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Women Veterans COMMITTEE REPORT
BY MARSHA FOUR, CHAIR
The activities of the committee and the chair are posted
on VVA’s web site. The committee, in conjunction with
the chair of the VVA Homeless Veterans Task Force, had the
opportunity to present ideas, issues, and concerns about
homeless women veterans at the field meeting of the VA Advisory
Committee on Homeless Veterans, Subcommittee on Women Veterans.
VVA HVTF chair Sandy Miller is the vice chair of this VA
committee and chair of its subcommittee.
I was asked by Women’s Policy, Inc., to provide a
presentation on women veterans at its annual breakfast briefing
at the Cannon House Office Building in early December. It
was a fairly large gathering and included a significant number
of Senate and House congressional staff from both parties
The
committee invites speakers to its meetings in an effort to
stay abreast of current trends and information. Linda Piquet,
Woman Veteran Coordinator from the Veterans Benefits Administration
in Washington, was a presenter at our October meeting. She
spoke about claims-related collateral duties, military sexual
trauma (MST), PTSD, proving the claim, WVC assistance with
local contacts, and the existence of no tracking sub-codes
in VBA for MST PTSD claims.
This committee helped with an
oversight hearing statement to Rep. Christopher Shays (R.-Conn.)
related to MST. We stated that one of our concerns is that
the report of the Pentagon’s
Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military
Service Academies fulfilled the requirements of P.L. 108-136.
However, it is more than one year later, and the Secretary
of Defense has yet to select members for a second committee
for sexual assault in the armed forces, as directed by Congress.
The
charge of this second committee, as we understand it, is,
in part, one of oversight: to review the implementation of
newly established protocols and procedures in the armed forces.
These include the restrictive reporting of incidents of sexual
assault; the effectiveness, or lack of same, of established
programs; the assurance that those involved with these programs
will receive appropriate education and training; and site
visits to ensure compliance in the establishment and implementation
of all facets of the programs in concordance with the law.
Of extreme importance is the assurance that victim-advocate
positions are filled with properly trained advocates, and
the verification that all service members are aware of their
rights to restricted or unrestricted reporting of sexual
assaults.
Recently it was reported that Rep. Shays has asked
GAO to look at how the military decides whether to use administrative
hearings or courts martial to resolve abuse claims and that
he questioned why there had been a delay in appointing members
to the DoD Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services.
This
committee also continues to work with the PTSD/Substance
Abuse Committee in advocating the increased need for trained
clinical staff at VHA and in the Vet Centers to address combat-related
PTSD by women veterans. It is the hope of this committee
that the VA will develop a formal process to listen to and
evaluate the input and concerns of the new population of
women veterans. Playing catch-up in a system as massive as
the VA’s will cause undue repercussions for veterans
already struggling with catch-up.
Moving forward, the committee
will begin its road to Convention 2007, revisiting its resolutions
and planning for its biennial breakfast. Please send your
thoughts on resolutions to the committee via its VVA web
page.
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