Veteran Voice

The Department of Veterans Affairs approved $2.681 billion in building repair and upgrade work in the last three months of fiscal year 2026. That is a national total. The project list VA published on Oct. 14 includes 49 projects in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. It gives a project name, a city and a state, and nothing else. There are no dollar figures for any single project, no start dates and no completion dates. A veteran who wants to know when the elevator at her hospital gets fixed has to call the medical center and ask.

The same gap showed up twice more this week. The VA Office of Inspector General published an audit of painful scar disability decisions, and several headlines turned it into a story about veterans owing money back. The report does not address collecting money back at all. Washington’s Department of Veterans Affairs is running two paid service programs, one of them with internships listed open until filled. It has published no head count and no results for either one.

All three of this week’s main stories have that shape. The number is public. The part a person would act on is not. None of the three is a scandal, and two of them are arguably good news, a record maintenance budget and paid openings with published rates. But in each case the published document stops short of the question, and the answer sits with a local office.

The week also produced three things a person can use right now. A free stand down runs Oct. 31 at the Yakima SunDome. Operation Homefront is taking applications for rent-free apartments in Tacoma. And an Oregon veteran got a Bronze Star 57 years late because one saved page turned up.

VA Funded 49 Hospital Repair Projects in Washington, Oregon and Idaho Last Quarter

The VA approved $2.681 billion in building repair and upgrade projects in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. That is a national total, not the cost of the Northwest work. The list it published on Oct. 14 holds 49 projects in Washington, Oregon and Idaho: 31 in Washington, 15 in Oregon and 2 in Idaho. These are repairs and upgrades, not new hospitals. Eighteen Washington entries are filed under Seattle, which covers both VA Puget Sound campuses, and Spokane’s Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center has 10, including new roofs on five buildings. Idaho’s two are both in Boise, an emergency room expansion and a pharmacy expansion. The money comes out of a $4.8 billion maintenance budget for fiscal 2026 that VA describes as the largest in the department’s history.

SourcesFull story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/va-funded-49-hospital-repair-projects-in-washington-oregonVA News, VA announces $2.6B in infrastructure improvements in fourth quarter of FY 2026, Oct. 14, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-announces-2-6b-in-infrastructure-improvements-in-fourth-quarter-of-fy-2026/VHA non-recurring maintenance project awards, FY2026 Q4, the project list itself (PDF). VA is the only source for this list, so the two links above and here are one institution and two documents: https://department.va.gov/vha/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2026/10/VHA-NRM-Project-Awards-FY2026-Q4.pdfVA Puget Sound Health Care, Locations, for the two campuses the Seattle entries cover: https://www.va.gov/puget-sound-health-care/locations/VA Spokane Health Care, About us, for the Mann-Grandstaff name: https://www.va.gov/spokane-health-care/about-us/

A Watchdog Found Errors in 17,900 Painful Scar Ratings. Most Changed No Payment.

The VA Office of Inspector General reported on Oct. 21 that it reviewed 130 painful scar disability decisions. It found at least one error in 60 of them, an error rate of about 38 percent. It projected roughly 17,900 errors across a review population of about 47,300 decisions. That number is a statistical projection, not a count of confirmed errors. About 538,000 veterans had a painful scar evaluation as of July, so the audited group is a small share of them. The OIG put overpayments at a minimum of about 920 decisions and about $5.6 million, and it found no underpayments, so nobody in the sample was shortchanged. The report says nothing about collecting money back from veterans, which means a letter from the VA about a scar rating is not a bill. The Veterans Benefits Administration said inside the report that 7 of the 60 errors led to improper payments and the other 53 were technical or procedural. Its target date for correcting the errors the OIG identified is Feb. 28, 2027. If a rating does change, an accredited veterans service officer handles the response at no cost. Federal rules bar anyone from charging a veteran for help with an initial claim.

SourcesVA Office of Inspector General, Review of Accuracy of Claims Processors’ Disability Evaluation Decisions for Painful Scars, Report 25-03303-266, Oct. 21, 2026: https://vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-accuracy-claims-processors-disability-evaluation-decisions-painful-scarsVA Office of Inspector General, full report PDF: https://vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-10/vaoig-25-03303-266_final.pdfStars and Stripes, Federal watchdog identifies errors on veteran disability decisions for ‘painful scars’, Oct. 21, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-10-21/veterans-disability-claims-painful-scars-watchdog-23220921.htmlMilitary Times, Errors in disability cases for ‘painful scars’ resulted in overpayment: VA watchdog, Oct. 22, 2026: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/10/22/errors-in-disability-cases-for-painful-scars-resulted-in-overpayment-va-watchdog/MOAA, on the bar against charging veterans for help with an initial claim, Sept. 22, 2026: https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2026-news-articles/advocacy/court-ruling-exposes-vas-limited-power-to-stop-predatory-claims-companies/

Washington Runs Two Paid Service Programs for Veterans. Here Is What They Pay.

Washington’s Department of Veterans Affairs is running two paid service programs this fall. WDVA said in August that Vet Corps would begin a new program year on Sept. 16 after a funding pause. The program places members at colleges, county veterans offices and nonprofits as peer mentors. Members get a stipend of $1,942 a month, health insurance, training and an education award, and veterans, spouses and dependents get priority. The Veterans Conservation Corps lists 10 internships open until filled, with openings from Oakville and Olympia to Pullman and Mount Vernon. The listing itself does not show pay. The program overview is where the figures are, at $3,200 a month for 40 hours a week and $1,600 for 20 hours. The state calls those conservation payments stipends, not wages, and WDVA pays them directly. Neither program has published results. There is no head count for Vet Corps and no measured outcome for the conservation work. So this is a set of paid openings rather than a proven record. Questions on the conservation internships go to [email protected].

SourcesWashington State Department of Veterans Affairs, Vet Corps program relaunches with site locations across Washington, Aug. 5, 2026: https://dva.wa.gov/news/2026/vet-corps-program-relaunches-site-locations-across-washingtonWDVA, Veterans Conservation Corps Program Overview, for the stipend amounts and hours (PDF): https://dva.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-02/VCC%20Program%20Overview_0.pdfWDVA, List of Available Veterans Conservation Corps Paid Internships: https://dva.wa.gov/node/9058The state is the only source for both programs. Every link above is WDVA’s own, and no outside reporting on either program turned up this week.

Events, Trainings and Resources

Free Veterans Stand Down, Oct. 31 at the Yakima SunDome

The 27th annual Veterans Stand Down and Resource Fair runs Saturday, Oct. 31, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The venue is the Yakima SunDome at State Fair Park, 1301 S. Fair Avenue in Yakima. The Yakima Valley Veterans Coalition hosts it. It is free, and it is open to veterans, active duty members, reservists and their family members. Yakima County’s veterans program page says more than 100 services and resources will be on hand. The 2026 flyer lists medical screening, flu shots and dental assistance, along with housing and homeless support, counseling and referrals, and food boxes. It also lists employment help, VA claims processing, haircuts, civilian clothing, coats and blankets, and hygiene supplies. The flyer lists no registration and no fee, and it does not say what to bring, so call (509) 574-1537 and ask. One warning about the county’s web page. The paragraph at the top is left over from last year and says Oct. 31, 2025, and 26th annual. Go by the 2026 flyer.

SourcesYakima Valley Veterans Coalition, 27th Annual Stand Down Veteran Resource and Benefits Fair 2026 flyer (PDF): https://www.yakimacounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/46621/Stand-Down-Veterans-Benefits-Fair_2026Yakima County Veterans Program, Stand Down and Veterans Benefit Fair 2026: https://www.yakimacounty.us/2521/Stand-Down-and-Veterans-Benefit-FairVA Homeless Programs, stand down events calendar, re-checked Oct. 25, 2026, which still lists the Yakima event for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026: https://department.va.gov/homeless/stand-down-events/

Operation Homefront Has Rent-Free Tacoma Apartments for Veterans Out Under 4 Years

Operation Homefront was taking applications for rent-free apartments in Tacoma when we checked on Oct. 22. The nonprofit pays rent, internet and utilities for 12 months. The veteran pays a security deposit, so the apartment is rent-free rather than cost-free. The group charges no program fee. The rule is a discharge of honorable, or general under honorable conditions, in the past four years, and no injury or combat deployment is required. Preference goes to veterans within 200 miles of their home of record, and the group says processing takes 30 to 45 days. Applications go through my.operationhomefront.org, and the helpline is 877-264-3968. Its other main program, Critical Financial Assistance, is much narrower. That one requires a post-9/11 wound, illness or injury from the line of duty, plus separation within the last 10 years. Most veterans will not qualify for it.

SourcesFull story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/operation-homefront-has-rent-free-tacoma-apartments-forOperation Homefront, Transitional Housing (Apartments): https://operationhomefront.org/transitional-housing-apartments/Operation Homefront, CFA Eligibility: https://operationhomefront.org/cfa-eligibility/211info, Operation Homefront, which puts the fee at none: https://211info.org/agency/18746/15334

Good News

An Oregon Veteran Got His Bronze Star 57 Years Late. A Saved Page Made It Possible.

Retired Army Lt. Col. David Gauntlett received the Bronze Star Medal with Valor on Oct. 19 in Salem, 57 years after the three days it recognizes. In May 1969 he was a 20-year-old Air Force sergeant at Song Be, in Vietnam, running communications for a forward air control detachment. He stayed at his radio in an exposed jeep through three days of mortar fire, and he kept working after shrapnel hit his shoulder. He was recommended for the medal in 1969 and the paperwork was lost. Around 2000 a former captain from that detachment found Gauntlett’s own typed draft of the 1969 citation. That one page started an effort that ran more than five years. Rep. Val Hoyle’s office worked the case. The useful part for other families is that a lost recommendation is not a closed door. Federal law at 10 U.S.C. 1130 covers a recommendation that time limits would otherwise block. When a member of Congress asks, the service secretary has to review the proposal and decide it on the merits. The request has to come from a congressional office, and the law sets no deadline, so it is a real review and not an automatic yes.

