New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Conn. vet inspires change in military discharge rule
WASHINGTON — Movement of the National Defense Authorization Act down the legislative assembly line gives Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy plenty of opportunities to extol Connecticut’s contribution to national security — and their own roles in keeping the dollar spigots turned on for Electric Boat, Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, and hundreds of local contractors.
To be sure, that’s a major chunk of Connecticut’s job base. It’s helped the state plant its feet in the 21st century advanced-manufacturing economy, whatever other problems the state has.
So no surprise that when the Senate Armed Services Committee passed the Fiscal 2020 NDAA, Blumenthal (a committee member) called out its many blessings: $4.7 billion for two Virginia Class attack submarines, $653 million for sub maintenance work, and “economic order quantity procurement” for sub purchases — a glorified version of buy one and get second at half price.
But buried way down in the news release is a reminder that no matter how much we spend on gleaming hardware that keeps us safe, there’s also a cost to the men and women in uniform who make it all go.
The NDAA this year includes language to repeal the current 15-year statute of limitations on veterans filing requests to get their discharge status changed. Blumenthal said the repeal harkens back to the case of Conley Monk, of West Haven, who fought his “less-than-honorable” discharge for going AWOL after serving in Vietnam battle zones including Quang Tri and Da Nang.
The discharge status cut him off from getting the VA help he badly needed.
“It was a double whammy” for Monk, Blumenthal said. “He needed help to overcome the invisible wounds he suffered, but he couldn’t get it.”
Eventually Monk got his discharge status changed to a “general discharge with honorable conditions” in 2015.
Now a whole new generation of war veterans is moving into an era where PTSD-type symptoms may arise well after service in Afghanistan and the Iraq war. Monk already got his less-than-honorable discharge changed. Repealing the 15-year limit, Blumenthal said, “will make it easier for others.”
DeLauro nets a small email find
In this world of instant news cycles, officials’ use of private email accounts for government business may seem so 2016. Remember Hillary and the private server?
But after reading of first daughter Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner using private email, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, decided to ask inspectors general of the departments under her jurisdiction to look into it. DeLauro chairs the subcommittee overseeing the departments of education, labor and health and human services, under the House Appropriations Committee.
The query so far has netted one notable fish: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The Education Department inspector general found DeVos used a private mail account for official business less than 100 times between the date President Donald Trump was sworn in (Jan. 20, 2017) and April 18, 2018. Most concerned an unidentified writer offering advice on potential political appointees. The writer also pinged several DeVos subordinates on their official email addresses.
Liz Hill, a DeVos spokeswoman, dismissed the episode as “hardly news.”
No word back yet from the departments of labor and HHS.
Any revelation of Republican officials doing what Hillary did as Secretary of State is money in the bank for Democrats, who may yet awake to nightmares of “Lock her up! Lock her up!” But if DeLauro was feeling that way about it, she kept it well hidden.
“Such a review is part of the necessary congressional oversight required to ensure that federal laws, regulations and agency policies are being upheld,” DeLauro said in a written statement. “I expect the department [of education] to swiftly improve its policies and training in the areas where the OIG found deficiencies.”