The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to provide grants to expand legal support for veterans barred from receiving VA benefits, because they received an other-than-honorable discharge as a result of discrimination, military-related trauma or a mental health condition.
In a proposed regulation published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the VA announced a pilot program that would award grants to nonprofit organizations and local governments to help veterans navigate the discharge upgrade and VA benefits processes.
The program would be similar to one established to provide legal assistance for homeless veterans, according to a VA release.
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While the VA cannot change a veteran's discharge status, it can help veterans with the daunting discharge review process, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement on Oct. 1.
"We want to provide you with any health care or benefits we can -- and we will work with you every step of the way to do exactly that," McDonough said. "Access to legal support can make all the difference, and we believe this new grant program will help fill that gap."
The VA has provided service to 75% of former service members with other-than-honorable discharges -- roughly 57,000 veterans -- according to the department.
In some circumstances, individuals with an other-than-honorable discharge can access VA programs and services if they receive an upgrade from their service's discharge review board, the boards for correction of military or naval records, or the VA's character of discharge determination.
The grant program would fund the help some veterans need to navigate the system and would prohibit the grant recipients from charging fees for those services.
"The aim of this new program would be to increase access to VA programs and benefits -- including compensation and pension, education, health care, loans, national cemetery matters, and VA character of discharge determinations," VA officials said in a statement.
In April, the VA amended its regulations regarding "character of discharge" to allow the department to provide health care and benefits to veterans who received other-than-honorable discharges for mental health issues stemming from combat exposure, sexual assault or discrimination, including those kicked out of the military for being gay.
Officials with the Modern Military Association of America, a group supporting the LGBTQ+ service members and veterans, said in a newsletter Saturday that the proposed grant program would help veterans.
"This could be hugely beneficial to many members of our community, especially those discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell," they wrote.
The public may comment on the proposal until Dec. 2. Diana Weston, who identified herself as an LGBTQ+ veteran, said she supports the grant program, writing that the group of veterans deserves the chance to have their "historical injustice heard and remedied."
"Please, let's finally get on the right side of history on this and let these veterans who served honorably get the legal help they need to have their records corrected to reflect that," Weston wrote.
More than a half-million veterans have received other-than-honorable discharges, including at least 125,000 post-9/11-era veterans.
According to Defense Department data released under the Freedom of Information Act to Legal Aid at Work, a nonprofit legal company that provides services to low-income workers, roughly 35,000 troops were discharged from 1980 to 2011 for homosexuality and 29,000 received less-than-honorable discharges.
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