By MOAA Staff

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act can do “a ton of good” for millions in the veteran community, MOAA’s top official told a CNN audience Sept. 9 … but only if lawmakers vote on the bill before the end of the 119th Congress.

Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, USAF (Ret), appeared on CNN News Central to review the contents of the omnibus legislation and encourage lawmakers to move the landmark legislation forward.

“The worst thing that could happen is no vote before this Congress goes out,” Kelly told anchor Brianna Keilar during the live studio interview in Washington, D.C. “If that happens, everybody’s back to square one. They’ve got to reintroduce all this legislation, and all the waiting continues. …

“We’re all looking to and counting on Congress to take the politics out of this, take emotion out of this, and if you put the veteran at the center ... you have a vote.”

[SHARING THEIR STORIES: These Veterans, Caregivers, and Survivors Are Among the Millions Supported by TCAVA]

The legislation contains more than 60 individual bills, many of which address critical MOAA priorities such as:

• Relief for nearly 60,000 combat-injured military retirees who face an unjust pay offset between their military retirement pay and VA disability compensation. “The fact that those are offset to each other while others are allowed to keep both of those things is really unjust, particularly if you think about who’s most deserving,” Kelly said. “Why wouldn’t we as a country say those at the front of the line ought to be our combat-injured?”
  
  
• Short- and long-term support for military caregivers, including provisions that would provide financial, professional, and mental health resources.
  
  
• Removal of restrictions faced by military survivors who lose benefits if they remarry before age 55. Kelly called the existing rules “archaic,” adding, “Those benefits were earned for those folks, and they should be able to keep them.”

The bill also improves survivor benefits, boosts VA research and suicide-prevention efforts, expands VA transition and education resources, and much more.

Kelly said the bill would do “a ton of good for tens of millions of veterans, their families, caregivers, survivors, in one opportunity” and said that good outweighed the legislation’s funding mechanism, which comes from changes to VA disability rating schedule for sleep apnea and tinnitus that are already in the works.

“You never get a perfect bill,” Kelly told Keilar. “In totality … this is worth it.”

MOAA in The Hill

The interview came less than a week after a commentary piece on the bill authored by Kelly appeared on The Hill’s website with a similar message.

“Backing this bill, imperfections and all, is not a political act; it is a pragmatic one,” Kelly wrote for the D.C.-based news outlet. “It honors the current service members and veterans who gave so much, the caregivers and families who carry the weight beside them, and the survivors who keep their memory alive.”

MOAA supports the legislation alongside more than 20 other stakeholder organizations including The American Legion, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and Wounded Warrior Project.