While the House and Senate remain on recess through the election, the IAVA DC team has been busy building legislative victories across our Big Six priorities. We have updates on the Clay Hunt SAV Act, a new tool to help servicemembers and veterans find the right career path for them, and 2 new cosponsors on IAVA-backed legislation!

As we mentioned last week, IAVA’s Research Director, Steph Mullen, met with the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. See her blog detailing all of the updates on SAV Act implementation so far. The campaign to combat suicide among troops and veterans remains IAVA’s number one priority of all our Big Six and we will continue to monitor and advocate for strong implementation of the SAV Act. Be sure to read Steph’s blog recapping all of these important updates here.

This week, the Department of Defense launched the Career Path DECIDE tool in order to help veterans and servicemembers explore new careers or to find a career that they can transition into after their military service is complete. This is a robust tool that I was able to test and give feedback on a few weeks before launch. This is a simple, FREE, website where servicemembers and veterans can enter their branch of service, military specialty, rank, and education level and the tool will automatically find careers that are a good fit for their experience. We highly recommend going to check it out here! Again, this website is completely FREE and doesn’t store or ask for any personal information.

Also, this week IAVA Intern, Ali Evers, wrote a great blog breaking down step-by-step how to join the VA Burn Pit Registry. If you aren’t already registered, please follow the instructions in this blog and sign up. This registry will allow health care providers and researchers the information they need to help those of us that have been affected by #BurnPits. Make sure that you read the blog first and get all of the information that you need to register by going here.

New Cosponsors to IAVA-Backed Legislation:

Speaking of #BurnPits, the Burn Pits Accountability Act (S. 3181/H.R. 5671) gained an additional two cosponsors this week! Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a Marine Corps and OIF veteran, and Bill Foster (D-IL), who sits on Financial Services and Science committees, are the two newest cosponsors! Thank you so much to Reps. Gallagher and Foster for your support and for bringing the total amount of House and Senate cosponsors to 150!

Help us keep the momentum growing on all of our Big Six priorities by contacting your Members of Congress through our Take Action page here.