DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2008
DAV National
Convention to Push for VA Funding Reform
Presidential Candidate, Key Officials
Scheduled to Address Disabled Veterans
The Disabled American Veterans will once
again convene its national body to address the needs of disabled veterans,
including those who have served and sacrificed in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere when the organization meets at the Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas for its
87th National Convention Aug. 9-12.
More than 4,000 DAV delegates
will review important legislative initiatives aimed at building better lives for
disabled veterans and their families.
The major issues to be addressed by the Convention include the need to improve mental health care for the
psychologically wounded and their families, eliminating the lengthy delays
veterans encounter when submitting disability claims to the Department of
Veterans Affairs and guarantying full funding for veterans health care.
Senator John McCain, the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is scheduled to address the
convention delegates Aug. 9.
“We look forward to hearing from
the candidates on the issues disabled veterans now face,” said DAV National
Commander Robert T. Reynolds. “It is
important that they understand we have an overburdened, inadequately funded VA
health care system. It is struggling to take care of the many newly disabled
veterans while not forgetting those from past conflicts. There clearly needs to be a new and innovative
way to fund health care for veterans, and we hope to hear realistic plans.”
Also scheduled to address the
convention are Congressman Bob Filner, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on
Veterans Affairs, and Gordon Mansfield, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs.
A special moment will be the
presentation of the DAV’s Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year Award to Illinois
Department of Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, whose remarkable
accomplishments in service to veterans, despite suffering a double amputation
and other grievous wounds during combat duty in Iraq, inspired the nation and
advanced the causes of America’s disabled veterans.
The 1.4 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation’s wartime disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation’s disabled veterans and their families. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site www.dav.org.
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