SourcesU.S. Army, Oregon Guard honors Vietnam veteran with Bronze Star Medal for valor, Oct. 20, 2026: https://www.army.mil/article/296253/oregon_guard_honors_vietnam_veteran_with_bronze_star_medal_for_valorNational Guard, Oregon Guard Honors Vietnam Veteran with Bronze Star Medal with Valor: https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article-View/Article/4630334/oregon-guard-honors-vietnam-veteran-with-bronze-star-medal-with-valor/Office of the Law Revision Counsel, 10 U.S.C. 1130: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section1130&num=0&edition=prelim

Most of this week’s stories end at a phone number or an email address, and that is where the answers are. Veterans in crisis can call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

The Social Security Administration set next year’s cost-of-living raise at 3.6 percent on Oct. 14. Social Security payments and military retired pay go up on their own, because the law says so permanently. VA disability compensation does not. Congress has to pass a bill for it every year, and this year’s bill has not moved since May.

Two of this week’s three main stories are about a step that has not happened yet. The raise sits with the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. At the Supreme Court, the justices heard argument on Oct. 5 over where a veteran may take a constitutional challenge to a benefits law. Both lawyers gave ground. Nothing changed in either story for a veteran filing a claim today. In both, someone else decides what happens next.

The third main story is about two programs that are not benefits programs at all. Two Washington farms put veterans to work on rented land and thin budgets. Growing Veterans in Lynden lost a federal grant and closed a site. Its director says the group gave a food bank 6,200 pounds of produce last year, and that farm visits roughly doubled. Vets on the Farm in Spokane Valley began with a $6,000 grant from AgWest Farm Credit in 2015. Neither one pays a benefit.

The week also produced two things a veteran can use now. A free resource expo and stand down runs Nov. 6 in Pasco, and the address changed this year. The American Legion said its accredited service officers secured a record $25.8 billion in VA benefits in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That help is free.

Veterans’ 2027 Raise Is Tracking at 3.6 Percent, and the Bill Is Still in Committee

The Social Security Administration set the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment at 3.6 percent on Oct. 14. We reported in September that the figure was tracking near 3.3 percent. VA disability compensation uses the same percentage, but the VA increase is not automatic in law. Congress must pass the annual Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, and the president must sign it. This year’s bill is S. 4487, introduced in May by Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and sent to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Its official status record, checked again this week, shows no action after that referral. Published estimates based on 3.6 percent put a veteran rated 100 percent with no dependents near $4,080 a month, up from about $3,939. The VA has not published 2027 rate tables, so those dollar figures are estimates. The increase takes effect Dec. 1 and should appear in the payment arriving Dec. 31 or in early January. Veterans do not need to file anything, because the VA applies the increase on its own.

SourcesSocial Security Administration, 2027 cost-of-living announcement, Oct. 14, 2026: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2026-10-14.htmlS. 4487 on GovInfo, introduced bill text (one source, two documents, with the status record below): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s4487is/html/BILLS-119s4487is.htmS. 4487 on GovInfo, official bill status record, latest action May 11, 2026, retrieved Oct. 18, 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/119/s/BILLSTATUS-119s4487.xmlStars and Stripes, Oct. 14, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-10-14/disabled-veterans-military-retirees-benefit-increase-23155397.html

Justices Press Both Sides on Where Veterans Can Challenge a Benefits Law

The Supreme Court heard argument in Johnson v. United States Congress on Oct. 5. We previewed the case on Sept. 28. The question before the Court is which courthouse may hear such a case. May a veteran take a constitutional challenge to a benefits law into a federal district court, or must the claim stay inside the VA review system? Much of the argument turned on a related question. Can the Board of Veterans’ Appeals rule that an act of Congress violates the Constitution? Kevin J. Barber, arguing for the government, told the justices that “the Board can and must decide these constitutional claims.” Barber acknowledged the Board has not been consistent about that. Johnson’s lawyer, Jeffrey W. Chen, argued that the Board will not decide such a challenge. Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked whether his client still had a route. “If he wanted to, yes,” Chen said, allowing that Johnson could press the claim further up the chain. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed from the other side. “And that’s a very odd system, isn’t it?” she said. This case is only about which courthouse may hear a challenge to a benefits law itself. Nothing changed on Oct. 5 for a veteran filing a claim or appealing a rating. The justices are not deciding whether the prison payment limit in Johnson’s case is constitutional. A decision is expected by the end of the term next summer, so nothing is settled yet. One correction is worth repeating. Military Times, reporting on the argument, again described Johnson’s rating as reduced to 10 percent because of his incarceration. The law does not touch the rating. Starting on the 61st day of a felony incarceration, 38 U.S.C. 5313 caps what the VA pays. For a veteran rated 20 percent or higher, the cap is the 10 percent dollar rate.

SourcesSupreme Court of the United States, oral argument transcript, Johnson v. United States Congress, No. 25-735, Oct. 5, 2026: https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2026/25-735_ca7d.pdfSupreme Court of the United States, docket for No. 25-735: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-735.html38 U.S.C. 5313, Office of the Law Revision Counsel: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title38-section5313&num=0&edition=prelim

Two Washington Farms Give Veterans Work, Company and a Way Into Farming

Two Washington farm programs put veterans to work, and both run on rented land and thin budgets. Growing Veterans in Lynden is a nonprofit, and it calls its program dirt therapy. It is farm-based peer support rather than a benefits program, though the group is still a VA Work Study site where veteran students can earn pay. The group is smaller than it was. Farms in Mount Vernon and Auburn have closed, and a Whidbey Island site closed in 2025 after a federal grant was canceled. Executive Director Cody Call told Bellingham Alive he believes the grant was labeled as DEI related. Call said the group gave a food bank 6,200 pounds of produce in 2025, up from 1,400 pounds in 2024. He said farm visits rose from about 400 in 2024 to almost 800 in 2025. He said he wants the farm to be a community center open to anyone, veteran or not, and it holds a Friday morning coffee check-in. Vets on the Farm was founded by the Spokane Conservation District and sits on three leased acres in Spokane Valley. It started with a $6,000 grant from AgWest Farm Credit in 2015. Veterans there grow organic vegetables and starts, keep beehives, and learn greenhouse work, harvesting, marketing and farm finances. That account comes from a column in the Spokane Journal of Business. Its author, Sonja Jensen, is AgWest’s Washington state president and a volunteer at the farm, so it comes from a supporter. By her account, the program has served well over 500 veterans. For veterans who want to farm for a living, the Farmer Veteran Coalition announced 122 fellowship awardees in 43 states on May 1. It reported more than $464,000 in awards and equipment, with individual awards that generally run from $1,000 to $5,000. The rules are narrow. Applicants must be coalition members and must run an operating for-profit farm with a business plan. Payments go to approved vendors rather than to the veteran, and the next application window has not been posted.

SourcesBellingham Alive, “A Decade in Review for Dirt Therapy Nonprofit Growing Veterans,” May 31, 2026: https://bellinghamalive.com/lifestyle/a-decade-in-review-for-dirt-therapy-nonprofit-growing-veterans/Spokane Journal of Business, “Spokane effort helps military veterans enter agriculture,” July 16, 2026: https://www.spokanejournal.com/articles/18480-spokane-effort-helps-military-veterans-enter-agricultureFarmer Veteran Coalition, 2026 Fellowship Fund awardees, May 1, 2026: https://farmvetco.org/2026/05/01/national-farmer-veteran-coalition-announces-2026-farmer-veteran-fellowship-fund-awardees/Farmer Veteran Coalition, Fellowship Fund eligibility: https://farmvetco.org/fvfellowship/

Events, Trainings and Resources

Tri-Cities Veterans Resource Expo and Stand Down, Nov. 6 in Pasco

The expo runs Friday, Nov. 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the HAPO Center, 6600 Burden Blvd. in Pasco. That comes from this year’s flyer from the organizer, which the state’s calendar repeats. It is free for veterans, service members and their families, with no charge at the door. The venue changed this year, so check the address before you drive. Two pages connected to the organizer still show the 2025 location in Kennewick. The Columbia Basin Veterans Center is a Pasco nonprofit, not a VA facility. Its list for the day includes employment help, VA benefits assistance, housing and social services, and counseling. It also lists surplus goods, free haircuts and workshops run by veterans service officers. Its page says more than 30 vendors will attend, and the state’s calendar entry says lunch will be served. The registration form has a box to request a copy of your DD-214, and the organizer’s page does not say registration is required. Questions go to 509.604.0172 or [email protected].

SourcesWashington State Department of Veterans Affairs calendar, Nov. 6, 2026 entry, re-checked Oct. 18, 2026: https://dva.wa.gov/calendar/event/2026-11/tri-cities-veterans-resource-expo-stand-downTri-Cities Veterans Resource Expo & Stand Down 2026 flyer, the organizer’s own document, hosted by Washington State DVA (PDF): https://dva.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-04/Resource%20Expo%20%26%20Stand%20Down.pdfColumbia Basin Veterans Center, Veterans Resource Expo page and registration form: https://www.columbiabasinvetcenter.org/veterans-resource-expo

Good News

American Legion Service Officers Secured a Record $25.8 Billion for Veterans and Their Families

The American Legion said on Oct. 16 that its accredited service officers secured about $25.8 billion in VA benefits in fiscal 2026. That is the most in the organization’s history, and it covers benefits won for veterans and their families. That tops about $23.3 billion the year before, and the Legion says its service officers help any veteran with a VA claim at no charge. The VA says help from an accredited veterans service organization representative is always free, while accredited attorneys and claims agents may charge fees in some circumstances. The figure covers disability compensation, VA pension including survivor pension, dependency and indemnity compensation, and spina bifida benefits. It does not count education or veteran readiness and employment awards. It is also not a slice of a VA total, because it reflects awards on the claims Legion representatives handled. Separately, the VA said on Oct. 15 that it processed a record 3,111,399 disability compensation claims in fiscal 2026. The department put its own claims accuracy at 94 percent.

SourcesThe American Legion, Oct. 16, 2026: https://www.legion.org/information-center/news/service-officers/2026/october/258-billion-reasons-for-veterans-to-celebrateU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Oct. 15, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-in-fy-2026-processes-the-most-claims-ever/U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, get help from an accredited representative: https://www.va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative/

Two of this week’s biggest items are not finished, so we will follow the raise bill and the court case. Veterans in crisis can call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Veterans no longer get an automatic pass on the three-month limit for SNAP food benefits. In Washington, there is no longer any area where that limit is waived. The limit reaches nonexempt adults 18 to 64 who are able to work and have no child under 14 at home. Several exemptions still apply. The Government Accountability Office reported on Oct. 1 that the federal government’s own eligibility information had not caught up.

All three of this week’s main stories have that same shape. A rule moved, and the official answer has not. On SNAP, an old state web page is still posted with 2017 rules. The page revised in May 2026 is the one that governs. On dental care, the two sides arguing over a new House bill cannot agree on how many veterans the VA already covers. Bergman’s office says about 15 percent of enrolled veterans are eligible for VA dental services. The GAO put the figure at about 26 percent. On ibogaine, the FDA has opened a public comment period on how the first federally funded trials should be designed.

The practical lesson is the same in all three. Do not trust a web page about your own eligibility without checking the date on it. Call and ask instead. If you are on Basic Food in Washington, two dates matter. The current 36-month period ends Dec. 31, and a new one starts Jan. 1, 2027.

The week also produced things you can use now. A Portland nonprofit gives free care to veterans, service members and their families in Oregon and Southwest Washington, and it takes no government money. There is a free resource expo and stand down in Pasco on Nov. 6. And a lender built for veteran business owners has reopened its free accelerator, after passing a lending goal it set in 2022.

Veterans Lost Their SNAP Exemption, and Washington No Longer Waives Any Area

The 2025 budget law rewrote the list of people who are exempt from SNAP’s three-month limit, and veterans are not on the new list. Washington’s own manual says the state has had no federally approved waived areas since Feb. 1, including Tacoma and Puyallup. February 2026 was the first full month that clients in those areas had to meet the 80-hour monthly work requirement. The GAO reported on Oct. 1 that the eligibility information a veteran would use to check their own case had not kept up. GAO found that USDA “has not developed outreach materials tailored to veterans in the past 5 years.” Exemptions do remain, including being unable to work 80 hours a month with documentation, but a VA disability rating does not exempt you on its own. Washington’s current 36-month period ends Dec. 31, and a new one starts Jan. 1, 2027, which resets the three-month count. If any page, state or federal, tells you that veterans are automatically excepted, that page is out of date.

Sources

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/veterans-lost-their-snap-exemption-and-washington-no-longer

Government Accountability Office, GAO-27-108111, Oct. 1, 2026: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-27-108111

Washington State DSHS, ABAWDs, revised May 26, 2026: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/esa/basic-food-work-requirements/abawds-able-bodied-adults-without-dependents

Washington State DSHS, EAZ Manual Revision #1361, Feb. 6, 2026: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/sites/default/files/ESA/eaz-manual/revisions/Rev%201361.pdf

Public Law 119-21, sections 10102 and 10106: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ21/html/PLAW-119publ21.htm

House Bill Would Pay Local Dentists to Treat Rural Veterans Who Get No VA Dental

What is new this week is a bill, not a benefit. Rep. Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican, introduced H.R. 10419, the SMILE for Veterans Act, on Sept. 16. It would have the VA pay local dentists to treat enrolled veterans in rural areas who get no VA dental benefit at all. We reported Sept. 29 on the roughly 2.3 million veterans who do qualify under current law, by the GAO’s count. The bill authorizes $5 million in fiscal 2027 and $20 million a year from fiscal 2028 through 2030. It calls for a pilot in at least 10 rural locations across at least five states, and it names no states. The VA’s authority to run it would end three years after the pilot starts. The bill sits in committee, and nothing in it changes anyone’s benefit today.

Sources

H.R. 10419, introduced text, Sept. 16, 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLS/119/2/hr/BILLS-119hr10419ih.xml

Office of Rep. Jack Bergman, Sept. 25, 2026: https://bergman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1540

Government Accountability Office, GAO-26-108467, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108467

FDA Asks the Public How to Test Ibogaine for PTSD. Comments Are Due Nov. 20.

The FDA is asking the public how to design the first federally funded trials of ibogaine, a psychedelic drug, for adults with PTSD and opioid addiction. The notice never mentions veterans. The push behind it does. Much of the interest traces to a 2024 Stanford study of 30 special operations veterans with brain injuries who arranged their own treatment in Mexico. Their average PTSD symptoms were down 88 percent a month later, Stanford reported, though that was 30 people followed for one month. The FDA says the published research on ibogaine is thin. Its drug center director said the drug raises “important scientific questions as well as serious safety concerns.” The notice says ibogaine commonly lengthens a heart-rhythm measure called the QTc interval, which can trigger a dangerous rhythm and death. So the draft plan is cautious. Each person would get one dose, no higher than 10 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Participants would stay in a hospital unit for at least 36 hours with continuous heart monitoring. They would go home only after a 48-hour heart tracing shows no QTc prolongation. Comments are due Nov. 20, and nothing in the notice lets a veteran get ibogaine through the VA. These are early-phase trials, not a path to a prescription.

Sources

Federal Register, Design and Safety Considerations for Clinical Trials Involving Ibogaine Drug Products, Oct. 6, 2026: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/06/2026-20427/design-and-safety-considerations-for-clinical-trials-involving-ibogaine-drug-products-request-for

FDA, FDA seeks public input to support ibogaine research, Oct. 5, 2026: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-seeks-public-input-support-ibogaine-research

Stanford Medicine, Ibogaine treatment in special operations veterans, Jan. 2024: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/01/ibogaine-ptsd.html

Military.com, VA expands psychedelic therapy trials for PTSD treatment, Nov. 2025: https://military.com/feature/2025/11/03/va-expands-psychedelic-therapy-trials-ptsd-treatment.html

Events, Trainings and Resources

Tri-Cities Veterans Resource Expo and Stand Down, Pasco, Nov. 6. The expo runs Friday, Nov. 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the HAPO Center, 6600 Burden Blvd. in Pasco. It is free, and it is for veterans and their families. The state listing says employment, education, benefits, housing, surplus gear, haircuts, veteran service officers and workshops will be on site, with a free lunch from Texas Roadhouse. The listing does not say whether you need to register, so call ahead if that matters to you. The contact is Kelsey Lehto at 509-604-0172 or [email protected].

Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs event listing: https://dva.wa.gov/calendar/event/2026-11/tri-cities-veterans-resource-expo-stand-down

Returning Veterans Project, free care in Oregon and Southwest Washington. A Portland nonprofit has been connecting people with volunteer providers since 2005, and it says all appointments with those providers are free. It covers veterans, active duty service members, Guard and Reserve members, and close family who live in Oregon or Southwest Washington. There is no insurance, no referral and no paperwork, and no cap on visits. Eleven kinds of care are on the list, including mental health counseling, acupuncture, chiropractic care and physical therapy. The group says it is not affiliated with the VA, and its finance page states it takes no government funding. Care is first come, first served, not every service is available in every area, and prescriptions can still cost you money. Start at the provider directory and contact the provider yourself. Tell them the Returning Veterans Project referred you, because that is what keeps the visit free. The office number is 503-954-2259.

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/returning-veterans-project-offers-free-care-in-oregon-and

Returning Veterans Project, Provider Directory: https://returningveterans.org/get-services/provider-directory

Returning Veterans Project, Client FAQ: https://returningveterans.org/get-services/client-faq

Returning Veterans Project, How it Works: https://returningveterans.org/get-services/how-it-works

Returning Veterans Project, Finances: https://returningveterans.org/about/finances

Good News

Veteran Loan Fund Passed $118 Million, and Its Free Accelerator Is Open Again. The Veteran Loan Fund said on Sept. 30 that its member lenders had deployed more than $118 million in loan capital. That went to 1,537 veterans and military spouses as of June 30, and it covers all of the fund’s lending since January 2022. When the fund launched that month, it set a goal of $100 million within five years, and by its own account it passed that mark early. The part a reader can act on is the fund’s free business accelerator, which opened applications for its second group on Oct. 7. The fund says the eight-week program costs nothing to join and adds three years of coaching afterward. Participants can apply to qualify for a loan of up to $350,000 and a grant of $3,000 to $5,000. Those are what you can apply for, not what every graduate receives. The fund says space is limited and has not posted a deadline. Applications are at veteranloanfund.com.

Veteran Loan Fund, first Veteran and MilSpouse Accelerator cohort, Sept. 30, 2026: https://www.veteranloanfund.com/veteran-loan-fund-celebrates-its-first-veteran-and-milspouse-accelerator-cohort/

Veteran Loan Fund, VLF Accelerator: https://www.veteranloanfund.com/accelerator/

If you take one thing from this week, check the date on any page that tells you what you qualify for. The rule it describes may be a year out of date.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

The VA released its yearly veteran suicide report this week. The number that matters is not the total. Of the 6,488 veterans who died by suicide in 2024, 62 percent had not received VA health care in the year they died or the year before.

Four of this week’s five main stories come back to that same gap. The suicide report is one of them. A benefit can exist on paper and still not reach the person it was written for. A watchdog report says about 2.3 million veterans now qualify for free VA dental care. Stars and Stripes, reading the report, put the number actually using it at about 870,000. The Supreme Court hears a case Monday about whether a veteran can even get into federal district court to argue that a benefits law is unconstitutional. And the VA says some veterans will sign a consent form before certain prescriptions starting in 2027. Whether that produces a real conversation is a separate question.

The fifth story is about service members, not veterans. Combat and danger pay went up Oct. 1 for the first time since 2002. A pay table sat untouched for 24 years while the map it covered kept changing.

The week also produced things a reader can actually use. There are two resource fairs coming up in Washington, one in Bremerton and one in Lacey. There is a state legal office that is free and that most veterans here have never heard of. And eight veterans of the Bosnian War got medals that were recommended decades ago and never awarded.

Most Veterans Who Die by Suicide Aren’t in VA Care. A Grant Program Is Built to Reach Them.

The VA’s annual suicide report, released Sept. 30, counted 6,488 veteran deaths in 2024. Sixty-two percent of those veterans had not used VA health care in the year they died or the year before. Since 2001, the report says, the suicide rate for veterans enrolled in VA care fell 2.2 percent, while the rate for veterans outside the system rose 70.8 percent. The day before the report, the VA awarded $111.9 million to 191 community organizations through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox grant program. It pays for one year of services that began Sept. 30. The money funds groups veterans may already trust, rather than clinics many at-risk veterans will not walk into. Seven of those grants cover at least part of Washington. The VA counted 184 veteran suicides here in 2024, a rate close to double the state’s rate for adults overall. The state’s own Fox team says it filed 56 benefits claims and handed out 70 firearm and medication lockboxes in its last program year.

Sources

VA, annual Veteran suicide prevention report, Sept. 30, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-releases-annual-veteran-suicide-prevention-report-updated-with-2024-data/

VA, $112M in suicide prevention grants, Sept. 29, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-awards-112-million-in-suicide-prevention-grants/

VA, FY27 SSG Fox SPGP Awards List: https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/MENTALHEALTH/ssgfox-grants/docs/FY27-SSG-Fox-SPGP-2026-Awards-List_508.pdf

VA, Washington Veteran Suicide Data Sheet, 2024: https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/MENTALHEALTH/docs/data-sheets/2026/State_Data_Sheets_2026_Washington.pdf

WDVA, SSG Fox community-based suicide prevention: https://dva.wa.gov/sp/ssg-fox

About 2.3 Million Veterans Now Qualify for Free VA Dental Care

The Government Accountability Office reported Sept. 23 that the number of veterans eligible for free VA dental care grew about 70 percent in five years, reaching about 2.3 million in fiscal 2025. Most of that growth came from veterans who now hold a 100 percent service-connected rating. The rest came from veterans paid at the 100 percent rate because their conditions keep them from working. GAO also found that about 26 percent of the nearly 9 million enrolled veterans qualify for dental care. That leaves roughly three out of four who do not. Enrolling in VA health care does not by itself get you a cleaning. Stars and Stripes, reading the report, said the number of veterans actually using the benefit roughly doubled between 2020 and 2025, from about 420,000 to about 870,000. Nothing in the report changes what any veteran gets today.

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/about-2-3-million-veterans-now-qualify-for-free-va-dental

Sources

GAO-26-108467, released Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108467

VA dental care eligibility: https://www.va.gov/health-care/about-va-health-benefits/dental-care/

VA dental benefits for Veterans with disabilities: https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/special-claims/dental-care/

Linda F. Hersey, Stars and Stripes, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-09-23/more-disabled-veterans-dental-benefits-22943820.html

Supreme Court Will Decide Where Veterans Can Challenge Benefits Laws

The Supreme Court hears argument Monday, Oct. 5, in Johnson v. United States Congress, No. 25-735. The question is procedural. It is about which court may hear an argument that a benefits law itself violates the Constitution. It is not about ordinary VA claims or appeals. Nothing in it changes for a veteran filing a claim or appealing a rating today. Two appeals courts have held that the 1988 Veterans’ Judicial Review Act closed the federal district court door to that kind of challenge. Johnson’s lawyers count the split six circuits to two, and the government says that count is too broad. The justices are not being asked whether the prison payment limit at the center of the case is constitutional. A decision is likely by the end of the term next summer, so nothing is settled on Oct. 5.

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/supreme-court-will-decide-where-veterans-can-challenge

Sources

Supreme Court October Term 2026 argument calendar, amended Sept. 14, 2026: https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalOctober2026.pdf

38 U.S.C. 5313: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title38-section5313&num=0&edition=prelim

Brief of amici curiae NVLSP, Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and Swords to Plowshares: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-735/392324/20260121140846202_2026.01.21%20-%20Johnson%20v.%20US%20Congress%20-%20Final.pdf

SCOTUSblog case page and docket timeline: https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/johnson-v-united-states-congress/

VA Will Require Signed Consent for Some Mental Health and Pain Prescriptions in 2027

The VA announced new informed consent guidance on Sept. 28 covering psychotropic medications, a category that includes antidepressants, antipsychotics, stimulants, anti-anxiety drugs and opioids. Starting in 2027, a veteran younger than 30 will need to sign consent before a VA provider prescribes an antidepressant. A veteran of any age will need to sign before a provider prescribes an opioid and a benzodiazepine at the same time. The VA will also add standardized patient education and require providers to document a discussion of risks, side effects, benefits, alternatives and how to stop the drug safely. This is VA guidance, not a federal regulation, and nothing changes for a veteran filling a prescription today. Signature consent before starting long-term opioid therapy for pain already existed.

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/va-will-require-signed-consent-for

Sources

VA press release, Sept. 28, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-moves-to-strengthen-informed-consent-transparency-for-veterans/

VHA Directive 1005, Informed Consent for Long-Term Opioid Therapy for Pain, May 13, 2020: https://www.ethics.va.gov/docs/policy/VHA_Handbook_1005_Opioid_Therapy_IC.pdf

Combat and Danger Pay Go Up for the First Time Since 2002

The Pentagon doubled hostile fire pay to $450 a month and raised imminent danger pay to $275 a month, or $9.16 for each day in a designated area. Both changes took effect Oct. 1. It is the first increase in either pay since 2002. A service member cannot draw both pays in the same month. Hostile fire pay requires a qualifying incident, not simply a deployment, and imminent danger pay is paid by the day up to the $275 cap. Military Times reported that the same memo cuts hardship duty pay for location from $150 to $100 a month. This is service-member pay, and it does not change VA disability compensation or any veteran benefit.

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/combat-and-danger-pay-go-up-for-the-first-time-since-2002

Sources

Department of War news release, Oct. 1, 2026: https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4616621/war-department-increases-two-hazard-pays-for-first-time-in-nearly-quarter-centu/

Corey Dickstein, Stars and Stripes, Oct. 1, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-10-01/pentagon-raises-combat-pay-23027389.html

Hope Hodge Seck, Military Times, Oct. 1, 2026: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/10/01/troops-get-first-increase-in-24-years-for-hostile-fire-danger-pays/

Events, Trainings and Resources

Kitsap County Veterans Resource Fair and Roundtable, Bremerton, Wednesday, Oct. 21. The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs is holding three back-to-back events at the Bremerton Elks Lodge #1181, 4131 Pine Rd NE. A women veterans forum runs 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and is in person only. A resource provider roundtable runs 10 to 11:45 a.m., and a resource fair where veterans and families can meet providers one-on-one runs noon to 1:30 p.m. WDVA’s notice lists no admission charge and asks for an RSVP to [email protected] or 360-485-1158. There is also a virtual option for the roundtable. Details: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/945067314/vaac-kitsap-county-veterans-resource-provider-roundtable-veterans-resource-fair

Thurston County Veterans Resource and Job Fair, Lacey, Thursday, Nov. 5. The Thurston County Veterans Assistance Fund is hosting this from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Lacey Community Center, 6729 Pacific Ave SE. The listing says it covers employment, community resources, housing and financial help, health and wellness services, and VA benefits and claims support, with food provided. No admission charge is listed and no RSVP is required. The contact is 360-837-8236 or [email protected]. WDVA listed the event as active when we checked it Oct. 4. Details: https://dva.wa.gov/calendar/event/2026-09/thurston-county-veterans-assistance-fund-veterans-resource-job-fair

Washington’s Office of Military and Veteran Legal Assistance. This is a state office inside the Attorney General’s Office whose job is connecting veterans, service members and some family members with free civil legal help. It is not a law firm. State law bars the Attorney General from giving you legal advice or representing you. Instead the office recruits and trains volunteer attorneys, keeps a registry of them and of legal aid programs, and assigns incoming requests. You may get a referral to a legal aid organization, or self-help information. In some circumstances you may get a referral to a volunteer lawyer for up to an hour of advice. You qualify if you are domiciled or stationed in Washington. The help is civil only, and the law bars the office from assisting anyone being criminally prosecuted. There is no fee. Start at the civil legal assistance form on the Attorney General’s veteran resources page, or call 206-464-6431 or email [email protected]. Details: https://www.atg.wa.gov/veteran-and-military-resources

Full story: https://veterannews.substack.com/p/washington-s-office-of-military-and-veteran-legal-assistance

Good News

Eight veterans who served in the Bosnian War in the 1990s received medals on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29, more than 30 years after the fact. WAFF, the television station in Huntsville, Alabama, reported that Sen. Tommy Tuberville presented the awards, and that the recommendations had been made decades ago and never acted on. Retired Brig. Gen. Guy L. Sands-Pingot, who lives in Huntsville, received the Bronze Star and told the station that Bosnia is one of the unsung campaigns where Americans were put in harm’s way. Some family members accepted medals for service members who have since died.

Source: WAFF 48, Veterans honored on Capitol Hill for Bosnian War service, Sept. 30, 2026: https://www.waff.com/2026/09/30/veterans-honored-capitol-hill-bosnian-war-service/

This item rests on a single news report. We looked for a second account or an official release this run and did not find one, so the details above are attributed to WAFF.

Two of this week’s five main stories were counts. The GAO counted a dental benefit growing faster than its use. The VA counted a population its own system never reached.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

All four of this week’s stories started with somebody checking work that was supposed to be correct already. A VA inspector general checked a list VA had sent Congress. Two state attorneys general opened investigations into a company’s billing. University researchers checked blood samples nobody had sorted by military service before. Five reservists checked their own pay records and found a gap.

The biggest miss was the list. VA told Congress in May 2025 that it had ended 446 contract actions worth about $120.9 billion. The inspector general found the real figures were 435 actions worth about $1.1 billion. A second list, sent that July, counted prosthetics, surgical implants, wheelchair ramps and nursing home orders as terminated. The report says those were never terminated at all. Nothing was cut from veterans’ care there. The count was simply wrong.

The other three stories are about a gap between what is written down and what a veteran can actually get. Federal law says help with a first VA disability claim must be free, but Congress removed the criminal penalty in 2006. Federal employees who serve in the Reserve or Guard have been owed differential pay since 2009, and the Supreme Court settled the main legal question in April 2025. The government still has not paid them. Researchers reported this month that younger veterans carry more PFAS than civilians their age. VA’s own public health page says PFAS blood testing is not available at its medical centers.

A VA List Told Congress It Cut $120 Billion in Contracts. The Watchdog Found $1.1 Billion.

VA’s inspector general reported on Sept. 22 that VA terminated 435 contract actions for convenience, with total contract values of about $1.1 billion. The list VA sent Congress in May 2025 claimed 446 actions worth about $120.9 billion. Sixteen entries on that list were reported at $1 billion or more, and auditors found none actually topped $150 million. A second list in July 2025 included 974 supply orders and 151 health care orders that were never terminated. Those included orders for prosthetics, surgical implants, wheelchair ramps and nursing home services. A VA official told auditors the department built a dashboard to track the cancellations and the dashboard miscalculated the values. Auditors also found VA contracting staff generally complied with federal acquisition rules, and the report makes no recommendations and questions no costs.

Sources: VA Office of Inspector General, Review of Contracts Terminated for Convenience (25-03033-230): https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-contracts-terminated-convenience

VA OIG full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-09/vaoig-25-03033-230_final.pdf

Government Executive, VA’s contracting crackdown gave some staff hours to do hundreds of reviews: https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/09/vas-contracting-crackdown-hours-hundreds-reviews/416219/

Two States Target a Claims Company That Charged Veterans Up to $20,000

The attorneys general of New York and Illinois told a federal bankruptcy judge on Sept. 8 that they have open investigations into Trajector Medical and intend to take legal action. The Florida company charges veterans as much as $20,000 for help with VA disability claims. NPR reported that Trajector acknowledges in its contracts that it is not accredited by VA. Federal law says help with a first claim must be free, but Congress dropped the criminal penalty for breaking that rule in 2006. Trajector denies the allegations, and spokesman Steve Zenofsky told NPR that the company stands behind how it operates. Trajector and 21 related companies are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The two states argue the fees were illegal, so the cash the company holds should not count as property of the estate. Free help with a first claim is available from VA-accredited representatives, including veterans service organizations. NPR also spoke with veterans who were satisfied with the help they got.

Sources (the reporting on the letter originates with NPR, and the Stars and Stripes item followed it a day later): NPR, via KNKX Public Radio, Sept. 24, 2026: https://www.knkx.org/2026-09-24/states-threaten-action-against-company-profiting-off-disabled-vets-after-npr-report

Stars and Stripes, 5 things to know in veterans news, Sept. 25, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-09-25/job-training-supreme-court-case-lawmakers-recognized-22952928.html

Military Officers Association of America, on the accreditation rule and unaccredited claims companies, April 15, 2026: https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2026-news-articles/benefits/advocacy-in-action-states-need-support-protecting-veterans-from-claim-sharks/

Study Finds Higher ‘Forever Chemical’ Levels in Veterans Under 40. VA Clinics Do Not Test for Them.

Veterans aged 20 to 39 carry more PFAS in their blood than civilians the same age, according to a Brown University study published Sept. 14 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Brown’s release on the study puts the gap at 13 to 24 percent depending on the chemical. Stars and Stripes reported wider gaps from the same paper, which is paywalled, and the study shows an association rather than a cause. Researchers found no difference between veterans over 40 and civilians their age. VA’s public health page says PFAS blood testing is not available at VA medical centers. VA also states there are no presumptions related to PFAS exposure in the military. Lead author Christian Hoover told Stars and Stripes that VHA coverage does not pay for the tests. VA spokesman Quinn Slaven told the paper that VA doctors can order them through commercial lab partners when deemed medically necessary.

Sources: Brown University news release, Sept. 14, 2026: https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-09-14/veterans-pfas

Stars and Stripes, Sept. 15, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-09-15/toxic-pfas-veterans-healthcare-22849768.html

VA Public Health, PFAS page, last updated April 16, 2026: https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/pfas.asp

Reservists Sue for Years of Unpaid Federal Differential Pay, Including at the VA

Five reservists filed a class action before the Merit Systems Protection Board on Sept. 23, according to the motion they shared with Stars and Stripes and Army Times. They are federal civilian employees. Differential pay is the gap between a civilian salary and lower military pay, owed when they are called up during a declared national emergency. The case names the Departments of Defense, Justice and Veterans Affairs, and one plaintiff is a healthcare engineer at the Orlando VA Healthcare System. The Supreme Court settled the main legal question in Feliciano v. Department of Transportation in April 2025, though the service still has to happen while an emergency declaration is in effect. Federal law sets no deadline for filing that kind of complaint, and the filing argues the claims can reach back to 2009. Nothing has been decided here. The board has not certified a class, and neither news report includes a response from the three departments.

Sources: Stars and Stripes, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-09-23/military-reservists-lawsuit-unpaid-compensation-22941577.html

Army Times, Sept. 23, 2026: https://www.armytimes.com/pay-benefits/2026/09/23/5-military-reservists-file-class-action-lawsuit-seeking-differential-pay/

Supreme Court, Feliciano v. Department of Transportation: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/605/23-861/

38 U.S.C. 4327, Cornell Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/4327

If you work for the federal government and serve in the Reserve or Guard, pull your leave and earnings statements for every stretch of active duty since 2009. Nobody is going to run that check for you.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Four of this week’s six stories turn on a date. Nov. 1 decides who gets a three-month break on life insurance premiums. Oct. 14 brings the last piece of data behind next year’s disability raise. Oct. 1 starts $1.17 billion moving toward groups that house homeless veterans and keep others from losing their homes. Oct. 2 is the day ten House members want answers about a VA committee that has not met since December 2024.

The insurance date is the one that can cost somebody real money. VA is skipping three months of premiums on Veterans’ Group Life Insurance. To get the break, the policy has to be active on Nov. 1. If a veteran is already behind on payments, the holiday does not erase what is owed. VA says the balance still has to be paid or coverage lapses in February. Somebody could go three months without a bill and lose the policy anyway.

The other two stories are about what a number counts. The VA inspector general reported 4,712 severe staffing shortages across all 139 VA medical centers. That is not a count of empty jobs. It is a tally of survey answers from facility officials, and the OIG says it did not check them. In the House, a bill would nearly triple the fee veterans pay to refinance a VA loan. The $4 billion in savings attached to that language covers two separate fee changes, not just the refinance one.

None of this changes a payment or an appointment today. What it changes is what is worth watching over the next six weeks.

VA Will Skip Three Months of VGLI Premiums, but the Policy Has to Be Active on Nov. 1

VA will stop collecting premiums on Veterans’ Group Life Insurance from Nov. 1, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027, and coverage stays in force. No one has to apply, though veterans who pay through their bank’s own bill pay service have to stop and restart those payments themselves. VA says about 457,000 veterans hold VGLI policies, and puts the waiver at nearly $150 million, or roughly $330 for a typical policyholder. The condition sits in VA’s frequently asked questions page, updated Sept. 15. Coverage has to be active on Nov. 1, so a cancellation or a lapse on or before Oct. 31 leaves a veteran out. The holiday also does not erase a past-due balance, and VA’s FAQ says failing to pay it makes coverage lapse once the holiday ends. The break covers VGLI and nothing else. SGLI, family SGLI, traumatic injury protection, VALife and Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance are all unaffected.

Sources (every detail here comes from VA’s own announcements, so there is no independent check on the participation and savings figures):

VA press release, Sept. 16, 2026: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-announces-insurance-premium-holiday-that-will-save-veterans-nearly-150-million/VGLI Premium Holiday Frequently Asked Questions, Veterans Benefits Administration: https://www.benefits.va.gov/insurance/vgli_premium_holiday_faqs.aspVeterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) program page, VA.gov: https://www.va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/vgli/

The 2027 VA Disability Raise Is Tracking Near 3.3 Percent

The yearly cost-of-living raise for VA disability pay is tracking at about 3.3 percent for 2027, based on inflation readings through August. One more month of data has to come in before the number is set. The government averages a price index called the CPI-W for July, August and September, then compares that average to the same three months of 2025. BLS publishes the September index on Oct. 14, and the Social Security Administration says the official figure comes in October. A cooler September pulls the number down, and a hotter one pushes it up. Nothing changes for anyone right now. Whatever gets announced takes effect Dec. 1, 2026, and the raise in effect until then is 2.8 percent. VA’s rate page says the department has to match the percentage Social Security uses, though Congress still passes a bill each year to authorize it. Stars and Stripes reported in May that this year’s version went to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Those bills pass every year without much argument.

Sources:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary, August 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htmSocial Security Administration, Latest Cost-of-Living Adjustment: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/latestCOLA.htmlVA, Current Veterans disability compensation rates: https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/Stars and Stripes, Payments to disabled veterans, eligible family members would increase under inflation-fighting bill (May 14, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-05-14/bill-increases-payments-disabled-veterans-21674163.html

VA Awards What It Calls a Record $1.17 Billion to Fight Veteran Homelessness

VA announced $1.17 billion in homelessness grants on Sept. 14, going to 680 organizations. The money starts moving Oct. 1. About $855 million runs through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program as one-year grants. That money pays for case management, helping veterans keep the home they have or get re-housed fast. Another $318 million goes through the Grant and Per Diem program as three-year grants. It pays for transitional housing and service centers. Some of it is set aside for women veterans and for veterans who are elderly, chronically ill or raising children. VA had not published a state-by-state breakdown of this round as of Sept. 18. Last year’s smaller version sent $818 million nationwide, and Washington’s share was $35.5 million split among eight organizations. A bigger national total does not promise a bigger local one. Providers should learn in the next few weeks whether they got more, the same, or less. VA used the same announcement to say it housed 51,936 homeless veterans last year. VA also said it cut its disability claims backlog by more than 70 percent since January 2025. That backlog figure is the department’s own, with no outside audit attached.

Sources (all three are VA describing its own spending, so the housing and backlog figures are the department’s own count):

VA News, VA awards $1.17 billion in grants to fight Veteran homelessness (Sept. 14, 2026): https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-awards-1-17-billion-in-grants-to-fight-veteran-homelessness/VA Homeless Programs, FY 2027 Grant Awards (updated Sept. 14, 2026): https://department.va.gov/homeless/fy-2027-grant-awards/VA Puget Sound Health Care, VA awards nearly $36 million in grants to fight Veteran homelessness in Washington (Sept. 25, 2025): https://www.va.gov/puget-sound-health-care/news-releases/va-awards-nearly-36-million-in-grants-to-fight-veteran-homelessness-in-washington/

A VA Committee on Women Veterans Has Not Met Since December 2024

Ten House Democrats wrote to VA Secretary Doug Collins on Sept. 17 asking why the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans has not met in more than 21 months. Congress created the committee in law, and the charter Collins signed in October 2025 says it is expected to meet at least twice a year. VA’s own public page for the committee lists minutes through December 2024 and nothing after. The lawmakers wrote that they understand the most recent chair, Col. (Ret.) Wanda A. Wright, resigned in April 2026 in protest. We found no separate public confirmation of that account. They asked five questions and want answers by Oct. 2, including whether the committee’s estimated operating budget and staff were redirected while it sat idle. That estimate, about $360,000 a year in the charter, is VA’s own projected cost rather than a documented amount spent. The lawmakers are raising questions. They have not shown that VA broke any rule. No woman veteran’s appointment, enrollment or disability claim changes because the committee did not meet. The committee advises. It does not deliver care or decide benefits. The one outlet that covered the letter, KVIA in El Paso, did not include a response from VA.

Sources (the letter and the congressional press release come from the same office, so they count as one source. VA’s committee page and charter are the independent check):

Rep. Maggie Goodlander and Rep. Veronica Escobar, letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins (Sept. 17, 2026): https://goodlander.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026.09.17_letter_to_secva_for_the_inactivity_of_the_advisory_committee_on_women_veterans.pdfVA Advisory Committee Management Office, Advisory Committee on Women Veterans (minutes and reports list): https://department.va.gov/advisory-committee-management/advisory-committee-on-women-veterans/VA, Charter of the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans, signed Oct. 6, 2025: https://department.va.gov/advisory-committee-management/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2025/12/advisory-committee-on-women-veterans-20251006.pdfKVIA, Members of Congress demand info on VA Advisory Committee on Women Veterans (Sept. 17, 2026): https://kvia.com/news/military/2026/09/17/members-of-congress-demand-info-on-va-advisory-committee-on-women-veterans/

All 139 VA Hospitals Reported Severe Staffing Shortages, and the Report Does Not Count Vacancies

Officials at all 139 VA medical centers told the department’s inspector general this year that they have severe staffing shortages. The count came to 4,712 shortages across 389 occupations, in a report issued Sept. 11. That is up from 4,434 last year. The number is not a count of empty positions. The OIG sent a questionnaire to each facility in late March and early April. It wrote that the answers represent officials’ input at a single point in time. It also wrote that it did not validate their accuracy. A facility can flag an occupation whether it has zero openings or 100. Practical nurse was the most commonly reported shortage occupation, at 59 percent of facilities, and police was the most common nonclinical one at 57 percent. VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven said the report is not based on actual vacancies and is not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages. Slaven put VA-wide vacancy rates at 15 percent for doctors and 9 percent for nurses. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., drew the opposite conclusion, arguing that eliminated positions artificially lower the vacancy rate while facilities still cannot hire. The OIG made no recommendations and called the report a descriptive review. Nothing about a veteran’s appointment, enrollment or care changes because of it.

Sources:

VA Office of Inspector General, OIG Report of VHA’s Responses on Severe Occupational Staffing Shortages FY 2026 (26-01046-271, issued Sept. 11, 2026): https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/national-healthcare-review/oig-report-veterans-health-administrations-responses-severeVA Office of Inspector General, OIG Determination of VHA’s Severe Occupational Staffing Shortages FY 2025 (25-01135-196): https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/national-healthcare-review/oig-determination-veterans-health-administrations-severe-1Government Executive, VA’s reported staffing challenges in healthcare facilities hit 7-year high (Sept. 16, 2026): https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/09/vas-reported-staffing-challenges-healthcare-facilities-hits-7-year-high/416034/Military Times, VA facilities struggle to staff mental health, nursing, safety positions, watchdog finds (Sept. 15, 2026): https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/09/15/va-facilities-struggle-to-staff-mental-health-nursing-safety-positions-watchdog-finds/

A House Bill Would Nearly Triple the Fee Veterans Pay to Refinance a VA Loan

Section 104(b) of H.R. 9237 would raise the funding fee on a VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan from 0.50 percent to 1.42 percent. It would also double the fee to assume an existing VA loan, to 1.0 percent. Neither change is law. The refinance fee is still 0.50 percent today. The House has not passed the bill. A motion to recommit failed 210 to 211 on July 16. The bill had not come back to the floor as of Sept. 16. On a $400,000 refinance, the fee today is $2,000, and under the bill it would be $5,680. Many veterans would pay nothing either way. The law already waives the fee for veterans receiving VA disability compensation and for several other groups. The bill does not change that. The fee increase pays for benefit increases in the same section, including a new $833.33 monthly supplemental allowance for veterans who already get an aid and attendance allowance. CBO scored the earlier standalone version of this language, H.R. 6047. It found the home loan fee provisions would cut federal spending by about $4 billion from 2026 through 2036. That $4 billion covers two changes together. One is the refinance and assumption increase. The other is an extension of current higher fees on regular VA purchase loans. CBO does not separate the two. CBO also found the overall bill would add more than $5 billion to on-budget deficits in each of the four 10-year periods beginning in 2037. The Mortgage Bankers Association told Congress it could not support the earlier bill as drafted and asked lawmakers to remove or substantially change the fee increases.

Sources:

Military Times, Proposed VA loan fee hike could make refinancing more expensive for some borrowers (Sept. 15, 2026): https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/09/15/proposed-va-loan-fee-hike-could-make-refinancing-more-expensive-for-some-borrowers/H.R. 9237 bill text, U.S. Government Publishing Office: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr9237ih/html/BILLS-119hr9237ih.htm38 U.S.C. 3729, Loan fee, Office of the Law Revision Counsel: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title38-section3729&num=0&edition=prelimCongressional Budget Office cost estimate, H.R. 6047: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62209

Most weeks in veterans news end with something to wait for. This one ends with a calendar.

Veteran Voice is also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Every story in Veteran Voice this week runs through a file. Three of them turn on what the government does with that file. The fourth turns on which line of it you read.

Court transcripts say five hard drives of Marine Corps muster rolls can place Camp Lejeune claimants on that base on specific dates. The Justice Department turned those drives over after months of delay. Then, according to the transcripts, it refused to let claimants use them in settlement talks, and said it would consider the records only in active litigation. About 5,000 veterans and family members are answering 30-day letters while that gets sorted out.

President Trump pushed the other way on Sept. 8. His executive order gives the Pentagon 30 days to start sending discharge records to VA the moment a person leaves the service. In those first two stories, the file is the case, and the wait is the injury. The third is different. A new Office of Personnel Management rule took effect Sept. 2, and it changed how much of a federal worker’s personnel file counts in a layoff. Performance ratings come first now, and veterans’ preference is a fixed number of points added on top. Nothing there is missing or late. What changed is the weight.

The week’s fourth story is a different kind of problem. Veteran unemployment fell from July to August, and it also rose compared with a year ago. Both numbers come out of the same monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Which one you hear depends on which line someone reads to you.

Transcripts Show the Justice Department Won’t Let Claimants Use the Camp Lejeune Records

Court transcripts released in September describe five hard drives of Marine Corps muster rolls, more than three million files. The transcripts say those monthly logs can put a named person at Camp Lejeune on a given date. That is exactly what about 5,000 pending claimants, veterans and family members both, are being asked to prove on a 30-day clock. The Justice Department turned the drives over after months of delay. But the transcripts show it will not allow the records in settlement talks. It will consider releasing them only once a case is in front of a judge, which almost none of these are. A four-judge panel has ordered both sides to reach a mass settlement framework by Oct. 30. The court says it may rebuild the plaintiffs’ legal team or impose fines and other sanctions if they miss it. Four years after the first hearing, not one Camp Lejeune case has gone to trial out of more than 400,000 claims filed. Money has moved, though. Stars and Stripes reported in March that the department had paid about $708 million to more than 2,500 people. Those claimants took a faster preset payment instead of a full case review. Advocacy groups will hold a third mass rally at the Capitol on Sept. 14 and 15. They are backing a bill called the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act.

Sources (everything here except the March payment figure comes from one outlet, Public Radio East, which obtained the court transcripts):

Public Radio East, Feds hold records as Camp Lejeune deadlines loom for 5,000+ veterans (Sept. 11, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-09-11/feds-hold-records-as-camp-lejeune-deadlines-loom-for-5-000-veterans

Public Radio East, Camp Lejeune water victims heading back to Capitol for third mass rally to demand legal fix (Sept. 10, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-09-10/camp-lejeune-water-victims-heading-back-to-capitol-for-third-mass-rally-to-demand-legal-fix

Public Radio East, Federal court imposes October deadline for lawyers from both sides of Camp Lejeune water litigation to reach settlement (July 1, 2026): https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-07-01/federal-court-imposes-october-deadline-for-lawyers-from-both-sides-of-camp-lejeune-water-litigation-to-reach-settlement

Stars and Stripes, Justice Department speeds up Camp Lejeune toxic water payments as lawyers urge government to do more (March 16, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/branches/marine_corps/2026-03-16/camp-lejeune-toxic-water-payments-21088217.html

Trump Order Gives the Pentagon 30 Days to Start Sending Discharge Records to VA

President Trump signed an executive order Sept. 8 on veterans’ benefits and records. It gives the Pentagon 30 days to start sending a service member’s military and medical records to VA at the moment of discharge. A White House fact sheet released with the order says that handoff now averages 90 to 180 days. That is the administration’s own figure, and the fact sheet cites no study behind it. VA says the change could cut another 20 to 30 days off claim processing for people who just left the service. That is a projection, not a measured result. This does not touch eligibility rules or payment amounts, and it does not change anyone’s disability rating. A veteran who has been out for years sees nothing change. The order sets two more deadlines. Agencies have 120 days to review existing technology contracts and require that the systems work together. They have 180 days to build systems that would share records continuously from the day a person enters service. That last piece is a goal for March, not something that starts in October. The order carries no money. Its text says it is subject to the availability of appropriations, and it creates no right enforceable in court. Stars and Stripes reported that neither the order nor the fact sheet put a price on the technology work. The first real test comes in early October.

Sources (three of these four are the government describing its own action, so the 90-to-180-day baseline and the 20-to-30-day projection are the administration’s own numbers):

The White House, Executive Order Accelerating Access to Veterans’ Benefits and Employment Opportunities (Sept. 8, 2026): https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/accelerating-access-to-veterans-benefits-and-employment-opportunities/

The White House, Fact Sheet on the executive order (Sept. 8, 2026): https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/09/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-accelerates-veterans-access-to-benefits-and-employment-opportunities/

Department of Veterans Affairs press release (Sept. 8, 2026): https://news.va.gov/press-room/president-trumps-executive-order-means-faster-access-to-va-healthcare-benefits-than-ever-before/

Stars and Stripes, President signs executive order for faster delivery of VA benefits (Sept. 9, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-09-09/trump-order-faster-delivery-va-benefits-22798981.html

A New Federal Layoff Rule Turns Veterans’ Preference Into Points

New rules for federal layoffs took effect Sept. 2. Under the old system, an agency ranked workers by appointment type, then veterans’ preference, then length of service. Performance came last. Under the Office of Personnel Management’s new rule, performance comes first. An agency adds up a worker’s three most recent performance ratings. A top rating is worth 7 points, so the ceiling is 21. Then preference points go on top. A veteran with preference who is rated 30 percent or more disabled adds 5. Other workers with preference add 3. Everyone else gets none. Preference was not removed, but it can now be outscored. A commenter raised that during the rulemaking, using a veteran with 40 years of service who ranks below a non-veteran with three top ratings. OPM answered that the example shows preference working inside a performance-centered system rather than being erased. Scott Hope is national service director for Disabled American Veterans. Task and Purpose reported his public comment on the proposed rule. He wrote that it lets a non-veteran displace a veteran with far more service over small rating differences. Office of Personnel Management data reported by Task and Purpose put about 621,700 veterans in federal jobs in 2024. Timing decides which rules apply to you. A layoff notice issued before Sept. 2 follows the old rules. A notice issued on or after Sept. 2 uses the new ones. None of this touches VA disability pay, VA health care, or the preference a veteran gets when applying for a federal job.

Sources:

Federal Register, Office of Personnel Management, Reduction in Force final rule, published Aug. 3, 2026, effective Sept. 2, 2026 (doc. 2026-15665): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/03/2026-15665/reduction-in-force

Task and Purpose, How an overhaul of federal layoffs could affect veterans (Apr. 15, 2026): https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/veterans-opm-rule-layoffs-2026/

Veteran Unemployment Fell From July but Rose From a Year Ago

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published August jobs figures Sept. 4. Nothing in the report changes a VA benefit, an eligibility rule or a payment, but it is worth reading carefully anyway. The unemployment rate for all veterans was 3.4 percent, down from 4.2 percent in July. For post-9/11 veterans it fell from 4.7 percent to 3.5 percent. The same government release tells the other half. BLS publishes veteran figures in Table A-5 as an August-to-August comparison, and on that measure the rate went up. All veterans were at 3.1 percent in August 2025 and 3.4 percent last month. Post-9/11 veterans went from 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent, and the count of post-9/11 veterans out of work rose from 130,000 to 155,000. Both readings are correct, because they measure different things. Table A-5 is not seasonally adjusted, unlike most headline figures in the report. Seasonal adjustment smooths out predictable swings, like summer hiring, so one month can be compared with the next. Without it, a July-to-August change mixes real movement with normal noise. The veteran sample is also small enough that single months jump around. One more line is worth reading. The rate for post-9/11 women veterans fell to 2.3 percent from 3.1 percent a year earlier. Over that same year their labor force shrank by about 78,000 people. The share of them working or looking for work fell from 75.0 percent to 68.4 percent. A rate can fall because people found work or because people stopped looking, and the table does not say which. The broader job market did improve. Heather Long, chief economist for Navy Federal Credit Union, told Military Times it is a lot easier to get a job now than a year ago.

Sources:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation for August 2026, including Table A-5 on employment status by veteran status: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.htm and https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm

Military Times, Unexpected hiring surge drives down unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans (Sept. 4, 2026): https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/09/04/unexpected-hiring-surge-drives-down-unemployment-rate-for-post-911-veterans/

If you have something pending, this is a good week to check that your own file says what you think it says. A record you can produce is worth more than one that exists somewhere.

The VA's inspector general published two reports on back-to-back days this week. In one, people inside the department spotted the problem early and said so out loud. In the other, they flagged a slice of it and then let it go. What the audits describe is what happened next.

One report says VA paid about $11.2 million for a Veterans Crisis Line backup center that never took calls. The OIG found that crisis line leaders and the official who certifies the invoices knew within about six weeks that the contractor could not do the work. VA renewed the contract for another option year anyway. The other report looked at cases where VA moved to cut or end a veteran's disability compensation. VBA's own Compensation Service had flagged one piece of that problem in a March 2024 quality call. Quality staff told the auditors that nobody followed up with the regional offices.

The week's other two stories are the opposite shape. Nothing has gone wrong in them, because nothing has been decided. The Pentagon agency that recovers America's war dead says it is ready to search North Korea again and has put that offer in front of the White House. Next year's VA disability raise is still a guess. Two of the three months of inflation data that set it have not been published. Congress has not passed the bill that applies it either. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington is one of its 15 cosponsors.

If you have a claim in progress, the ratings audit is the one worth reading closely. It spells out what a proposal letter has to contain, and it estimates that about 4,000 letters in 2024 fell short.

VA Paid $11.2 Million for a Veterans Crisis Line Backup That Never Took Calls

A VA Office of Inspector General review issued Sept. 1 found the department paid about $11.2 million for a crisis line backup center that never took calls. The payments covered mid-July 2022 through June 2023. The replacement subcontractor had not obtained an authority to operate, the security sign-off a system needs before it handles VA data, and it never reached planned staffing. Crisis line officials and the invoice-certifying official knew within about six weeks, the report says, and VA renewed the contract before terminating the backup work in June 2023. VA has agreed only to ask its lawyers whether it can pursue the money, and no claim has been filed. The report does not find that any veteran in crisis went unanswered, and VA's own responders kept taking the calls. The ways to reach the line have not changed.

Sources (this story rests on one primary document, the OIG report):

VA Office of Inspector General, Review of Contracted Backup Services for the Veterans Crisis Line, Report 23-03464-146: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-contracted-backup-services-veterans-crisis-line

Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig-23-03466-146_final.pdf

A Third of VA Cases That Proposed Cutting a Veteran's Disability Rating Had Errors, Watchdog Finds

The VA Office of Inspector General released a review Aug. 31 of cases where the department moved to cut or end a veteran's disability compensation. From a sample of 229 files, auditors estimated at least one processing error in about 9,300 of 27,100 cases closed in 2024, or 34 percent. The true rate could fall anywhere between 27 and 42 percent. In an estimated 4,000 of those, the required warning letter was defective, sometimes leaving out the right to a hearing or naming the wrong reason. The OIG put improper payments at a conservative floor of $16.9 million, a total that mixes underpaid veterans with overpaid ones. This was a review of process, and it changes no veteran's rating by itself.

Sources (this story rests on one primary document, the OIG report):

VA Office of Inspector General, Review of VBA's Processing of Adverse Actions for Service-Connected Disability Compensation, Report 25-01011-154: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/review/review-vbas-processing-adverse-actions-service-connected-disability-compensation

Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig-25-01011-154_final.pdf

Pentagon Agency Offers to Resume Searching North Korea for the Korean War Missing

Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said Aug. 31 that his agency is ready to send recovery teams back into North Korea. He said the offer is with the White House, and that a resumed program would work the Unsan and Chosin areas four times a year. About 5,300 of the roughly 7,400 Americans still missing from the Korean War are believed to be in North Korea, McKeague said. No American team has worked inside the country since 2005, nothing has been agreed to, and no summit has been announced. DPAA also classifies hundreds of the unaccounted for as non-recoverable, meaning it believes the man died but does not believe his remains can be brought home. For families waiting on a case, nothing changes today.

Sources (the offer, the 5,300 figure and the proposed schedule come from a single Stars and Stripes report of McKeague's remarks):

Stars and Stripes, "US ready to search North Korea for war dead if Trump-Kim diplomacy advances": https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2026-09-01/korean-war-remains-recovery-trump-kim-22726456.html

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Korean War Accounting: https://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/Korean-War/

No One Knows the 2027 VA Disability Raise Yet

The 2027 VA disability increase does not exist yet, and every number circulating now is a projection. Stars and Stripes reported Aug. 28 that the raise is expected to be 3.7 or 3.8 percent, citing the VA Disability Group, a claims firm. VA's rate page says the department is required by law to match Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment, which is calculated from July, August and September inflation data. Only July has been published. Social Security announced last year's 2.8 percent increase on Oct. 24. Congress also passes a bill each year to apply the increase. This year's Senate version, S. 4487, has not moved since May, when Sen. Jerry Moran introduced it with 15 cosponsors including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. Congress has passed that bill every year, nothing suggests a fight this time, and veterans do not have to file anything once it passes.

Sources:

Stars and Stripes, "5 things to know in veterans news: 2027 disability pay rate increase": https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-28/new-cookbook-epilepsy-treatment-disability-pay-increase-22675800.html

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Schedule of Releases for the Consumer Price Index: https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/cpi.htm

Social Security Administration, "Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026": https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-10-24.html

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans disability compensation rates: https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/

S. 4487, Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119s4487is

Public Law 119-42, Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025: https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ42/PLAW-119publ42.htm

Two of this week's stories are about a decision nobody has made yet. The other two are about people who saw a problem early and did not stop it.

Five of this week’s six stories come back to the same thing. Someone had already met the standard. Then a record decided what they actually got. Sometimes the record was never created. Sometimes it never moved. Sometimes it said the wrong word.

The VA’s own inspector general published two audits a day apart. One found that VA facilities mishandled about one in four of the enrollment applications auditors reviewed. At some sites, 14 percent were never logged or date-stamped. Its sharpest finding is about its own blind spot. Quality checks only looked at applications that made it into the system, so the cases most likely to hurt a veteran were the cases least likely to get caught. The other audit found the benefits side of VA cannot reconcile its PACT Act spending against the claims work it did. Questioned costs came to zero. That one is about proof, not missing money.

The human version showed up twice. Soldiers wounded in the March 1 drone attack on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, said a military hospital in Germany refused them inpatient beds over the kind of flight they arrived on. They already held Purple Hearts, awarded for exactly the thing the hospital said had not happened. About 1,300 Navy family members who left Bahrain at the start of the war are being told to pick a new home base in the United States. One family is out close to $40,000 because they left on ordinary move orders instead of an evacuation authorization.

The fifth story is the oldest one here. Veterans groups want the VA to give Gulf War Illness its own disability rating, because no category for it exists and claims run through symptom labels instead. The sixth is not a paperwork story at all. The VA opened a psilocybin trial for veterans whose depression has not responded to anything else, with VA Puget Sound in Seattle as one of five sites.

Six Months After Fleeing Bahrain, Navy Families Are Told to Find a New Home Base

The Navy has told about 1,300 family members who evacuated Bahrain that they will not be going back for now. Officials asked them to choose a new permanent duty station in the United States. Safe-haven allowances for Defense Department civilian employees were set to run out at the 180-day mark, which fell on Aug. 25. Veteran Voice could not confirm whether the State Department extended them. Vice Adm. Curt Renshaw, who commands U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told families the group is “really in uncharted territory right now.” One family had been scheduled to leave before the war and departed on ordinary move orders rather than a safe-haven authorization. That difference locked them out of per diem. A Navy spouse told Stars and Stripes the family has paid close to $40,000 and still does not know if it will be repaid. The Pentagon’s casualty count for the war reached 775 killed or wounded.

Sources:

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2026-08-21/bahrain-evacuation-military-families-navy-22618186.html

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-08-21/iran-war-casualty-increase-22617896.html

VA Watchdog Finds Problems With One in Four Veterans’ Health Care Sign-Ups

The VA Office of Inspector General reported on Aug. 21 that staff correctly processed only 75 percent of the 420 health care enrollment applications auditors sampled. At some facilities, 14 percent of those reviewed were never kept or date-stamped, so there is no way to tell whether they were handled on time. Another 10 percent got the wrong eligibility or priority group answer, which changes what a veteran pays for care and medication. The audit does not estimate how many veterans nationwide were affected. VA agreed to all eight recommendations.

If you are waiting: do not assume silence means denial. Check your status at VA.gov, or call the enrollment office at your nearest VA medical center and ask for the date your application was received.

Sources:

https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/audit/audit-healthcare-enrollment-program-va-medical-facilities

https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-welcomes-200000-new-healthcare-enrollees-so-far-in-2026/

Veterans Push the VA to Give Gulf War Illness Its Own Disability Rating

Veterans groups want the VA to add Gulf War Illness to the schedule it uses to rate disabilities. Today the VA treats it as an undiagnosed illness and pays for individual symptoms. Anthony Hardie of Veterans for Common Sense told Stars and Stripes that claims filed that way are denied at a high rate. The CDC gave the illness its own diagnostic code in October 2025, but a code is not a rating, and the VA has not followed. Advocates have no estimate of what a rating would cost, which is usually the number that decides how fast Washington moves. Nothing has changed for anyone filing now, so hold on to the medical records that show how long your symptoms have lasted.

Sources:

https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2026-08-25/veterans-push-gulf-warn-illness-designation-22658298.html

https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp

Auditors Say VA Cannot Match Its PACT Act Benefits Spending to the Claims Work

A second inspector general audit, released Aug. 20, examined the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund. VHA and VBA together spent about $51.7 billion from it between fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2025, and Congress added $52.7 billion more for fiscal 2026. The health care side built ways to estimate, track and reconcile what it spends. The benefits side never built the reconciliation piece. Questioned costs came to zero, so the finding is about proof rather than missing money. None of it changes the presumptive conditions, the filing process or the evidence a veteran needs today.

Sources:

https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/audit/audit-vha-and-vba-controls-over-toxic-exposures-fund

https://department.va.gov/financial-policy-documents/financial-document/chapter-06-toxic-exposures-fund/

Soldiers Wounded in the Kuwait Drone Attack Say They Waited Months for Care

Four Army Reserve soldiers wounded in Iran’s March 1 drone attack on Port Shuaiba told The War Horse they waited months for care they needed within days. All four spoke anonymously because they are still on active-duty orders. One, an Army colonel, said there was “absolutely no evacuation plan” at the port. Soldiers said staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center told them they did not count as wounded in action. The reason given was that they had not arrived on a formal medical evacuation flight. They already held Purple Hearts. Military medicine experts told The War Horse that is not what the term means. Landstuhl did not answer questions about it. One soldier said her military records were never transferred into the VA system, which blocked her referrals to neurology and orthopedics. The VA did not dispute any specific claim about her care.

Sources (one investigation, published in two places):

https://thewarhorse.org/iran-war-wounded-healthcare/

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/27/they-survived-an-iran-war-drone-attack-six-months-later-theyre-struggling-to-get-care/

VA Opens a Psilocybin Trial for Treatment-Resistant Depression, With a Seattle Site

The VA has launched PIVOT, a trial that will give psilocybin to about 240 veterans whose depression has not responded to standard treatment. It runs at five VA hospitals through June 2031, including VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle. Veterans get two doses a month apart, each with a therapist in the room. There is no placebo group. The comparison is a smaller dose of the same drug, which is a weaker test than a placebo would give. Psilocybin is not available at VA clinics, and VA officials said veterans should not self-medicate or trade proven treatment for psychedelics on their own. The study is listed as NCT07226232 on ClinicalTrials.gov. Ask your VA mental health provider about screening.

If you are struggling right now, the Veterans Crisis Line is 988, then press 1, or text 838255. You do not need to be enrolled in VA care to use it.

Sources:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07226232

https://www.va.gov/philadelphia-health-care/news-releases/the-philadelphia-va-healthcare-system-named-as-one-of-five-va-sites-to-test-efficacy-of-psilocybin-as/

The decisions in these stories were made months ago. What is still missing is the delivery.

Six stories ran this week, and five of them turn on the same gap. Something exists on paper. A fund, an FDA approval, a discharge plan, a funding target, a benefit Congress already wrote into law. Then you follow it down to the veteran waiting on it, and it is not there yet, or it never arrived at all.

The VA announced $29 million for homeless veterans on Aug. 14. That is real money, and it is more flexible than most VA money. The goods do not start moving until October, and the ride contracts are not signed. A VA mental health official explained that FDA approval does not put a treatment in a VA clinic, and the example she offered took close to two decades to reach veterans. The Pentagon admitted it had been cutting off six months of free health coverage to Guard and Reserve troops because of how their orders were coded in a database. It admitted that only after a Navy reservist sued.

Watchdogs did most of the reporting. The VA Office of Inspector General laid out how a Richmond hospital sent a veteran with severe dementia home to a spouse who had said plainly that she could not manage the care. The Government Accountability Office counted about $285 billion in deferred repairs on the buildings troops live and work in. GAO also checked the Veterans Crisis Line and found it holding steady, answering calls in under nine seconds through a year of federal staffing cuts. That is the good news in the pile, and it is worth saying out loud.

Two of these reach into the Pacific Northwest directly. More than 160,000 Reserve and Guard members were authorized for active duty orders in fiscal 2026, and Washington and Oregon units are inside that number, so the new TRICARE reimbursement window is open here too. GAO’s maintenance review covered Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force installations across the country, which is the same backlog that shows up in an old barracks anywhere.

VA Sets Aside $29 Million to Buy Homeless Veterans Food, Phones and Rides

The VA announced a $29 million fund on Aug. 14 for homeless veterans and veterans in HUD-VASH. About $11 million buys goods that clinicians can hand out, including food, clothing, blankets, hygiene items and phones. The other $18 million pays for rides to medical appointments, counseling, housing searches and stores. The authority comes from Section 403 of the Elizabeth Dole Act and runs through Sept. 30, 2027. The catch is timing, because the transportation contracts are not awarded yet and the goods do not start until early fiscal 2027, which begins Oct. 1.

Sources

VA News: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-launches-new-program-to-help-homeless-veterans-with-emergency-supplies-transportation/

Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/29/2026-15301/implementation-of-section-403-of-the-senator-elizabeth-dole-21st-century-veterans-healthcare-and

FDA Approval Does Not Mean the VA Will Offer It. Here Is Why.

Dr. Ilse Wiechers, a VA mental health official, told Military Times how the department decides what treatments veterans can actually get. FDA approval is only the start. The VA also asks whether the research holds up for veterans, whether it has the staff and space, and whether adding the treatment would pull resources from other care. Drugs face the National Formulary and its Criteria for Use on top of that. One device treatment for depression was approved by the FDA in 2008 and took close to two decades to reach more than 60 VA facilities.

Sources

Military Times: https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/08/18/who-decides-what-works-inside-vas-mental-health-treatment-playbook/

National Center for PTSD, VA/DoD 2023 Clinical Practice Guideline: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/txessentials/cpg_ptsd_management.asp

Watchdog Faults VA Hospital for Sending a Veteran With Dementia Home Despite the Family’s Warnings

The VA inspector general found that the Central Virginia VA Health Care System in Richmond did not arrange a safe discharge for a veteran with severe dementia. Community nursing homes turned the veteran down over the behavior, so a psychiatrist sent the veteran home instead, with a 14 day supply of medicine and 30 hours a week of aide help. The spouse had asked repeatedly for long term care. No one evaluated whether the plan was safe, and no one called the ethics team. The report, issued Aug. 14, carries six recommendations, and the health care system director agreed to five of them.

Sources

VA Office of Inspector General: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/hotline-healthcare-inspection/review-patients-discharge-central-virginia-va-health-care

Full report PDF: https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-08/vaoig_-_25-04450-218_final.pdf

Pentagon Reverses Rule That Cost Guard and Reserve Troops Six Months of Health Coverage

A memo signed Aug. 10 drops the requirement that a reservist’s orders be coded as tied to a war or named operation to qualify for the Transitional Assistance Management Program. That program gives 180 days of premium-free TRICARE to a service member and family after active duty ends. Two troops could serve the same tour and only one would keep coverage, depending on how the orders were entered in DEERS. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Gontarz served 1,400 straight days and lost his coverage a month after separating, then sued in April. Anyone denied on or after April 24, 2020 can now ask the Defense Health Agency to pay back premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

Sources

Task and Purpose: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/reserve-national-guard-healthcare-expansion/

Federal News Network: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2026/08/dod-changes-transitional-health-care-eligibility-for-reservists-following-lawsuit/

The Veterans Crisis Line Held Steady Through the Staffing Cuts. The 988 System Around It Did Not.

GAO found the Veterans Crisis Line answered 89 to 99 percent of contacts each month through fiscal 2025, with an average wait of 8.6 seconds for calls. Staffing barely moved, from 1,162 people in October 2024 to 1,149 in April 2026. The wider 988 network is a different story. The federal office that coordinates 988 fell from 24 people to 18, contacts rose about 23 percent, and a JAMA survey found 71 percent of local 988 center leaders called their center understaffed. Veterans reach VA responders by dialing 988 and pressing 1.

Sources

GAO-26-109046: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-109046

Government Executive: https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/08/national-crisis-and-support-hotline-operations-remained-consistent-despite-staffing-cuts-watchdog-found/415474/

Pentagon Falls $285 Billion Behind on Base Repairs, Watchdog Finds

GAO reported Friday that the Defense Department is roughly $285 billion behind on maintaining the buildings service members live and work in. The department told itself in 2014 to fund routine maintenance at 90 percent or more of what its own cost model recommends. The Army, Navy and Air Force asked for about 80 percent. The Marine Corps dropped from 80 percent to 40 percent over five years. GAO also found bases cannot hire and keep repair workers, especially at remote installations, and that their work order data is generally unreliable. The report carries 13 recommendations, and the department agreed fully or partly with 12.

Sources

Military Times: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/08/21/some-military-barracks-chronically-neglected-due-to-285-billion-in-maintenance-backlogs-gao-finds/

GAO-26-107255: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107255

Announcements travel fast and aid travels slow, and this week the dates in the fine print were the whole story.