News Room
NVLSP Press Releases
NVLSP applauds passage of legislation, Hopes Senate will consider S.2712 this session
The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) applauds the passage of H.R. 5015, the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016 last night in Congress. Sponsored by Congressman David Rouzer (R-NC), the bill ensures veterans who suffered service-ending combat-related injuries are not being wrongfully taxed on their severance packages from the Department of Defense (DoD). [more]
Released 12/6/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
Decision Directs VA to Give Preference to Veteran-owned Businesses
In Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States of America, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The lawsuit was over the VA’s failure to comply with Public Law 109-461, commonly referred to as “Veterans First.” [more]
Released 6/17/16 | Tags: Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)
Bill seeks to recover $78 million in wrongfully-taxed severance payments
Congressman David Rouzer recently introduced H.R. 5015, the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016, to ensure veterans who suffered service-ending combat-related injuries are not being wrongfully taxed on their severance packages from the Department of Defense (DoD). Under federal law, veterans who suffer combat-related injuries and who are separated from the military are not supposed to be taxed on the one-time lump sum disability severance payment they receive from the DoD. However, due to an accounting error, more than $78 million is owed to an estimated 14,000 veterans. [more]
Released 5/17/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
Good news! After a 21 month delay, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request over the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) failure to provide adequate health care services to female veterans, filed on August 4, 2014 by the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), has finally been fulfilled by the VA. [more]
Released 5/5/16 | Tags:
NVLSP supports changes to VA appeals process, but with two important caveats requiring legislative changes
The Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, will hold a hearing on Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 10:00am Eastern time to hear testimony and discuss proposed changes to the veterans appeals process at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The National Veterans Legal Services Program and the Veterans Law Institute at Stetson University's College of Law submitted a statement to the committee that supports the changes with two significant caveats. [more]
Released 4/26/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
Since 1991, DoD has improperly withheld taxes from severance payments of up to 14,000 veterans separated from service due to combat injury
Legislation to ensure that veterans who suffer service-ending combat-related injuries are not improperly taxed on the severance payment they receive from the Department of Defense (DoD) has passed the Senate Finance Committee.Under federal law, veterans who suffer combat-related injuries and who are separated from the military are not supposed to be taxed on the one-time lump sum disability severance payment they receive from DoD. Unfortunately, taxes on combat-related disability severance payments have nonetheless been withheld from qualifying veterans for a number of years, in part due to the limitations of DoD’s automated payment system. Veterans are typically unaware that their benefits were improperly reduced as a result of DoD’s actions. [more]
Released 4/21/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Agrees with NVLSP Argument
WASHINGTON – On Friday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims struck down a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulation that VA had been relying upon since 2009 to deny reimbursement requests from veterans who incurred emergency medical care costs outside the VA healthcare system. The Court’s decision rebuked the VA, emphasizing that VA’s reimbursement regulation became “wholly inconsistent” with the governing statute when Congress amended it in 2009, but thereafter the VA unlawfully “declined to remedy this inconsistency.” [more]
Released 4/11/16 | Tags: Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
125,000 Veterans Who Served Since 2001 Excluded from Basic Veteran Services
Approximately 125,000 post-9/11 veterans with bad paper discharges are being wrongfully excluded from basic veteran services by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), says a new white paper issued today by Swords to Plowshares and the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP). The culprit is VA’s own regulations, which do not match eligibility standards set up by Congress in 1944 in the original GI Bill of Rights. [more]
Released 3/30/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades, Veteran's Benefits
Senators Boozman and Warner Introduce Legislation, NVLSP Informs Capitol Hill About Wrongful Withholding
U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Mark Warner (D-VA) today introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that veterans who suffer service-ending combat-related injuries are not taxed on the severance payment they receive from the Department of Defense. NVLSP estimates at least 13,800 veterans were impacted and the government wrongfully withheld $78 million dollars from severance payments to combat disabled veterans. NVLSP discovered the problem. [more]
Released 3/17/16 | Tags:
More than 17 months after nonprofit filed a FOIA request on women’s health, the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs has failed to respond
Today, two national veterans and civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), challenging the VA’s complete refusal to turn over information and documents about the inadequate health care services female veterans receive from the VA’s Veterans’ Health Administration. The lawsuit alleges that the VA has violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). [more]
Released 1/27/16 | Tags: