This Week at American Veteran

This week at American Veteran, we will follow AMVETS National Headquarters staff at the first VA/DoD mental health summit, taking place this afternoon at the Capitol Hilton in Washington. The summit, hosted by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, will be the first of its kind bringing together experts from various government agencies, the health care sector, and veterans' advocates such as AMVETS to discuss treatment models for service members, veterans and their families.

This week, we will also publish the latest issue of American Veteran magazine. We apologize for any delays, but we know you will enjoy the fall issue. As always, we're constantly looking for stories from posts and departments around the country. Though we're restricted in how many we can publish in our quarterly print issues, American Veteran is eager to publish more local stories on American Veteran Online.

Next, AMVETS leaders have started planning for the 2010 21st Century Veterans Symposium, which will take place at the AMVETS National Convention in Louisville. This symposium will be the follow-up to AMVETS' 2006 symposium on the needs of young veterans, bringing in veterans from across the country to discuss issues, potential solutions and to update the 2006 symposium report. More details will become available over the next few months.

Finally, American Veteran Online will continue to follow the FY2010 budget process for VA, which remains stalled in Congress. The VA budget has now been delivered late 20 out of the last 23 years. With last week's historic signing of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009, authorizing advance appropriations, the veterans' community has shifted focus to ensuring that this year's budget passes quickly. The FY2010 budget will be the first to include advance funding for the following year's VA health care.

Check back throughout the week with American Veteran Online for updates.