Transcription
Um, all right. So, let's talk about these three laws real quick, Clay.
Yeah. So, these three laws, and I'll do this as fastish as I can. Um, I'm going to pull this up. This is the, uh, the White House website. They passed three laws. It's HR224, 1823, and 4446. I'm going to give the cliffnote version. All right.
So, long story short, um the Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act makes it to where the it it excludes VA disability, which is awesome. Okay, there are some other bills on the table to exclude VA disability from like state grants and specific other grants like that. That's not what this is. This is exclusion uh for determining fed federally someone who is low or moderate income I think is the wording that's used which I think is absolutely awesome um and I think and I think it g uh that deserves a shout for David Pekk over at VA Housing Education if you are someone who's on Tdiu and that's that's really who we're talking about here is VA pension and Tdiu if you're on Tdiu buying a home today. Not going to h I mean, this is simply not going to happen unless you live where I'm from, which is middle of nowhere Kentucky and homes are, you know, five bucks. That's a joke there, but uh it's not going to happen because you just don't have the money and then you don't qualify um for the same grants that other people who don't work qualify for, right? And so what this essentially does is allows you to qualify for those federal grants. And there are some other bills for state grants um in play there. But but long story short, go to the expert David Pekk at VA Housing Education. Um that is the person for that especially if you're in TDIU.
Now the other bill um and I know Oh, let me do the VR& one first and then I'll do the third one because I know you're going to have something to say about it. Um HR 4446. Essentially, it's called the Fast Vets Act. That's an acronym. I'm not going to read the whole thing. It's like 80 words. Um, eight really because fast vets, right? But, uh, [laughter] math. Essentially, if you're on VR and the training program that you're doing no longer works for you because of your disabilities, the VA can't just kick you to the side and say, "Well, you know, we we gave it our best effort. Good luck out there, partner." They can't do that anymore. And I'm not saying they did. Um, but when veterans want to tr uh change their career projection based on their disabilities, the VA now has to work with the veteran to find another career path. This is great. Hands down. I I don't use VR. Okay. Um, but hands down, this is this is one of the best bills to come across for veterans who are the most vulnerable, right? They're not working. Um, they need training. They need relevant skills to apply for a atome cyber security position, whatever their disabilities allow for. That's what that one is. I think that is a home run and it's law. It's not even a bill. This is ominous dominance. You've made it.
And the last one, Jason, is the VA budget shortfall Accountability Act. It does two things. First, it looks at potential shortfalls for this fiscal year, right? Which is good. Uh second, it investigates shortfalls from the previous Mcdana Biden era where the VA was short. If I'm if my memory serves right, 15 billion, but then it was six, but then it was three, but then it was like, oh, we were wrong all along. It was actually know what I don't even know what it is. But that's the bill is to be like, okay, >> what happened? Because obviously we don't want that to happen again, right? We don't want there to be a$ 15 billion dollar ask >> the last quarter of the fiscal year when all the money's gone like that >> from a I'm not a budget person but I do understand >> um if you're requesting more money when it's all gone that's a problem that's essentially what what this is for in layman terms and so >> what do you have re I mean three of them but really the the accountability act I think is the >> yeah when you read that it's Ah, that's that doesn't seem like much, but there's there's really something there with that.
>> There there's a reason why, right? And it it's because of the dramatic the theatrics >> Mhm. >> of failure. Yeah. I mean, it was a theatrical failure by the VA u under Mcdana Biden administration. And um it look I I'm not playing politics here. I mean, whatever. That's just who happened to be there. and it was the leadership and all of that stuff um at the VA level in the budget aspects of it. I don't think Mcdana himself was out there, you know, bean counting. Somebody told him these are the numbers, right? And then he reported it and if I was him, I would have been pissed that I'm getting these revisions along the way. Um, all that to say is that it was a fiasco and it is a very very embarrassing actually and sad situation that Congress has to step in and do a department's job for them um and ensure that they're uh fiscally responsible. It's it's just it mindboggles me. Um, and it just shows you that that some of these people are put into place who might be not fully qualified. We'll just say that. [snorts] >> And and that's uh that's to the detriment of veterans.
>> And >> you're pretty much right with the numbers. It was like 15 billion. Hey, we're short 15 billion. Oh, just kidding. It's like half that. And really that 15 was three for this and 12 for that. Um and then it was oh really it's really it's six total. And then it ended up being like, "Oh, sorry. We're actually positive three before we got any money from you that they re so they all the Congress ended up allocating more money um for something that didn't even need to be spent." So, which is >> daycarees being run at the VA. You know what I'm saying? >> Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. >> It's a good one. >> So, I hear you, man. You're good. So, so [clears throat] required now um in this this accountability act, budget shortfall accountability act makes sense. We need to have these safety rails up and and quite frankly uh it's embarrassing that it came to this. I'll say I'm glad that it's in place now for now and for any future uh folks because what we don't want Clay is we don't want the VA negatively portrayed in news outlets >> that they don't have their stuff together >> when it comes to money.
>> Yeah. Like especially right now, right? Because everything gets twisted and turned and you know everybody's so excited to well if you did this you wouldn't have to worry about it. if you just cut all the veterans off, you'd be fine. >> Um, so anyway, it's um I think it's a way to help keep us out of the um out of the limelight, if you will, uh from a from a department standpoint, which is which is good uh for the uh fast um which is the really eight eight letter acronym there uh fast vets uh act. This is great because VR& and I've argued this for a very long time. The VR& counselors, they have broad far left and right limits to decide who gets it and who doesn't. >> If your story, >> it's it's all over the place. There's no there is no, hey, if this is this, then this is this. There's none of that. There's no if. Yes, go here. If no, go here. There's no there's no diagram like that. Um, it's just let's have a conversation and if I if I agree and I I like you and I think that I understand what's happening and then I'm going to say yes. And it's a it's a really weird um way that they have it set up. And just to prove this point, my situation didn't change. My situation was the same. I applied once, denied. Applied twice, was denied. different counselors applied a third time. Another different counselor was approved. I cried a little in the last one when we were talking. Yeah. So maybe maybe the other ones would have said yes if I cried a little. But >> did you on camera and can we have that footage please? >> Yeah. No. No. I made sure to look and uh Yeah, there was no no cameras. We were good to go. I was in a safe space. Clay. Um so >> Huh. in a in a dayare center. >> Yeah, in a Yeah, it was it was in the back office of a daycare. Um, so the the good news here is is that I think what we'll see is less stupid denials.
>> Mhm. >> Right. There's going to be a little more uniformity. You should be able to go to any counselor and get the same result. I should have I would be less irritated if I was denied every single time. But don't deny me twice then approve me in the same s situation. It's really weird.
>> So, with that, it looks like your battery's dead, so we'll go ahead and end it there. >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> All right, so with that, thanks for watching. We appreciate you very much. Have a great one and remember if we don't take care of each other something went