The American Veterans' Bill of Rights
Heroes Among Champions for Veterans
Congressional Champions for Veterans
Slackers for Our American Veterans
There are approximately 250,000 homeless American Veterans on our streets any given night and the Department of Veterans Affairs directly funds less than 15,000 beds for homeless veterans. The heavy-lifting for homeless veterans is overwhelming accomplished by over 300 not-for-profit transitional facilities.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for troops returning from combat zones is a leading cause of homelessness among veterans. Yet, the Government Accountability Office has said that only about one half of VA Medical Centers provide adequate counseling for PTSD and six of the seven that do, cannot handle their current caseloads.
The Veterans' Bill of Rights has been affirmed by over 50 current Members of Congress. The Bill calls upon the VA to be strictly accountable in support of homeless and all veterans.
The budget of the VA is over 100 billion dollars.
According to two investigations conducted by the Government Accountability Office, veterans and taxpayers are being shortchanged to the tune of billions of dollars because of waste and fiscal mismanagement at the VA.
Veterans Bill of Rights
With the proviso that all new veterans' program allocations be offset by fiscal reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we agree to the following:
The VA should guarantee $60 per bed, per day, to eligible transitional facilities for homeless veterans. Such a commitment will represent 2/10th of 1% of the VA budget.
Every VA Medical Center in the nation should provide adequate PTSD counseling for veterans.
Veterans should be a high, top priority of the nation's public policy agenda.
