VA Pilot Program Supports Law Firms Serving Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a grant program to help legal groups offering help to veterans.
Described as a pilot program (with the potential to become a permanent feature later), the VA provides grants to legal clinics, focusing on assisting veterans who did not receive honorable discharges in accessing VA disability payments, college tuition assistance, and healthcare.
Traditionally, VA benefits have been offered to those with honorable discharges, but in the wake of defunct policies such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a significant number of veterans live under the shadow of punitive discharges for so-called offenses the Uniform Code of Military Justice no longer recognizes as criminal acts. That includes discharges for “homosexual conduct”.
The VA pilot program funding legal entities that help veterans is another step in a long process of fixing a system that previously said “no” to members of the LGTBQ+ community. The VA emphasizes that the program does not provide funds directly to veterans but rather to legal agencies supporting them.
Read next: Pentagon Reviews Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Discharges
A Brief History of the VA Legal Assistance Pilot Program
In 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act directed the Secretary of VA “to establish a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of awarding grants to eligible entities to establish new legal assistance clinics or enhance existing legal assistance clinics or other pro bono efforts in locations other than VA facilities to provide certain legal assistance to veterans and individuals who served in the Armed Forces…”
The 2021 NDAA authorized the program’s creation.
In September 2021, the VA, according to its entry in the Federal Register about the pilot program, “sought input from 18 veterans service organizations and legal services organizations to inform development of the criteria and requirements for implementation of the Grant Program.” That input, plus the challenges of creating the program, meant its implementation wouldn’t come until 2024.
Fixing the VA System
To some, 2024 was the year the Department of Veterans Affairs began cleaning house where outdated, discriminatory policies in this area are concerned. But the VA pilot program announced in October isn’t the first initiative in this area.
An earlier 2024 VA policy change allows service members discharged due to discrimination, military sexual trauma, or mental health conditions to reapply for VA benefits. The VA asked for these applications regardless of the veteran’s discharge status.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough encourages all veterans with other-than-honorable discharges to apply for benefits and healthcare, stressing the VA’s commitment to providing support.
In the last decade, the VA has granted benefits to more than 57,000 veterans with an other-than-honorable discharge status. Today, the VA encourages qualifying veterans to apply for benefits even without an honorable discharge.
Some applications take longer to “develop” without an honorable discharge, but thanks to these VA efforts, more discharges under outdated policies are being offered VA education, disability, and healthcare benefits.
An Important Caveat from the Department of Veterans Affairs
While the VA asks qualifying veterans without an honorable discharge to reapply for benefits and approve them, the VA does NOT have the power to change a military discharge. Those who want their military discharge upgraded must formally apply through their branch of service’s discharge review board.
Whether or not you initiate that process yourself or hire a legal firm to do it on your behalf if your choice.
The VA pilot program described above is meant to provide funds to law firms that specialize in helping veterans get discharge upgrades. Each military discharge review is performed on a case-by-case basis.
Read next: Pentagon Reviews Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Discharges
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
