Veterans
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
It will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
They will serve moussaka — a lamb-based lasagna — along with vegetables, salad and dessert.
There also will be music.
The event is free to all veterans, with a $10 donation requested for non-veterans.
All donations will go to a local veterans organization.
The Moose Lodge is located at 15900 East Highway 20, Clearlake Oaks.
For more information, call the lodge at 707-998-3740.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
It will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
They will serve sliced ham, green beans, potatoes au gratin, bread, salad and dessert.
There also will be music by Steven Murray.
The event is free to all veterans, with a $10 donation requested for non-veterans.
All donations will go to a local veterans organization.
The Moose Lodge is located at 15900 East Highway 20, Clearlake Oaks.
For more information, call the lodge at 707-998-3740.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
It will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
They will serve lasagna, French bread, salad and dessert.
There also will be music by Steven Murray.
The event is free to all veterans, with a $10 donation requested for non-veterans.
All donations will go to a local veterans organization.
The Moose Lodge is located at 15900 East Highway 20, Clearlake Oaks.
For more information, call the lodge at 707-998-3740.
- Details
- Written by: California State Parks
The list of participating park units can be found at parks.ca.gov/MemorialDay2024.
“State Parks would like to thank these brave people and their families for sacrificing so much for your nation, and for our freedom,” said California State Parks Director Armando Quintero. “I’d like to invite those who have served and those who continue to serve to enjoy the beauty, peace, and rich history of your public lands.”
Veterans, active duty, and reserve military personnel must show a valid military ID, or proof of discharge other than dishonorable or bad conduct, to receive free admission.
Participating parks include Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County, Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County, Donner Memorial State Park in Nevada County and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County.
AB 150 (Olsen), signed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in 2013, authorized California State Parks to offer veterans, active duty, and reserve military personnel from the United States Armed Forces and the National Guard of any state a reduced or free day use at participating state parks.
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- Written by: Department of Veterans Affairs
Nationally, VA enrolled 401,006 Veterans in VA health care over the past 365 days — 30% more than the 307,831 it enrolled the previous year.
This is the most yearly enrollees in at least five years at VA, and nearly a 50% increase over pandemic-level enrollment in 2020.
This historic enrollment has been made possible by the PACT Act, which has allowed VA to expand VA health care and benefits to millions of veterans.
VA is also conducting the most aggressive outreach campaign in its history, including hosting over 2,600 events since the passage of the PACT Act, launching a $16+ million advertising campaign, using public service announcements, and — for the first time ever — sending text messages to veterans encouraging them to enroll in VA health care.
VA is continuing these aggressive outreach efforts throughout 2024, with more than 550 in-person events already scheduled for this year.
Enrolling veterans in health care is a top priority for VA and the Biden-Harris Administration because VA has proven to be the best care in America for veterans.
Veterans who receive VA health care have better health outcomes than non-enrolled veterans, and VA hospitals have dramatically outperformed non-VA hospitals in overall quality ratings and patient satisfaction ratings.
Additionally, VA health care is often more affordable than non-VA health care for veterans. In total, VA is currently delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before in our nation’s history, setting an all-time record for health care appointments provided in 2023.
“We want every eligible veteran to enroll in VA health care for one simple reason: Veterans who come to VA are proven to have better health outcomes — and pay less — than veterans who don’t,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “That’s why we’ve spent the past year meeting veterans where they are — hosting thousands of events, sending millions of texts, advertising on every corner, and much more — to get them to come to VA. This aggressive outreach campaign has led more Veterans to enroll in VA care than during any year in at least a decade, and we’re not slowing down now.”
“VA is the best, most affordable care in America for veterans, so we want all eligible veterans to enroll today,” said VA Undersecretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D. “Our clinicians know veterans — they often are veterans — and they know exactly how to help. Even if you don’t need this care today, you might need it tomorrow, or the next day, or 30 years from now. It’s quick and easy to apply, and once you’re in, you have access for life.”
VA recently expanded health care eligibility for millions of veterans nationwide, years earlier than called for by the PACT Act.
As of March 5, all veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving in the military and meet certain requirements became eligible to enroll directly in VA health care.
This means that all veterans who served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror, or any other combat zone after 9/11 will be eligible to enroll directly in VA health care without first applying for VA benefits.
Additionally, veterans who never deployed but were exposed to toxins or hazards while training or on active duty in the United States will also be eligible to enroll. VA also recently expanded health care to all World War II Veterans.
VA is able to serve these new enrollees, in part, due to last year’s record hiring in VA’s Veterans Health Administration.
Last year, the VA exceeded our hiring goals in the Veterans Health Administration — growing at the fastest rate in 15 years and bringing in more than 61,000 new hires — to prepare for an increase in VA health care enrollment among veterans under the PACT Act.
