Dear Auxiliary Family,                                                                                                       

 I hope that all who made it to our Mid-Winter Conference enjoyed the updates and were able to witness the Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen winner’s work.  They are all winners, and I feel that our finalists have a strong chance of taking national placement.

 Thank you to Madame Junior Past Department President and Chief of Staff, Debbie Cookie Little, for reading my report.  For those who didn’t make it, I pray were home safe and sound. Please let me know if you would like the update sent to you. 

Let us celebrate our two recent wins and thank our Law Makers for supporting:

S.141 Senator Elizabeth Dole 21^st Century Veterans Health Care Improvement Act, becoming law Jan 2, 2025.

 S.815 Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2024 that passed the senate September 24, 2024. These women struggled for over 60 years to achieve Veteran benefits and recognition as soldiers for their service as telephone operators of the Army Signal Corps in WWI. Finally, they are awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Our State Legislative Session began January 21 and will reside for 160 days.  Did you know that in even years the session is only 30 days long, but 160 for the odd? Both have the potential to extend for 5 days with a two-thirds vote.  To the point: there is significant potential for positive legislative results for our Veterans and their families this year.

Recall that our Oregon VFW Representatives testified at the Capitol on Sept 23, 2024, to support state legislation paralleling the federally introduced H.R. 1139 GUARD VA Benefits Act 2023-2024.  On February 3, our leadership sent communications to Oregon’s Senate and House Veterans Committees to support the introduction and processing of such a bill and awareness to oppose S.1789/H.R. 1822 PLUS for Veterans Act. Preserving Lawful Utilization of Services also analogously referred to as "

"Please Let Us Steal”.

 My interpretation of the PLUS Act is that although it poses to support the filing of VA claims for Veterans, and penalize those for directly/indirectly soliciting, contracting for, charging or receiving unauthorized compensations like the GUARD; it does legalize any agent/attorney to charge fees to process the claim. Hence the veteran will pay for the service and have less compensation. The GUARD Act focusses on the utilization of non-profit VSO entities to support and file and penalizing the claims sharks.

Let’s take advantage of the 160-day legislative session and get this clear in Oregon, while at the Federal level as well by letters, emails, phone calls, petitions and town halls.  Have you jointed with your Post to invite a lawmaker to discuss legislative Veteran issues? Would this not be opportune to do so?  Please continue to support our Department Legislative Leadership and Oregon Veterans.