Live from Capitol Hill: Senate Discusses G.I. Bill; House Roundtable on PTSD, TBI

This morning, the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs will host a hearing on potential improvements to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which AMVETS has been calling for since last summer when the new benefits took effect.

Some of the improvements AMVETS has called for include expansion of benefits for mobilized National Guard troops on Title 32 orders, increased equity in benefits for students attending private universities, living stipend benefits for full time online students, and increased access to vocational training outside of traditional colleges and universities.

This morning, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs is also hosting a roundtable discussion on treating the invisible wounds of war--post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, or TBI. The committee has brought together leaders within the health care industry alongside Department of Defense and VA officials to discuss the issues.

To view a list of this morning's participants in the roundtable, Click Here. To view live video starting at 10 a.m., Click Here.

AMVETS National Commander Duane J. Miskulin made addressing the invisible wounds of war his top personal priority for his year in office and AMVETS National Deputy Legislative Director Christina Roof will be on hand for the roundtable. To read about Miskulin's chief initiative to address these invisible wounds and the broader reintegration issues faced by today's veterans through AMVETS Warrior Transition Workshops, Click Here. '

American Veteran will follow both of these hearings closely. For updates, check back later.

Live from Capitol Hill: Senate Discusses Claims Backlog; House to Tackle Suicide

This morning on Capitol Hill both the House and Senate committees on Veterans Affairs will hear testimony on critical veterans issues.

First, at 9:30 a.m., in Russell Senate Office Building room 418, the Senate committee will host a hearing to discuss the daunting VA claims backlog. Joseph Violante from Disabled American Veterans will testify on behalf of the Independent Budget partners, including AMVETS. Lists of witnesses have not been published, but live video from the hearing is available on the committee's Web site. To view the video, Click Here.

At 10 a.m., in Cannon House Office Building room 334, the House VA Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will discuss VA's suicide prevention and outreach efforts. AMVETS National Deputy Legislative Director Christina Roof will be on hand for the hearing, where leaders from other veterans' groups and VA and Department of Defense officials will testify. To view a full list of witnesses and to read their prepared remarks, Click Here.

To view live video from the hearing, Click Here.

AMVETS leaders will be following both hearings closely, as the VA claims backlog is AMVETS top legislative priority for 2010, and AMVETS National Commander Duane Miskulin has made veterans' mental health and suicide prevention a personal priority for his year in office.

In an effort to augment VA and DoD's efforts to quell veteran suicides, Miskulin drove AMVETS' partnership with Freedom & Honor earlier this year to commission AMVETS Warrior Transition Workshops--a series of national workshops designed by combat veterans for combat veterans, offering peer support to help veterans contextualize their experiences and successfully transition back to civilian life.

Check back with American Veteran Online later for highlights from today's hearings.

This Week at American Veteran

This week at American Veteran we will follow this week's House Veterans Affairs Committee roundtable on veterans' unemployment.

This week, AMVETS leaders are hammering out details for the upcoming Symposium for 21st Century Veterans. AMVETS posts and departments interested in sending participants to this year's symposium are encouraged to send participants' names to AMVETS Legislative Director Ray Kelley as soon as possible.

We will also post photos from the recent launch of the AMVETS Warrior Transition Workshops in Elkins Park, Pa., and the recent open house at Camp Hope in Missouri.

The spring issue of American Veteran magazine will also ship this week, and we will feature a run-down of this spring's magazine.

As always, we're eager to hear from our readers. Feel free to comment on all our stories and please send photos and stories of your own for us to post on the blog, or in the summer issue of American Veteran magazine.