In total, VHA now has more employees than ever before in our history, and VA’s retention efforts also led to a 20% decrease in turnover rate among VHA employees from 2022 to 2023.
Moving forward, VA will continue to aggressively reach out to veterans to encourage them to come to VA. VA encourages all veterans, family members, caregivers, and survivors to learn more about VA and apply for their world-class health care and earned benefits today.
For more information about VA care, visit VA’s health care website. For more information about the impact of the PACT Act, visit VA’s PACT Act dashboard.
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- Written by: Department of Veterans Affairs
Right now, 702,557 women veterans are receiving disability compensation benefits from VA — an all-time record and an increase of 180,959 women veterans (or 26%) over five years ago.
The average woman veteran who receives disability compensation benefits from VA has a 68% combined disability rating, and they receive an average of $26,809 in earned disability compensation benefits per year from VA.
The average grant rate for women veterans is 89.2%, meaning that 89% of women veterans who have applied for disability benefits with VA have received benefits for at least one condition.
Women veterans are the fastest growing cohort at VA, and — in addition to delivering record levels of disability compensation benefits — VA is now serving more women veterans in its health care system than ever before.
The sharp increase in women veteran benefits in recent years is largely due to the PACT Act, which has empowered VA to expand health care and benefits to millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving the country.
President Biden believes the nation has a sacred obligation to take care of Veterans, which is why he made supporting veterans a key pillar in his Unity Agenda for the nation.
Expanding access to benefits and services for women veterans has been a key priority for VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration.
During his State of the Union address to the nation, President Biden reinforced his commitment to ensure all veterans get the care and benefits they earned and deserve.
“Women veterans have fought in every war since the American Revolution, but they have not always been able to access the care and benefits they’ve earned and deserved. But now, at VA, we’re making sure that those days are over,” said Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tanya Bradsher, the first woman veteran deputy secretary of VA. “These record numbers demonstrate that we’ve made tremendous progress in recent years, but they are still just the beginning — we won’t rest until every woman veteran is coming to VA.”
“We want women veterans to come to VA for their health care and benefits, which is why we’re hosting women veteran outreach events across the country throughout this month and throughout this year,” said VA undersecretary for Benefits Josh Jacobs. “To all the women veterans out there, we encourage you to visit VA.gov or call 1-800-MYVA411 to apply for your earned benefits today. We will do everything in our power to serve you, just like you’ve served our country.”
In recognition of Women’s History Month, VA’s regional offices are hosting or participating in 139 outreach efforts specifically focused on women veterans.
In addition to disability compensation benefits, VA’s concerted efforts to reach out to women veterans are helping them get education benefits and well-paying jobs: despite only making up 16.5 % of the veteran population, women veterans received 27.5% of Post 9/11 education benefits and 26.4% of Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits in 2023.
Over the past two years, VA has also dramatically expanded health care for women veterans. Specifically, VA expanded breast cancer screenings and mammograms for veterans with potential toxic exposures; supported access to reproductive health services, including contraception, in vitro fertilization, abortion counseling and — in certain cases — abortion care for veterans and VA beneficiaries; and dramatically expanded one-on-one maternity care coordination for women veterans.
Women veterans are also enrolling in VA health care at higher rates under the PACT Act, and VA recently hosted its first Women Veterans Experience Action Center, helping more than 340 women veterans apply for the care and benefits they deserve.
Additionally, as announced by the White House this week, VA and the Department of Defense are launching a new Women’s Health Research collaborative to explore opportunities to promote joint efforts to advance women’s health research and improve evidence-based care for veterans and service members.
In every VA regional office, VA has veteran coordinators who function as the primary contact for women veterans.
These coordinators are able to provide specific information and comprehensive assistance to women veterans, their dependents, and beneficiaries concerning VA benefits and related non-VA benefits.
Each VA Medical Center nationwide also has a Women Veterans Program Manager, who helps coordinate all the services women veterans might need. Women veterans can also call, text, or chat online with the Women Veterans Call Center at 855-829-6636 to get help and find available resources and services in their area.
To learn more about VA disability benefits, visit VA’s benefits website. For more information on women’s health care at VA, visit https://www.womenshealth.va.gov/.
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- Written by: Department of Veterans Affairs
VA reached this milestone March 4 — the earliest in VA history and nearly six weeks faster than the previous all-time record (from fiscal year 2023). VA has completed almost 35% more claims than at this point last year.
As a part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda for the nation, VA is continuing to deliver more benefits, more quickly, to more veterans than ever before.
Through February of this fiscal year, VA provided $69 billion in earned compensation and pension benefits to 6.5 million Veterans and survivors.
This milestone builds on last year’s historic pace, when VA delivered record amounts of earned benefits to veterans and survivors.
This increase in veteran benefits is largely due to the PACT Act, which has empowered VA to expand health care and benefits to millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving our country.
“We’re proud to be delivering more benefits, more quickly, to more Veterans and survivors than ever before — but we’re not slowing down,” said VA Under Secretary for Benefits Josh Jacobs. “We won’t rest until every veteran and every survivor to get the VA benefits and care that they’ve earned. So, to any veteran or survivor out there: don’t wait, submit your claim today.”
Whenever a veteran files a claim, our goal is to work with them every step of the way to get to “yes.” As a result of this approach, VA has been able to grant benefits for 60.4% of claims filed in 2024 — including 75.1% of PACT Act claims — a sharp increase in the grant rate from pre-PACT Act levels.
Veterans also continue to apply for benefits at record rates, with VA receiving 4.5% more claims thus far in fiscal year 2024 than at this point in 2023. Since the PACT Act was signed into law by President Biden, veterans and their families have filed more than 3.5 million claims.
As a part of reaching one million claims, VA processed 221,592 disability compensation and pension claims during January 2024 alone — making it VA’s highest single month of claims production ever, surpassing the previous monthly record of 193,411 from May 2023.
VA’s top 11 best claims production months in agency history all happened in the last 12 months.
Additionally, the organization continues to achieve single day processing milestones – VA processed between 9,000 and 10,000 Veteran claims 43 times in fiscal year 2024 and more than 10,000 veteran claims 35 times during the same time period.
Feb. 7, 2024 was the best single production day ever in VBA history with 10,997 claims completed. Before fiscal year 2024, VA had only had three 9,000 claim production days in history.
As a result of this record pace, veteran claims pending over 125 days — known as the backlog — has decreased by more than 42,000 claims over the past three months.
Due to record numbers of claims applications, the backlog is still expected to grow in 2024 before decreasing at the end of this year — and VA will continue to hire new claims processors, invest in continuous learning for all claims processors, and make technology improvements to ensure that veterans, family members, caregivers and survivors receive the benefits they’ve earned and deserve as quickly and accurately as possible.
VA remains focused on hiring and training new claims processors and has grown the claims processing workforce more than 50% since fiscal year 2021.
This growth, along with new technology to assist those processors, has allowed VA to meet the historic demand for benefits precipitated by the passage of the PACT Act in 2022.
To learn more about VA disability benefits, visit VA’s website and apply.
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- Written by: Department of Veterans Affairs
Specifically, in fiscal year 2024, VA will:
• Place at least 1,087 veterans experiencing homelessness into permanent housing.
• Ensure that at least 95% of the veterans housed in FY 2024 do not return to homelessness during the year.
• Engage with at least 1,057 unsheltered veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services.
Ending veteran homelessness is a top priority of VA and the entire Biden Administration. As of Jan. 31, VA has already housed 320 homeless veterans in Northern California.
Nationwide, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by nearly 5% since early 2020 and by more than 52% since 2010.
“Even one veteran experiencing homelessness is a tragedy,” said VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher, who announced these goals on Thursday at the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center. “We’ve made progress in recent years in tackling this problem, but there’s still a long way to go — and that’s why we’re setting these aggressive goals. We will not rest until every veteran has a safe, stable place to call home in this country they swore to defend.”
“Our dedicated VHA team along with both federal and community partners work diligently to increase access to housing and health care for Veterans experiencing homelessness in Northern California. Through our outreach endeavors we strive to bring critical resources to veterans in our communities,” said David Stockwell, Director, VA Northern California Health Care System.
“Whenever we get into contact with a homeless veteran, our first priority is to get them into the housing they deserve,” added Deputy Secretary Bradsher. “Then we work to provide them with the tools they need to stay housed — including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more. That’s how we’ll meet and exceed these goals in 2024.”
VA also released its nationwide goals for fiscal year 2024 today. Specifically, VA will place at least 41,000 veterans experiencing homelessness into permanent housing; ensure that at least 95% of the veterans housed in FY 2024 do not return to homelessness during the year; and engage with at least 40,000 unsheltered veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services.
In recent years, VA has taken aggressive action to combat veteran homelessness.
In 2023, VA permanently housed more than 46,000 veterans, expanded access to health care for homeless veterans, expanded access to legal assistance for homeless veterans, helped more than 145,000 veterans and their families retain their homes or otherwise avoid foreclosure, and awarded more than $1 billion in grant funding to help homeless veterans.
In partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, VA also convened 10 national HUD-VA Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, bootcamps, in which local VA homeless program staff with public housing agencies from across the country participated in intensive two-day workshops to improve coordination to more quickly rehouse veterans.
