From August 26 through August 31, IAVA conducted a short flash poll to better understand members’ views on the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA) and several policy tradeoffs included in the legislation. The poll was distributed by email to all IAVA members and administered through Microsoft Forms. A total of 195 members responded.

The poll was designed to get timely feedback on several key questions related to TCAVA, including overall support for the legislation, proposed changes to VA disability ratings, the use of projected savings to fund other veterans’ benefits, and who should determine changes to VA disability-rating criteria.

The poll asked members five questions:

1. Overall support for TCAVA: Based on a description of the legislation, members were asked whether they supported or opposed Congress passing TCAVA in its current form.
2. Changes to disability ratings: Members were asked whether they supported or opposed Congress making permanent changes to the VA disability-rating schedule for tinnitus and sleep apnea.
3. Using projected disability savings: Members were asked whether they supported or opposed Congress using potential savings from disability-rating changes to offset the cost of improvements to other veterans’ benefits and programs.
4. Who should determine disability-rating changes: Members were asked whether changes to VA disability-rating criteria should generally be determined by Congress, the VA through the federal regulatory process, either approach, or based on the specific proposed change.
5. Benefit and cost tradeoffs: Members were asked how their views of TCAVA would be affected if they or their families could benefit from provisions in the legislation while other changes could negatively affect future veterans and service members.

What Members Told Us

The results showed substantial opposition to TCAVA in its current form. Overall, 80.9% of respondents opposed passage of the legislation, while 13.9% supported it.

Members expressed similar concerns about permanent changes to the disability-rating schedule, with 81.5% opposing those changes.

Responses also highlighted concerns about using changes affecting veterans’ benefits as funding offsets. In total, 44.6% said they did not believe veterans’ benefit expansions should require an offset, while another 27.7% said offsets should not negatively affect other veterans.

When asked who should generally make final determinations about changes to VA disability-rating criteria, a majority of respondents favored the VA’s federal regulatory process, which includes medical advisory panels, rather than Congress making those changes directly through legislation.

Finally, when respondents were asked to consider a situation in which they or their families could personally benefit from TCAVA, 82.6% said they would not want those benefit expansions if they were funded through changes that negatively affect other veterans and service members.

Contact Information:

Jerritt Lynn
Director, Membership and Communications
Email: press@iava.org
Website: IAVA.org