The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will use a locality-based approach in raising ceilings on its no-downpayment home loans from the current $417,000 to as much as $729,000. The increases are effective immediately under legislation recently enacted with President Bush signing the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. That law also improved VA’s Specially Adapted Housing Program. It raises primary grants from $50,000 to $60,000 toward constructing a new home or modifying an existing home to meet adaptive needs of veterans or active duty servicemembers with certain service-connected disabilities. One new feature is a provision in the law that will assist burn victims. It will allow veterans with certain service-connected disabilities resulting from severe burns to receive the adaptive housing grants. The new law also makes future increases in ceilings on the Specially Adapted Housing Program automatic. The increased limits in the general home loan program for all veterans’ home purchases or construction will be based on local housing costs, tied to the similar locality adjustments of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Freddie Mac. VA home loans are available for veterans to purchase or construct single-family homes, and to purchase condominiums or cooperative apartments. There are about 2.3 million existing VA home loans, more than 90% made with no down payment. More information about VA home loans and adaptive grants is available from VA at 877-827-3702 or www.homeloans.va.gov. [Source: Florida Veteran Council Michael Isam article 21 Aug 08 ++]

Bookmark TO:

A former Bonner County Idaho sheriff’s deputy who feigned being a paraplegic collected an estimated $1.5 million in Veterans Administration benefits before being indicted last week in Spokane, U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said 26 AUG.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

An appeals court has ruled taxpayers cannot sue the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for incorporating religion into its health care programs for the nation’s veterans. The Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 5 AUG that the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFFF) and three of its members have no legal standing to bring the case. The group was trying to end the agency’s practice of asking patients about their religion in “spiritual assessments,” its use of chaplains to treat patients, and drug and alcohol treatment programs that incorporate religion. It claimed those practices violated the separation of church and state. But the court ruled that federal taxpayers cannot challenge those expenditures. It cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year in which the same group was not allowed to sue over President Bush’s faith-based initiative. In that case, the court ruled 5-4 that taxpayers cannot sue the executive branch for expenses that allegedly promote religion. Cases can only be brought when the questionable expenditures are explicitly authorized in a Congressional spending bill, the court ruled. Congress never authorized spending on the chaplain services, pastoral care and other programs challenged, the 7th Circuit ruled.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

Senators Robert Casey (D-PA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Barack Obama (D-IL) and have sponsored S.3432, the Servicemembers’ Access to Justice Act, with a House companion bill expected soon, which would eliminate state sovereign immunity and make states subject to USERRA claims if they receive any federal financial assistance for any program or activity. The bill would also provide enhanced USERRA remedies against state, federal and/or private employers for violating USERRA, including damages plus interest for lost wages or actual monetary losses where wages have not been denied; liquidated damages equal to the wages or other monetary loss or $10,000, whichever is greater. Members with claims against state and private employers would be entitled to a jury trial and to punitive damages in the case of an employer of 25 or more employees whose violation was done with malice or reckless indifference to the rights of the servicemember. Successful claimants would mandatorily be awarded attorney fees acquired in fighting for their USERRA rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

Congress approved legislation which the president signed into law requiring the U.S. Mint to issue 350,000 silver coins to raise money for a memorial near the U.S. Capitol honoring disabled veterans. Across Independence Avenue from the U.S. Botanic Garden are two acres dedicated to the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, but raising the $86 million for design, construction, maintenance and outreach has been a campaign for supporters. A $3 million pledge from H. Ross Perot earlier this year put the total collected near $70 million. The House and Senate authorized the minting of 350,000 $1 coins, which will be sold with a $10 surcharge. The proceeds of the surcharge will be paid directly to the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation. The foundation was incorporated in 1998, but fundraising did not begin in earnest until 2002. The memorial will honor 3 million veterans currently living with a disability as a result of their military service. The design, approved by the Commission of Fine Arts in 2004, features a star-shaped reflecting pool, an everlasting flame and grove of trees. The memorial is designed “not just to show all of the veterans how much we care about them and honor them but also to remind future Congresses that freedom is not free, that a price is very high when the president calls on our armed forces to deliver, and when they do, we honor them and will always remember their memory,” Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, R-Ill., said recently on the House floor. The coins will be issued in 2010, weigh 26.73 grams, be 1.5 inches in diameter and contain 90% silver and 10% copper. For more information refer to http://www.avdlm.org. [Source: EANGUS Minuteman Update 7 Aug 08 ++]

Bookmark TO:

Effective 1 JUL service members will be able to select from one to ten persons of their choosing to receive the $100,000 death gratuity benefit. Prior to the change in law, payments were restricted to the spouse, then children (if applicable), and then to a family member as elected by the service member. It didn’t allow a married service member to leave the death gratuity to anyone else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

The title of the House committee report sums up what happened: “Die or Give Up Trying: How Poor Contractor Performance, Government Mismanagement and the Erosion of Quality Controls Denied Thousands of Disabled Veterans Timely and Accurate Retroactive Retired Pay Awards.” The report by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy panel, released Tuesday, concluded that at least 28,283 disabled retirees were denied retroactive pay awards because rushed efforts to clear a huge backlog of claims led program administrators to stop doing quality assurance checks on the claims decisions. And of the original 133,057 potentially eligible veterans, 8,763 died before their cases could be reviewed for retroactive payments, according to the report. At issue are the Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payments and Combat-Related Special Compensation programs, approved by Congress in 2003 and 2004 to allow large numbers of disabled retirees to receive full concurrent military retirement pay and veteran’s disability compensation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

The National Park Service is an participant in the new Interagency Pass Program which was created by the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act and authorized by Congress in DEC 04. Participating agencies include the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture - Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation. The pass series, referred to collectively as the America the Beautiful Pass, went sale 1 JAN 07. It replaces the former Golden Age, Golden Access, and Golden Eagle pass. The new series consist of the following:

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

The Pentagon’s accounting unit agreed 16 JUL to double-check requests by more than 25,000 veterans who were turned down for back benefits, concurring with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich that “a veteran deserves better.” Kucinich, head of a domestic policy subcommittee House panel that found flaws in the military benefits system, also got the Pentagon’s acting inspector general to order an audit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO:

As foreclosures continue to mount, borrowers who have run out of options are turning to attorneys to fight back — and they’re living mortgage-free for months in the process.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark TO: