BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
LOU CORREA, CHAIRMAN
Bill No: AB 557
Author: Perez
Version: As amended May 5, 2011
Hearing Date: June 28, 2011
Fiscal: Yes
Consultant: Donald E. Wilson
SUBJECT OF BILL
Interagency council on veterans' services and programs.
PROPOSED LAW
1.Makes several legislative findings.
2.Creates a council of governmental and "stakeholder"
organizations to meet and discuss veterans' issues.
3.Requires the following appointments:
The secretary or director, as applicable, or his or her
designee with decision making authority, from each of the
following:
(A) Service and volunteering.
(B) The Department of Housing and Community
Development.
(C) The Employment Development Department.
(D) The State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.
(E) The State Department of Health Care Services.
(F) The Employment Training Panel.
(G) The State Department of Mental Health.
(H) The Military Department.
(I) The Department of General Services.
(J) The California Workforce Investment Board.
(K) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who
shall serve as chairman.
A representative of the Governor's office.
Two representatives of county government selected by the
Governor who are county veteran services officers.
The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Veterans
Affairs or a representative appointed by the Senate
Committee on Rules
The Chairperson of the Assembly Committee on Veterans
Affairs or a representative appointed by the Speaker of
the Assembly.
Representatives of two stakeholder organizations, with
one to be appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and
the other to be appointed by the Senate Committee on
Rules.
The Governor shall appoint a vice chairperson from among
the members of the council.
1.Allows for the establishment of outside work groups.
2.Requires the council to establish a plan within in a year
for "policy, regulatory, and resource changes needed to
accomplish objectives, as well as each agency's and
department's responsibilities on the council."
EXISTING LAW AND BACKGROUND
1.After the Vietnam War many veterans with Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) went undiagnosed and were found on
skid rows across the United States several years later.
2.Since the Vietnam experience many in the veterans'
community have been committed to not seeing history
repeat itself.
3.In response to the plight of the Vietnam Veterans,
community volunteers organized and sought to fill the gap
not being met by governmental organizations.
4.The Federal Veterans' Administration (VA) is presently
having problems processing claims. Since 2005 the
backlog has grown from 400,000 cases to over 1 million.
5.Many soldiers, however, are not in the backlog because
soldiers have a tendency when on the verge of discharge
to not bring up unresolved issues for fear of a delay in
separation from the military. So soldiers may often
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return home undiagnosed with no immediate help.
6.More and more veterans with unseen ailments such as PTSD
and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are being discharged
without diagnosis and without notification to the VA.
7.As a result of unseen and undiagnosed ailments these
veterans then fall through the cracks of the VA health
system and land on county mental health systems, which
according to the funding in that county, may or may not
cover that particular ailment.
8.When these conditions go untreated some veterans turn to
drugs and alcohol (now called "self-medicating") and can
often lose what few benefits they have. The loss of
these benefits only continues the downward spiral.
9.The California Department of Veterans' Affairs (CDVA) was
established in 1946 without the intent of duplicating the
VA. Neither has CDVA offered VA types of programs nor
has the legislature been willing to fund such programs.
10. Counties fund County Veteran Service
Officers (CVSO) to help veterans file VA claims. In 1997
the legislature agreed to fund fifty percent of the cost
of CVSOs when it passed SB 608 of 1997 (Johannessen), but
the state has never followed through on this commitment.
11. The 1997 agreement was modified by AB 2269
of 2004 (Samuelian) to include the help of veteran
service organizations (VSO) if funding ever came
available.
12. Assemblywoman Mary Salas requested an audit
of CDVA by the Bureau of State Audits (BSA), which was
completed in October of 2009.
13. The state audit found several short comings
with CDVA's ability to reach veterans.
COMMENT
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1.This bill is a response to the findings of the BSA audit.
2.According to the author's office, the purpose of this
bill is "establishing a framework within which some of
the horizontal Ýstate agencies] and vertical Ýfederal
agencies] government disconnects can be surmounted."
3.The findings in the BSA audit were what were expected.
CDVA provided most of the information to the auditors
from its own findings. CVSOs testified before the audit
that the auditors would find what they found.
4.This bill is a do-nothing bill if the executive branch
continues its pattern of not funding veterans'
priorities. Without a commitment from the executive
branch this council will simply be holding meetings for
the sake of holding meetings. In the words of General
Curtis LeMay this council could spend "a lot of time
sitting around, talking about what we should be doing."*
5.Does this bill allow persons and entities that could have
a potential financial interest in the outcome of the
body's decisions to be appointed to the council?
Depending on the definition of "stakeholder" it may.
6.Several legislative findings are made at the beginning of
the bill including that the Cal-Vet Home Loan program
"unfortunately" only serves veterans seeking to buy
homes. The Cal-Vet Home Loan Program is the most
successful program ever offered by CDVA and was set up to
assist veterans in attaining ownership primarily of
single-family homes. This is not unfortunate. If the
legislature and the governor want to completely change
the focus of the Cal-Vet program, then that is a policy
debate they should have. However it should be questioned
as to whether or not the legislature wants to immediately
bias this commission with the idea that our most
successful program is an unfortunate one.
7.Another legislative finding in this bill is that CDVA has
limited interaction and few formal agreements with other
agencies. However it is CDVA that has attempted to get
agreements with both the Employment Development
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Department (EDD) and the Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV) and its efforts have been met with resistance. The
legislature addressed this issue as well in AB 716 of
2009 (Huber), which passed the Assembly Floor, the Senate
Floor, and concurrence on the Assembly Floor 74-0, 33-0,
and 75-1, respectively. Resistance to this idea came
from the previous governor's office. It remains to be
seen if the present governor will continue the policy of
stopping cooperation among state departments.
8.Given the executive branch's reluctance in the past to
fully engage the issues facing veterans, the legislature
may wish to exercise more influence on this process than
in the present version of the bill.
9.The commission at the end of the first year is tasked
with setting a plan. This plan should double as a report
to the legislature on the intended goals of the
commission.
10. RECOMMENDED AMENDMENTS-
a) Have the commission's plan reported to the
legislature.
b) Set a sunset date for this council of December
31, 2017.
c) Have the CVSO positions appointed by the
Speaker and Senate Rules rather than the governor.
SUPPORT
None received
OPPOSE
None received
FOOTNOTE
*Pg. 269, LEMAY, The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay.
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