Obama Helping Veterans With Executive Actions
President Obama will announce new executive measures aimed at helping veterans during a speech at the American Legion National Convention in Charlotte.
The announcement of these initiatives helping veterans comes just ahead of the release of a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General into the VA scheduling scandal.
Obama’s executive actions include:
- Additional recruiting efforts aimed at ending the shortage of doctors and nurses at VA hospitals and clinics.
- Automatically enrolling active duty military personnel who are receiving mental health care into the VA’s mental health treatment programs — hoping for a faster transition upon the service member’s exit from the military.
- Creating a public-partnership with five national banks — Citi, Bank of America, Quicken, Wells Fargo, and Ocwen — to help active-duty military lower their monthly mortgage rates.
- A $34 million VA suicide prevention study involving 1,800 veterans at 29 VA hospitals.
- A $78 million research project by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency to develop neurotechnologies for treating diseases like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.
- A new online tool to assist veterans using the GI Bill in making more informed decision about where to use their education benefits.