During 2023, the HUD-VASH program helped over 21,000 veterans exit homelessness and obtain permanent affordable housing with supportive services.
VA’s efforts to combat veteran homelessness are grounded in reaching out to homeless Veterans, understanding their unique needs, and addressing them. These efforts are built upon the evidence-based “Housing First” approach.
For more information about VA’s comprehensive efforts to end veteran homelessness, visit https://www.va.gov/homeless/.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
This budget proposes critical resources to help VA continue providing more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before.
President Biden has made supporting veterans a key pillar of his Unity Agenda. During the Biden-Harris administration, VA has implemented the historic PACT Act, which expanded VA health care and benefits to millions of veterans exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving; permanently housed more than 40,000 veterans two years in a row; expanded life-saving support for veterans at-risk of suicide; delivered an all-time yearly record number of health care appointments to veterans; and much more.
This Budget demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s continued focus on ensuring veterans have timely access to world-class care and benefits. The total fiscal year 2025 request for VA is $369.3 billion, a $33 billion (+10%) increase above the fiscal year 2024 Budget estimate level.
This includes a discretionary request of $134.0 billion. The fiscal year 2025 mandatory funding request is $235.3 billion, which includes $24.5 billion from the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund (TEF), for a total increase of $41.8 billion (21.6%) above fiscal year 2024.
“Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors deserve the very best health care and benefits that this country has to offer — and President Biden’s proposed budget will help us deliver exactly that,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “With these investments, we at VA can continue delivering more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before in our nation’s history.”
The budget makes critical, targeted investments in supporting Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. At VA, the Budget will:
Expand health care and benefits for Veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving our country.
The PACT Act, which President Biden signed into law in 2022, is the most significant expansion of VA healthcare and benefits for veterans in generations – helping millions of veterans.
As part of the PACT Act, Congress authorized the TEF to invest in the delivery of health care associated with exposure to environmental hazards and any expenses incident to the delivery of health care and benefits associated with exposure to environmental hazards in the military.
The budget continues this commitment and includes $24.5 billion for the TEF in fiscal year 2025.
Support the delivery of health care for veterans across America: At a time when VA is expanding access to health care for millions of veterans and delivering record numbers of appointments, we are making sure that Veterans have access to world-class health care whenever and wherever they need it. This budget invests $112.6 billion in discretionary medical care funding in fiscal year 2025.
In addition to fully funding inpatient, outpatient, mental health, and long-term care services, the budget supports programs that enhance VA healthcare quality and delivery, including a $2 billion investment for non-recurring maintenance to improve medical facility infrastructure, and continued efforts to address the opioid and drug overdose epidemic.
This funding is critical because veterans who are enrolled in VA health care are proven to have better health outcomes than non-enrolled veterans, and VA hospitals have dramatically outperformed non-VA hospitals in overall quality ratings and patient satisfaction ratings.
Additionally, VA health care is often more affordable than non-VA health care for Veterans.
Prioritize mental health care and suicide prevention for Veterans. The budget invests $135 million in VA research programs — along with $17 billion within the VA Medical Care program — to increase access to quality mental health care and lower the cost of mental health services for veterans, with the goal of helping veterans take charge of their treatment and live full, meaningful lives.
In addition, the budget provides $583 million to further advance the Administration’s Veteran suicide prevention initiatives, including continued support of the 988 Veterans Crisis Line (Dial 988, press 1) and additional support for VA’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Support health care for women veterans. The budget invests $13.7 billion for women veterans’ healthcare, including $1.1 billion towards women’s gender-specific care. More women are choosing VA healthcare than ever before, with women accounting for over 30 percent of the increase in enrolled Veterans over the past five years. Investments support comprehensive specialty medical and surgical services for women veterans, improving maternal health outcomes, and more.
Bolster efforts to end veteran homelessness. VA and the Biden-Harris administration believe that every veteran should have permanent, safe, and sustainable housing with access to healthcare and other supportive services, and VA has permanently housed more than 40,000 homeless veterans each of the past two years.
The budget invests $3.2 billion to help VA’s efforts to end veteran homelessness and prevent Veterans from becoming homeless in the future. The budget also includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to expand housing vouchers to more veterans in need.
Invest in claims processing and benefits delivery for veterans. The budget provides $4 billion to the Veterans Benefits Administration to support the continued timely processing of claims and delivery of benefits to Veterans. This is critical at a time when Veterans are applying for benefits at record rates and VA is delivering benefits at record rates; in FY 2023 alone, VA completed more than 1.9 million disability compensation and pension claims — an all-time record that surpassed the previous record by 15.9% — and VA is continuing this record-breaking trend. .
