from Iraq could cost even more — up to $300 million.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

New more powerful IEDs in use by insurgents in Afghanistan are "powerful enough to throw the military's new 14-ton, blast-resistant vehicles into the air" and are causing rising numbers of spinal fractures in US servicemembers [13]. A USA Today piece reports that doctors in Bagram "say more than 100 U.S. servicemembers have suffered crushed or damaged spinal columns from being thrown around inside armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in the last five months." The piece further details the numbers sustaining spinal wounds in Afghanistan, and describes the efforts to design seats and harnesses for the MRAP vehicles that will better absorb explosive shocks.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway is an "outspoken opponent" [14] of letting gays and lesbians serve openly in the military. President Obama has promised to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that lets gays serve in the military as long as they don't reveal their sexual orientation. The Secretary of the Army has said the military is probably ready to accept the change. But, according to a Washington Times report, Marine Gen. Conway strongly disagrees.

The U.S. Navy's top admiral said on Monday [15] he hoped to speed up work on unmanned weapons systems, including underwater vehicles and an unmanned combat plane being developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. He cited the Navy's earlier-than-planned deployment last month of the MQ-8B Fire Scout, an unmanned helicopter also being developed by Northrop, on board an aircraft carrier in the eastern Pacific, and said it was performing "wonderfully."

INSIDE WASHINGTON

In her address before a joint session of Congress [16], German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the need for a strong partnership. In her address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the need for a strong transatlantic partnership on key issues. Merkel cited the war in Afghanistan, among many other areas where the U.S. and Europe needed to cooperate in order to achieve success. Some tensions, however, still exist between the two allies. The U.S. would reportedly like Gemany to increase its troop presence in Afghanistan, a move that would be deeply unpopular with Germans.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate will convene at 9:30 a.m.

SENATE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

The Senate will resume consideration of H.R.3548, [17] Unemployment Benefits Extension Act of 2009.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

November 5, 2009  Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Hearing on cooperation between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service.  10:00 a.m.; 418 Russell 

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES



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

HOUSE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

Under suspension of the rules:

H Res 868 Female servicemembers

H Con Res 139 Air Force Academy

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



November 5, 2009   Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Hearing:  Adaptive Housing Grants  1:00 p.m.;  334 Cannon HOB

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

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.