Government
Relations 
Government
Relations
After government‘s holiday break, everyone is back to business. The 111th
Congress launched its 2010 session on 1/5. Most of PVA’s longstanding
legislative wishes were made into bills last session. Some were passed and signed
into law. Others are still in committees or awaiting floor votes. None died
in session.
Our National Director Ken Weas and I are going to PVA’s annual Advocacy
Seminar in March. We’ll visit congressional offices in Washington. The
national legislative team hasn’t yet decided what bills it wants chapters
to discuss with their representatives and senators this year.
However, Ken and I plan to ask the state’s congressional delegation to
unify Florida into a single Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN). Florida
is split between two, VISN 8 and 16. VISN 8, Sunshine Healthcare Network, includes
the N. Florida and S. Georgia Market. VISN 16, S. Central VA Health Care Network,
covers all or part of eight states, including Florida’s Western Panhandle.
The
chapter believes splitting Florida between VISNs is problematic and veterans
will receive better service if the state is unified.
There
are a few congressional hearings of interest. Anyone with a high-speed internet
connection can watch them live by going to www.veterans.house.gov/. They are
also archived for later viewing. Those with slower connections can load archived
hearings.
On
1/20, the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a roundtable hearing on the
legislative priorities of Veterans Service Organizations. At that hearing, National
PVA emphasized five points.
1) Ensure adequate funding for the VA in the coming fiscal year, and that the
newly-enacted advance appropriations bill is completed for FY2012.
2) Complete the comprehensive veterans’ legislation in S.1963 and in various
bills passed by the House of Representatives.
3) Improve the claims process so compensation and ancillary benefits will arrive
in a timely fashion.
4) Address ongoing inappropriate billing by the VA.
5) Improve benefits for veterans with severe disabilities, including an increase
in the adaptive automobile grant and getting it indexed annually to inflation.
On 1/ 27, the Committee held a roundtable on the needs of rural veterans, had
its VA Budget Request hearing.
The
PVA and other veterans’ organizations will make legislative presentations
to the Committee.
On 3/10, the Veterans of Foreign Wars will make its legislative presentation,
followed by AMVETS et al on 3/18.
The
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has not announced hearings, besides a field
hearing on the state of VA Services on Maui.
The
Florida Legislature’s session starts on 3/2. Some committee hearings were
scheduled for January and February, and about 835 bills were filed so far. Legislators
have until the first day of the session to introduce bills.
State Senator Dave Aronberg introduced SJR 196, a companion to HJR 313. The
bill propose a ballot referendum to amend the Florida Constitution to expand
property-tax discounts on homesteads of veterans disabled by combat injuries
to include those who were not Florida residents when they entered the military.
If approved by voters, the amendment would take effect in January, 2011. The
bill was referred to five committees.
The
Florida Veterans Council – our chapter is a member – is especially
interested in seeing this passed. SJR 196 would have no affect on most of our
members, since few pay property taxes because of a state provision waiving them
for vets with 100% percent disability. However, the chapter considers it a goodwill
gesture to other veterans to work for this legislation’s passage.
Another bill the Council wants passed is SB 348, introduced by Senator Charlie
Dean. This bill will exempt certain veterans’ organizations from some
state 501 (c) 3 filing requirements. The CFPVA is one of these veterans’
organizations.
Senator
Ronda Storms filed two ‘shell bills’ – SB 720 and 728 –
that are vague references to to expressing ‘legislative intent to revise
laws relating to persons with disabilities.’ Shell bills hold open a chance
for legislators to address a particular issue if one arises during the legislative
season. They’re also a good opportunity for advocacy groups to ask legislators
to act on certain concerns.
Recently
the Florida Gulf Coast PVA went to court with a wheelchair-user in Dade City
who was cited for operating his power chair on a road where the sidewalk was
in disrepair. The citing officer used Florida Statute 316.2068. The statute
was crafted to prevent abuses of the Segway PT devices, and in general wheelchair-users
are affected only by statutes and ordinances governing pedestrian behavior.
In other words, if a pedestrian could be cited for a behavior, so can a wheelchair-user,
and if a pedestrian couldn’t be cited for a behavior, neither can a wheelchair-user.
Both chapters believe the officer was errant to cite a wheelchair-user under
the statute. The officer didn’t go to court, so the judge dropped the
citation.
But,
there are lingering concerns about whether power wheelchair users in Florida
must feel constrained to sidewalks, no matter their condition, to avoid being
ticketed. It’s a question both chapters are pursuing. If we find that
a wheelchair-user could be cited in a situation where a pedestrian couldn’t,
we’ll get that changed.
Patrick McCallister
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