Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
President Obama last Thursday signed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill into law.
By Forum Staff
Several provisions authored by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) that aim to assist veterans were signed into law last week by President Barack Obama.
The provisions are part of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations legislation, and were attached to the stop-gap spending bill that Obama signed last Friday to avert a government shutdown.
They include:
- A provision that seeks to have the Department of Veterans Affairs hire more female healthcare professionals in order to provide female veterans with greater opportunities to choose the gender of their healthcare provider. The measure, Meng said, would create more options for female veterans who prefer to select female healthcare providers.
- A provision that seeks to have the VA allow for religious emblems on headstones of unclaimed, deceased veterans. The measure would allow religious identifiers to be on the headstones of these veterans as long as documentation of the veteran’s beliefs can be produced, such as through dog tags or other military documentation.
- A provision that seeks to have the Secretary of Veterans Affairs appoint an additional Asian-American to the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans. Asian-Americans are currently underrepresented on the panel which provides the Secretary and Congress with advice about medical care, benefits, and services for veterans, Meng said.
- A provision that seeks to have the VA accept medical opinions from non-VA doctors in order to determine whether or not a veteran has a disability. According to Meng, usage of non-VA doctors for this purpose would facilitate faster payment of disability benefits.
“I am extremely pleased that these important measures are now the law of the land,” Meng added. “We must continue to do all we can to take care of our nation’s veterans, and these provisions will help our former service members in several key areas. Many thanks to the President and my Congressional colleagues for moving these items forward.”
