Tag: U.S. veterans

Over Veterans’ Protests, Trump Vetoes Measure to Block Student Loan Rules

New York Times logoPresident Trump sided with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over veterans’ groups, vetoing a measure that would have blocked new regulations that tighten access to student loan forgiveness.

WASHINGTON — President Trump vetoed a bipartisan resolution on Friday to overturn new regulations that significantly tighten access to federal student loan forgiveness, siding with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over veterans’ organizations that say her rules will harm veterans bilked by unscrupulous for-profit colleges.

The veto will allow stringent rules for students seeking loan forgiveness to take effect on July 1. The rules toughen standards established under the Obama administration for student borrowers seeking to prove their colleges defrauded them and to have their federal loans erased. Even if some borrowers can show they were victims of unscrupulous universities, they could be denied relief unless they can prove their earnings have been adversely affected.

The resolution “sought to reimpose an Obama-era regulation that defined educational fraud so broadly that it threatened to paralyze the nation’s system of higher education,” Mr. Trump said in his veto statement. “The Department of Education’s rule strikes a better balance, protecting students’ rights to recover from schools that defraud them while foreclosing frivolous lawsuits.” It was the president’s eighth veto. Continue reading.

Financial Assistance Available for Veterans Affected by COVID-19

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Minnesota Veterans affected financially by COVID-19 can now apply for financial assistance thanks to new funding approved by the legislature. Approximately $6.2 million is available in two new grants available for veterans.

“The economic effects of COVID-19 have been devastating on the pocketbook of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans, and our veterans are being hit especially hard,” said Senator Jerry Newton (DFL-Coon Rapids), ranking DFL lead on the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee. “These grant program provides an immediate boost for our veterans, and I encourage people to apply as soon as possible. I want to thank Governor Walz for prioritizing the needs of our veterans, and for my colleagues in the legislature who came together in bipartisan agreement to make this possible.”

The purpose of the COVID-19 Disaster Relief Grant and COVID-19 Special Needs Grant is to mitigate the negative effects and economic impact COVID-19 has had on Veterans and their families by providing one-time financial relief grants in the amount of $1,000 and $3,000 respectively. Applications for either grant must demonstrate a financial loss on or after the date of the Governor’s Emergency Executive Order, March 13, 2020. Continue reading “Financial Assistance Available for Veterans Affected by COVID-19”

DAY 20: Trump Shutdown Hurts Our Veterans, Anyone Who Eats Food

As the Trump Shutdown enters its 20th day, the impacts just keep getting worse. The shutdown doesn’t just hurt hundreds of thousands of federal workers. In fact, anyone who eats food is now at risk. Here’s the latest:

The Trump Shutdown disproportionately hurts our nation’s veterans.

ABC News: “As the partial government shutdown continues for a third week, veterans groups are sounding the alarm because of what they say is the disproportionate impact on America’s veterans and a growing fear that financial uncertainty could lead to self-harm.”

ABC News: “An estimated one-third of the federal workforce is made up of veterans, according to the Office of Personnel Management, meaning that more than 250,000 veterans are not currently receiving paychecks.” Continue reading “DAY 20: Trump Shutdown Hurts Our Veterans, Anyone Who Eats Food”

Saudi-funded lobbyist paid for 500 rooms at Trump’s hotel after 2016 electio

Trump International Hotel in Washington. Credit: Astrid Riecken, The Washington Post

Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel within a month of Trump’s election in 2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months, according to organizers of the trips and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

At the time, these lobbyists were reserving large numbers of D.C.-area hotel rooms as part of an unorthodox campaign that offered U.S. military veterans a free trip to Washington — then sent them to Capitol Hill to lobby against a law the Saudis opposed, according to veterans and organizers.

At first, lobbyists for the Saudis put the veterans up in Northern Virginia. Then, in December 2016, they switched most of their business to the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. In all, the lobbyists spent more than $270,000 to house six groups of visiting veterans at the Trump hotel, which Trump still owns.

View the complete December 5 article by David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell on The Washington Post website here.

U.S. Senator Tina Smith: We Must Ensure Veterans Receive Full Housing Benefits You are here Home

Senator Presses Department of Veterans Affairs to Launch Investigation, Provide Clear Answers To Guarantee Veterans are Paid in Full

U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) is helping to lead a bipartisan push to get the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to quickly clarify how it intends to “make whole” the more than 360,000 veterans in Minnesota and across the country who are at risk of being denied the full housing benefits they’ve earned.

In response to recent reports that the VA plans to withhold retroactive payments for missed or underpaid monthly housing benefits from some veterans because it would create a backlog, Sen. Smith joined 12 of her Congressional colleagues in asking the VA’s Inspector General to investigate and clarify how it will ensure full benefits are paid.

Last week, a top VA benefits official told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that veterans still awaiting payments would be made whole, but he was unclear on whether the VA would pay the higher rates that went into effect in August, or the lower benefits provided previously.  Continue reading “U.S. Senator Tina Smith: We Must Ensure Veterans Receive Full Housing Benefits You are here Home”

REAL STORIES: Veterans Hurt By Trump’s GI Bill Payment Delays

Today Trump will deliver remarks about supporting veterans and military families. What Trump won’t discuss is how his Department of Veterans Affairs has put tens of thousands of veterans at risk because of a backlog in GI Bill benefits.

Here are real stories of veterans hurt by delays in GI Bill payments:

“‘I’m about to lose everything that I own and become homeless,’ Roundtree said. ‘I don’t want to be that veteran on the street begging for change because I haven’t received what I was promised.’” – U.S. Army veteran Shelley Roundtree

Continue reading “REAL STORIES: Veterans Hurt By Trump’s GI Bill Payment Delays”

Vets rip Trump for using US troops in ‘craven political stunt’ at border

‘I have no words for my anger over this,’ one veteran writes.

Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

Veterans are calling out Trump’s unprecedented decision to send armed troops to the Mexico border just days before the midterm elections, denouncing the move as a political stunt.

“Donald Trump thinks unarmed people who are fleeing horrors and are still 1,000 miles away are a national security threat a week before election day?” says Will Fischer, a former Marine now with the advocacy group VoteVets.

“I don’t think so. It’s a political ploy to blow upon the embers of racism and nativism, and he is using the military again as a political prop to advance his own agenda.”

View the complete October 31 article by Eric Boehlert on the ShareBlue.com website here.