Senator Joe Biden Releases Plan to Help Returning Veterans

Senator Biden has revealed the plan he has to help the veterans. Sen. Biden visited local veterans at The New Hampshire Veteran's Home in Tilton, and the Liberty House in Manchester, which is a transition shelter for homeless veterans that gives them the material and other support they need to help them get back to a regular life.

His plan includes stopping the practice of cutting the budget for military medical needs during times of war, setting the highest of standards at all of the military medical facilities, ending the practice of hiring private contractors to provide maintenance at the countries military medical facilities, guarantee that family members who take care of the veterans during their recovery get 12 months of family medical leave and that health care is provided for them, hire more case workers and make sure they are properly trained to understand the VA system,

He would also implement adequate screening of returning veterans for traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder and to make sure that anyone who is diagnosed with any of these, get the proper treatment, implement better medical record keeping so that when the patients records are transferred from the Defense Department to the Veterans Administration it is done as fast and efficiently as possible.

Another step would be to require the Veterans Administration to be ready for any severely injured veterans and to make sure that adequate care is available.

There would also be an updated and simplified system to determine disability eligibility and also a simplified system for processing the claims. There would also be a team of lawyers who would represent veterans free of charge during the process. If a veteran should die while his or her claim was still processing, a survivor would be allowed to take over the claim. Order the VA to give a review of the educations and training requirement for those who act as adjudicators and to also publish the number of claims that each region has rejected each year.

Make an extra effort to see that any veteran exposed to toxins such as Agent Orange receive the proper care.

Support the Helmets to Hardhats program that trains returning veterans by increasing its funds. Give non profit organizations and veterans groups grants if they provide job training and placement services. Allow members of the National Guard and the reserve who were in school when they were called up to return at the same place they were and to get a years deferment for paying back any student loans.

Source: Joe Biden for President http://www.joebiden.com/