ND Veterans Affairs News: Federal

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs may have to shut down some hospitals next month if Congress does not address a $2.5 billion shortfall for the current budget year, VA officials warned Monday.

The VA told Congress that it needs to cover shortfalls caused by an increased demand by veterans for health care, including costly treatments for hepatitis C. The agency also is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and other steps to close a funding gap for the budget year that ends Sept. 30.

Unemployment for post-9/11 veterans in June held steady at the near-record low of the previous month, 5.4 percent, government data show.

As a whole, the nation added 223,000 jobs last month, with the overall unemployment rate dipping to 5.3 percent, down from the 5.5 percent recorded in May, according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics.

June marks only the third month in history with an unemployment rate for the latest generation of vets below 5.5 percent. May 2015, also with a 5.4 percent rate, was the second, and May 2014, with a record 5.3 percent rate, was the first.

WASHINGTON-Dozens of South Dakotans visited the nation’s capitol to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for themselves on Wednesday.

The Vietnam Memorial wall has more than 58-thousand names of men and women who died in the war.

“There’s 7 coasties on the wall that i make a point looking up i didn’t know them, i didn’t serve with them but being in that small branch of service it’s an obligation to pay my respects,” said veteran Edward Timm.

WASHINGTON -- First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are scheduled to travel to New Orleans Monday April 20) to recognizes the city's efforts to combat veterans' homelessness, the White House announced Tuesday.

Obama and Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, are scheduled to appear with Mayor Mitch Landrieu to discuss the city's efforts to find housing for veterans and how other cities might learn from New Orleans progress, according to White House officials.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Trista Matascastillo remembers arriving at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center in 2010 for an exam and thinking the hospital didn't quite get the needs of female veterans.

The exam room, for instance, opened onto the patient waiting area, she said. She had to ask that the door be closed. It was a tiny detail, one Matascastillo said staff fixed quickly. But the 16-year veteran keeps the story close by now that she is part of an effort to help the center improve care for women.

Military veterans who served since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are more likely to be unemployed than their peers involved in earlier conflicts. The jobless rate for the most recent group of veterans was 7.2% in 2014, the Labor Department said this week. The figure is down from 9% in 2013—matching with steady improvement in the overall labor market—but remains elevated compared with other jobless measures. The jobless rate for all veterans was 5.3% last year.

NEW YORK — The first stair-climb race at One World Trade Center - the nation's tallest building - will raise money for military veterans struggling with combat-linked disabilities, two foundations formed after the 9/11 attacks announced Monday.

Officials of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Captain Billy Burke Foundation detailed plans for the athletic event at Burke's firehouse, Engine Company 21 in midtown Manhattan. Burke lost his life on 9/11 along with Firefighter Stephen Siller from Squad 1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn.