There is a magic moment every two years – right now is the time – when an altogether new Congress gets sworn in and goes to work. Anything left over from the previous Congress has died on the table, so to continue, such bills need to be introduced all over again. That is a magic moment, because those bills can be fine-tuned and get new sponsorship and co-sponsors can join in.
Our national legislators from our chapter’s region have all returned to Washington, so we do not have any “freshmen” trying to find their way. It’s Transition Time in Washington, but those who represent us in Middle Tennessee are experienced and know their way around the Halls of Congress already.
With rewritten bills and changed sponsorship comes an opportunity for us to speak out with early advocacy while bills are new and going through the committee process. That opportunity is best exercised with the MOAA Advocacy in Action program which is reached online as this website: https://moaa.quorum.us. Even if you have nothing to add right now, visiting the Legislative Action Center website will give you important education of what is coming around soon.
Our Tennessee legislature is also beginning the new session. Veterans Day on the Hill comes at the end of January – have you registered for it? There is a limited number of registrations available, so it is time to get on it. TNVET has a new list of important veteran issues – no bills on these yet, but they will be coming soon. Here is information on the four initiatives:
1. Disabled veteran property tax exemption: Changes to state law to stop penalizing qualified 100% disabled veterans for property tax relief based on market fluctuations.
2. Establishing a state system to raise money for veterans benefit programs: This is being developed to create a fund to support veterans initiatives beyond existing Tennessee Veteran Benefits. One possibility is to create a fund through the state lottery system.
3. Changing eligibility criteria for the Helping Heroes Grant: This involves increasing the veterans pool of possible students for the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology by changes to existing law.
4. Exploring benefits for PTSD and brain injured veterans through Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
More will come on those state matters. They are different from past years. Why among us has expertise on these and can share knowledge with our chapter?
CDR Ted Edwards, USN (ret)
MTC Legislative Liaison
(No longer New) MTC Legislative Affairs Liaison
Good Folks of our Middle Tennessee Chapter:
With the new year I begin serving as the Legislative Affairs Officer. This brings me to the beginning of a role that I have not served before. With that beginning and to make contacts that will serve us, I have written to Congressman Green and to our two senators to make contact with their staff members that relate to uniformed service matters.
Congressman Green’s staffer for uniformed services matters has been most helpful, and we have meet by Zoom. He will be keeping me informed of matters, and he will also welcome correspondence from us about our concerns. The senators have been less so.
Our MOAA Military Officer monthly magazine has a large section to let all of us know of initiatives and legislation activity. Let that reading be a primary way for you to be informed even as it lags behind reality through the publishing process. The annual National Defense Appropriation Act (NDAA) legislation passed in December, and of immediate importance to us is the 5.9% raise in retirement pension benefits and a raise in the prescription medications co-pay for those who use Express Scripts pharmacy.
What you can do to help me serve you better is to tell me which of many matters most interest you. And you can always write to your congressman to address your concerns – TN-07. What other districts are related to our Chapter membership? Good wishes to all of you.
Tennessee Veterans (TNVET) has completed work on their website and it is now ready for public consumption.
As a reminder our Chapter is associated with TNVET as the a result of our belonging to the Tennessee Council of Chapters, MOAA (TN CoC).
TNVET is currently composed of 12 state veteran organizations, who have join forces in a cooperative effort address the legislative needs of veterans, active duty military and their families. These members represent all the branches of the military service. The focus and goal is to work with legislators of the State of Tennessee to develop and support legislation that addresses the needs and issues of those who have served or are serving in our United States military forces.
As a reminder to our members, The Military Officers Association of America, and the Middle Tennessee Chapter as an affiliate, are Section 501 (c) (19) organizations. This allows contributions to be tax exempt. We are prohibited from advocating for issues that may represent one political platform over another or supporting a candidate for elected office. To this end, we limit our chapter advocacy to MOAA supported national issues and veteran and military issues at the state level that do not represent one political platform.
To protect our status, we want to ensure any literature from our chapter complies with these limitations. We provide some printed materials at our meetings and occasionally include handouts from our presenters. If an individual member wishes to provide material of interest at one of our meetings, we request an emailed copy of these materials by the last day of the preceding month, so our board has time to review.
Middle TN Chapter Non-Partisan Policy
The Middle TN Chapter Board and Membership has a mandate to always remain politically nonpartisan as an affiliate organization of MOAA National. As such, we do not support or oppose any candidate for political office. We will periodically provide notice that a member is continuing to serve by running for office; however this is not to be construed as an endorsement of his or her political views.
Normally during this time frame each year we would organize visits to our elected officials when they are home during Congressional break and when the TN State Legislature is out of session. However, this being an election year we are unable to accomplish these tasks without being drawn into the election fray.
So, while the Chapter cannot become actively involved in supporting a candidate, we whole heartedly support the individual involvement of our members on a personal basis. An informed and active electorate is important to the success of our state and nation, so it is up to each of us to become informed on the issues and to vote and encourage all that you know to do so as well.