BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Senator Ben Hueso, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1565 HEARING DATE: 6/24/14
AUTHOR: V. Manuel Pérez
VERSION: 6/17/14
FISCAL: Yes
VOTE: Majority
SUBJECT
California Department of Aging: grants: LGBT veteran services.
DESCRIPTION
Existing law :
Federal law:
Provides a broad range of benefits and services to veterans of
the U.S. Armed Forces, delivered primarily through the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but also through other
federal and some state agencies.
State law:
1. Provides a modest array of benefits and services to
veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, delivered primarily
through the California Department of Veterans Affairs
(CalVet), but also through other state agencies.
2. Establishes and funds a system for assisting veterans in
applying for and managing their federal and state veterans
benefits, which includes federal claims representation by
county veterans service officers (CVSOs).
This bill:
Authorizes the Director of the California Department of Aging to
provide grants as follows:
1. To nonprofit organizations that demonstrate experience in
providing culturally competent services and training;
2. So that the nonprofit organizations can provide training,
outreach, and education to agencies, individuals, and other
appropriate entities that provide services to veterans who
are elder and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT);
3. Employing a request for proposal (RFP) process in awarding
the grants;
4. To the extent appropriations are made available for the
program.
BACKGROUND
Veterans Benefits
The federal VA's Veterans Benefits Administration administers a
variety of benefits and services that provide financial and
other forms of assistance to servicemembers, veterans, their
dependents and survivors. These include monetary payments,
education and training, home loans, life insurance, and
vocational rehabilitation. In addition, the VA's Veterans Health
Administration provides health care to eligible veterans.
The State of California also provides benefits to veterans, but
one of the most significant state benefits is assistance in
filing and managing claims for federal veteran benefits.
LGBT Veterans
As with any other demographic cohort within the state's senior
citizen population, older veterans are in the time of life when
the needs for health care and high levels of living assistance
are intensified. Federal veterans payments, including pensions,
disability compensation, and "aid and attendance," are vital to
helping senior veterans on fixed incomes live in safety and
dignity. Furthermore, federal VA health care may be their best
health care option for senior veterans.
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Older veterans (60 and older) are those who performed their
military service between World War Two and the Vietnam Era. By
definition, their service came long before the September 2011
change in Department of Defense policy, which now allows open
service by LGBT members. Older gay and lesbian veterans served
within different cultural and legal paradigms under which, had
their sexual orientation been revealed during military service
in the 1940s through 1980s, and perhaps even under the
now-defunct "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" period (1994-2011), the
career or personal consequences were likely to be serious at a
minimum, and perhaps catastrophic.
According to the author's office and the sponsors, the
psychological impact of closeted military service experienced by
many older LGBT veterans was such that it followed them into
civilian life, rendering many so unwilling to reengage the
experience that they even opted not to claim the veterans
benefits they had earned.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center, the bill's cosponsor, serves more
than 3,000 senior members of the local LGBT community. A recent
survey of their clients revealed that 22.7 percent had served in
the military, but only four percent were receiving veterans
benefits. As representative of the situation, the LA LGBT Center
offers the following story about a WWII veteran:
Jack Murphy (a pseudonym) clung to a net attached to a raft
for three days after the ship he was on was destroyed by the
Imperial Japanese Navy. In his written account of the ship
sinking, "I remember lashing myself into the net to keep from
drowning as I slept?Finally, on the third day after sinking,
an LCI found our raft." Now 87, Murphy is one of just a
handful of still-living survivors of his ship's sinking. He
has faced medical issues as a result of the experience and he
and his partner struggle financially. Murphy, however, was too
traumatized by both the experience of living in close quarters
on the ship and the sinking of the vessel that he determined
to never apply for his benefits as a veteran. Last year,
spurred by the threat of losing their home to foreclosure,
Murphy and his partner came to a benefit workshop at the Los
Angeles LGBT Center. The Center offered a safe space and
social workers who help facilitate conversations with benefit
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counselors. Murphy did receive VA benefits including a
quadrupling of his monthly income, back pay, access to VA
medical care and the peace of mind that he and his partner
would not lose their home.
COMMENT
Committee Staff Comments :
1.The author and sponsors indicate that the services provided
are intended to identify, perform outreach to, educate, and
help older LGBT veterans connect with the existing veterans
claims representation process - and is not intended to
supplant or replicate the claims representation process, such
as the work done by county veterans service officers (CVSOs).
The author and sponsors might consider amending the bill to
clarify that the services provided to veterans do not involve
direct claims representation before the VA.
2.California's state-level veterans benefits often are provided
along with a mandate that associated costs be absorbed within
existing department resources. For example, the constraints
have significantly diminished the state's relative
contribution toward funding CVSOs in the past decade. Would
appropriations supporting this grant program come at the
expense of other scarce funding for state veterans programs?
Related Legislation :
ACR 153 (Dickinson, pending in Senate, 2014) proclaims June
11, 2014, and June 11 of each subsequent year, California LGBT
Veterans Day, to be celebrated statewide.
AB 1505 (Pan, Ch. 397, Stats. 2012) pertains to LGBT
individuals, who served in the U.S. Armed Forces, but received
a discharge under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Harass"
policy, which rendered them ineligible to receive federal
veteran benefits. AB 1505:
a. Provides that -- if the federal government acts to
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reinstate federal veterans benefits to those individuals,
then the State of California also shall reinstate any
state-offered benefits to them.
b. Requires CalVet to provide Internet resources, Internet
links, and print materials regarding legal service
organizations that specialize in military discharge
upgrades.
SJR 9 (Kehoe, Res. Ch. 29, Stats. 2010 ) urged the President
and the Congress to adopt then-pending legislation that would
end the federal military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,
Don't Pursue, Don't Harass." This bill was the third and last
in a series of similar resolutions by Sen. Kehoe, which
included SJR 6 (Res. Ch. 63, 2007) and SJR 11 (Res. Ch. 108,
Stats. 2005).
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Veterans for Peace Jon Castro Chapter 19 (sponsor)
Los Angeles LGBT Center (cosponsor)
Support: None beyond the sponsors
Oppose:
American Legion, Department of California
AMVETS, Department of California
Association of the United States Army
California Association of County Veterans Service Officer
California State Commanders Veterans Council
Jewish War Veterans, Department of California
Military Officers Association of America, California Council of
Chapters
Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of California
Vietnam Veterans of America, California State Council
Analysis by: Wade Cooper Teasdale
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