12 July 2010 Of the 5710 House and 3553Senate pieces of legislation introduced in the 111th Congress to date, the following are of interest to the non-active duty veteran community. Bill titles in green (if any) are new additions to this summary, titles in orange have either passed either the House or Senate and been passed to the other for consideration or been incorporated into another bill, and those highlighted in blue have become public law. A good indication on the likelihood a bill of being forwarded to the House or Senate for passage and subsequently being signed into law by the President is the number of cosponsors who have signed onto the bill. An alternate way for it to become law is if it is added as an addendum to another bill such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and survives the conference committee assigned to iron out the difference between the House and Senate bills. At http://thomas.loc.gov you can review a copy of each bill’s text, determine its current status, the committee it has been assigned to, who your representative is and his/her phone number, mailing address, or email/website to communicate with a message or letter of your own making, and if your legislator is a sponsor or cosponsor of it. To separately determine what bills, amendments your representative has sponsored, cosponsored, or dropped sponsorship on refer to http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d111/sponlst.html. To review a numerical list of all bills introduced refer to http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/111search.html. The key to increasing cosponsorship is letting legislators know of their constituent’s views on issues. Those bills that include a website in red are being pushed by various veterans groups for passage and by clicking on that website you can forward a preformatted message to your legislator requesting he/she support the bill. ============================================================================= H.R.23 : Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act of 2009 to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish the Merchant Mariner Equity Compensation Fund to provide benefits to certain individuals who served in the United States merchant marine (including the Army Transport Service and the Naval Transport Service) during World War II. Sponsor: Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (168) Committees: House Veterans' Affairs Latest Major Action: 5/13/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. To support this bill and/or contact your legislators send a message via http://capwiz.com/naus/issues/alert/?alertid=12497121 ________________________________________ H.R.32 : Veterans Outreach Improvement Act of 2009 to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the outreach activities of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. Companion Bill S.315 Sponsor: Rep McIntyre, Mike [NC-7] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (41) Committees: House Veterans' Affairs Latest Major Action: 10/28/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Provisions of measure |
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Senate VETERAN LEGISLATION 12 July 2010 Of the 5710 House and 3553Senate pieces of legislation introduced in the 111th Congress to date, the following are of interest to the non-active duty veteran community. Bill titles in green (if any) are new additions to this summary, titles in orange have either passed either the House or Senate and been passed to the other for consideration or been incorporated into another bill, and those highlighted in blue have become public law. A good indication on the likelihood a bill of being forwarded to the House or Senate for passage and subsequently being signed into law by the President is the number of cosponsors who have signed onto the bill. An alternate way for it to become law is if it is added as an addendum to another bill such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and survives the conference committee assigned to iron out the difference between the House and Senate bills. At http://thomas.loc.gov you can review a copy of each bill’s text, determine its current status, the committee it has been assigned to, who your representative is and his/her phone number, mailing address, or email/website to communicate with a message or letter of your own making, and if your legislator is a sponsor or cosponsor of it. To separately determine what bills, amendments your representative has sponsored, cosponsored, or dropped sponsorship on refer to http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d111/sponlst.html. To review a numerical list of all bills introduced refer to http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/111search.html. The key to increasing cosponsorship is letting legislators know of their constituent’s views on issues. Those bills that include a website in red are being pushed by various veterans groups for passage and by clicking on that website you can forward a preformatted message to your legislator requesting he/she support the bill. ============================================================================= S.46 : Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act of 2009 to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare outpatient rehabilitation therapy caps. Sponsor: Sen Ensign, John [NV] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (31) Related Bill: H.R.43 Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. To support this bill and/or contact your Senators send a message via http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/alert/?alertid=14486941&type=CO ________________________________________ S.66 : Disabled Vet Space A. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to permit former members of the Armed Forces who have a service-connected disability rated as total to travel on military aircraft in the same manner and to the same extent as retired members of the Armed Forces are entitled to travel on such aircraft. Sponsor: Sen Inouye, Daniel K. [HI] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (2) Committees: Senate Armed Services Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services. |