Every year in early April, the state council presidents and some other leaders gather in the Washington area for Advocacy in Action Week which we just call by the acronym AiA. We just can’t be a military group without acronyms! The week involves becoming very familiar with chosen legislative initiatives and going as a group of state delegations to the Senate and House Office Buildings with appointments to meet with our own state members and/or their leading staffers.
I went representing the Chaplains Virtual Chapter but traveled to Capitol Hill with the Tennessee delegation. The other two members were Pete Warner as Tennessee Council President and Karon Uzzell-Baggett as a MOAA national board member. We visited both senators and five of the nine house members, and we left materials for those we could not visit.
Every team advocated for the Military Spouse Hiring Act. The Ask: Adding military spouses as a target group to the Work Opportunity Tax Act. The Tennessee Team followed the VA Track of two pieces of legislation: Ending the Wait for Toxic-Exposed Veterans with the ask to pass legislation to shorten the long waits before earning service-earned care and benefits and the Support for Veteran Caregivers with the asking to champion or cosponsor the Veteran Caregiver Reeducation, Reemployment, and Retirement Act. Each of us on the Tennessee Team specialized in one of those three items, and mine was the veteran caregiver’s item
What was learned about the legislative process that we can all use? One item is that Capitol Hill is a VERY busy place with more going on than individuals can keep current about. This means that their leading staffers are far more important than I had realized. Between their legislative sessions and hearings going on all the time, the demands on time are very high. Security is also a LOT higher than I had seen in the past.
A major item when meeting or writing to members is the simple item of knowing and having handy the assigned bill numbers. They will ask you for the number as well as the name, and when you know the number, it tells them that you know what you are talking about and are showing some expertise. Take than thought onboard, when you write or speak to a representative or senator make sure to say the bill’s number. It REALLY increases your impact and tells them to take what you say seriously.
CDR Ted Edwards, USN (Ret.)
MTC Legislative Liaison
MTC Legislative Update for April 2025
I just love it when I am concerned about something, and it does not happen. That concern was the expiration of a 3rd continuing resolution to keep the government functioning after mid-March. Continuing resolutions by Congress are not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but they do keep the government functioning in a temporary way.
This is the time of year when planning for the next budget starts up – all of which means that the current fiscal year may never have a budget at all. What’s good about that?
I will be in Washington soon (representing the Chaplain’s Virtual Chapter) for MOAA Advocacy-in-Action – our own LtCol Karon Uzzell-Baggett will be there too as a MOAA Board Member, as well as LtCol Pete Warner, President of the TN Council of Chapters – to lobby for five initiatives. The April issue of Military Officer has an informative reading for you starting on page 46, so please check it out. Each lobbying group will speak to only three of these which are being called “tracks.” That means the Military Spouse Hiring Act and one of the two tracks. Here they are as a brief briefing:
Every visiting group will speak to the Military Spouse Hiring Act. The Ask: Adding military spouses as a target group to the Work Opportunity Tax Act.
For the DoD Track: Unaccompanied Housing Improvements The Ask: Address the backlog of $137 Billion in maintenance backlog which is an ongoing issue of long-standing. Improve Access to Health Care for Military Families The Ask: Provide better and more effective options for servicemembers and their families to get assistance within the Military Health System (MHS) by establishing a digital access assistance system for MHS patients.
For the VA Track: Ending the Wait for Toxic-Exposed Veterans The Ask: Pass legislation to shorten the long waits before earning service-earned care and benefits. Support for Veteran Caregivers The Ask: Champion or Cosponsor the Veteran Caregiver Reeducation, Reemployment, and Retirement Act.
And how can you play? The Legislative Advocacy section of the moaa.org website is set up for you to send letters of support for each of these issues. It is easy to do, and it matters.
Our visits to Legislators come early in April, so more to come when I report back next month..
While you have the magazine open, save a copy of page 36, Surviving Spouse Help and put it with your important documents like your DD214.
CDR Ted Edwards, USN (ret.)
MTC Legislative Liaison
MTC Legislative Update for March 2025
The first week of April brings the annual Advocacy-in-Action (AiA) activity of MOAA at the national level. There are four key issues that will be addressed with members of Congress when they visit key lawmakers. This is an annual activity that involves the leadership of the MOAA national office and council presidents from around the country.
Here is some brief information on the four primary issues for 2025:
Access to Family Health Care: Military families rely on a complex health care from Military Health Facilities and TRICARE. The mix of availability varies among installations. The policies sometimes lack compliance resulting in nonavailability for appointments and services.
Toxic-Exposed Veterans: MOAA will advocate for legislation cutting the time between a veteran’s exposure to toxic substances and their eligibility for VA health care and services – a gap sometimes decades long. The PACT Act does not cover every case. The intention is to allow such veterans to receive presumptive service connection for related disabilities. Examples: Agent Orange, Airborne Hazards and Burn Pits, and Atomic Radiation.
Military Spouse Hiring: MOAA aims to create a new target group under the Work Opportunity Tax Credit program (WOTC) to incentivize the hiring of military spouses. The spouses face unique challenges in finding and maintaining consistent employment due to frequent relocations, the unpredictable nature of military service, and limited opportunities near remote installations.
Unaccompanied Housing Improvements: MOAA supports a sustained effort to ensure high quality unaccompanied housing. Many UH facilities do not meet DoD standards with conditions that pose health and safety risks. DoD lacks complete funding information regarding UH maintenance and improvements. The history of UH in the services reflects ongoing challenges despite significant efforts in recent years since the FY 2006 NDAA mandated reformed standards.
This is a very opportune time to visit the MOAA Legislative Action Center (https://moaa.quorum.us/home2/) to pave the way for the MOAA leader visits. You can send letters to your legislators in order to prepare them for their visits so that they can be informed about the four initiatives before they receive us in April.
While the visits come in the first week of April from MOAA headquarters, board members, and council presidents, I will be attending not from our Middle Tennessee Chapter,but rather from the Chaplains Virtual Chapter – but I will be visiting with the Tennessee delegations. More when I report back in April.
CDR Ted Edwards, USN (ret.)
MTC Legislative Liaison
MTC Legislative Update for February 2025.
Information reaching us from MOAA Headquarters is that 100 members of the 119th Congress have served in our armed forces. That may not seem like a lot, but it is an increase over the 118th Congress. There is good reason for optimism with that increase, because it tells two things: one is that the culture is changing to bring military and naval leaders to offer themselves for legislative service and the second is that the voters are valuing that kind of leadership.
This is a dramatic shift from the October article in Military Officer about how the rate of military service in Congress had dropped over decades from about 80% to 18% -- with the result being that those making critical decisions about personnel matters and arms purchasing lack the experience and expertise to make those things happen and happen well.
Not coincidentally, recent recruiting numbers are way up. Will ROTC and JROTC participation rise, too?
And so I wonder whether that kind of change will happen in our Tennessee Legislature in the next election. I don’t have numbers, but change is always happening. Life happens at the speed of change.
For those of us attending the Tennessee Veterans (TNVET) “Veterans Day on the Hill” in late January, changes have come to the list of four issues for which TNVET is lobbying. The list of the four issues is below in the January report. There is a joint bill JHR001 which memorializes Congress to begin action to bring Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy availability to the veteran’s community. This process effectively treats traumatic brain injury and PTSD patients. We learned that there is an under-availability of this in the medical community for civilians as well as veterans and that is a very expensive process. We also learned that there will not be state initiatives until there are already federal actions, so this will take years to accomplish; thus, the Legislature is memorializing Congress to begin. Expect this matter to last for years.
And as if by coincidence: the evening before Vets Day there was a contestant on Jeopardy Tournament of Champions who had recovered from traumatic brain injury through Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and testified to its effectiveness.
CDR Ted Edwards, USN (ret.)
MTC Legislative Liaison
MTC Legislative Update for January 2025
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
TNVET Website
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.