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VA Provisions in COVID-19 Relief Bill: American Rescue Plan Act 2021 - YouTube

Channel: Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD

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welcome everyone and thanks for tuning

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in my name is michael estrido i'm an

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attorney

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here at cck and today i'm joined by

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bethany cook

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an accredited va claims agent and also

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amy odom

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an attorney here at cck today we're

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going to be discussing

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some of the provisions particularly with

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respect to how they impact veterans

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that are contained in the recently

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passed coveted relief bill

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on march 11 of this year the president

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signed into law

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the american rescue plan act of 2021

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um known as the arp and essentially this

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a uh 1.9 trillion dollar

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covenant relief package that is aimed at

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providing economic relief to hundreds of

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thousands of people

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all across the country including the

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veterans community

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although it's aimed to its aim is to

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provide relief specifically for those

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individuals

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most impacted by pandemic it includes a

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number of different

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provisions that will impact veterans uh

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more specifically

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so how will this bill specifically

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impact and help

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veterans the arp act includes

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approximately 17 billion dollars for the

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sure veterans have continued access to

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health care um

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it helps fund several different types of

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assistance programs some of which we'll

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speak

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to in this recording and it includes

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other

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protections against coba 19 for the

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veteran community

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um so they're really like i said there

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are a number of provisions in this bill

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it's a wide-ranging bill

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but amy maybe we can get started with

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you and maybe you can talk to us a

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little bit about some ways in which

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the bill impacts va health care and also

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the processing of benefit claims and

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appeals

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yeah mike there's just so much in here

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the largest portion of va relief money

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is about 14.5 billion dollars and that's

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going to be directed towards health care

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services for veterans

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including support for covid19 vaccine

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distribution

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so important mental health care services

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also really so important some telehealth

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options so that

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folks don't need to actually

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go to a va healthcare center can get

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care at home

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just through zoom or whatever you know

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platform

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they'll be using for telehealth options

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suicide prevention

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always so important even more so now

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women's health homeless veterans and

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those in danger becoming homeless

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also so important especially now so

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those are all the

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healthcare kind of um

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initiatives that this 4.5 billion

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dollars will be used for

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but it's also going to help va

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to process benefits claims and appeals

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much

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faster since the pandemic began

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there's been a backlog of 212

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000 appeals and claims that are waiting

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for

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processing there was a backlog before

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the pandemic of 76

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000 but now it's increased to more than

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double of 212 000

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and this is really um hard in these

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times where a lot of people are going

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through economic disadvantages

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because this is slowing down the

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delivery of benefits and services

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to disabled veterans but the money that

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is coming through the american rescue

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plan will help va

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to move those uh appeals and

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and claims out and help us to get some

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benefits and services to to veterans

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um va has now

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estimated that it's going to process

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over a hundred thousand claims

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by september 2022 so that's really great

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great news

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it'll also reduce the peer the pending

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benefits hearings and intake requests

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at the veteran with the board of

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veterans appeals which is great

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um the board is going to get about 10

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million

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to decrease um the board of veterans

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appeals hearing requests which are now

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87 000 hearing requests sitting at the

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board of veterans appeals

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and it's also going to help decrease the

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35 000

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appeals backlog um at the board of

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veterans appeals so that's really great

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um bethany what else other kind of

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direct benefits are going to veterans

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so one of the uh more immediate benefits

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is the

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stimulus checks um so with the stimulus

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checks uh individual

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eligible veterans who are individuals

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that

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reported 75 000 or less and adjusted

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gross

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income and did not file a 2018 or 2019

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tax return could receive up to 400 1400

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um so these have already started going

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out um you know

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if you have your direct deposit

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information with the irs and that might

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have already been deposited

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but if you haven't received it yet you

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can use the irs

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tracker tool online uh and you know if

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you are receiving a paper check

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or a visa debit card with the money then

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that might be still coming at a later

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date

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one of the other benefits available

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is job retraining the bill has allocated

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an additional 386 million dollars for

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veterans who are unemployed due to the

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pandemic

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and do not have other veteran education

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benefits

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like the gi bill so

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under uh under this program you may be

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eligible for

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up to 12 months of rapid retraining a

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system

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assistance program benefits uh for uh

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high demand jobs and a monthly housing

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allowance

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uh and another kind of immediate impact

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is the waiving or reimbursing of va

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co-pays

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so the va has allocated an additional 1

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billion

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to waive copays charge for va healthcare

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and

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prescriptions during this pandemic um

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so copies were suspended uh now there's

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a permanent reprieve of copays

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uh and forgiven medical debts

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uh and this also applies to

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reimbursements for payments uh starting

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april 6 2020 uh through at least

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september 30th

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2021.

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great thank that's great bethany thank

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you um

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another area um that

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is included in this bill that will

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really improve veterans lives i think

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um is that there is a bunch of money

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being allocated

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um to improve veterans homes

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so there's approximately 750 million

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dollars allocated

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um whether it be construction grants or

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repayments or payments

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that are going to be distributed to

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states veterans homes to improve living

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conditions for the

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you know our nation's most vulnerable

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veterans who live there um so that's a

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welcomed improvement

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um and the funds are much needed for

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that particular area uh there are also

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going to be some changes to the gi bill

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um that are contained within this covid

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relief package

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the changes are going to close what is

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known as the 9010 loophole

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in order to protect the integrity of the

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gi bill and veterans

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in receipt of their well-earned

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education benefits will continue to have

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these protections

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and this coveted relief bill really

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helps ensure that

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specifically schools that receive

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federal funding

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are required to get 10 percent of income

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from elsewhere

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gi bill money will not count towards

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that 10 percent

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goal as of 2023 and this is really meant

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to prevent

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bad actors and schools from taking

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advantage of the veterans gi bill

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benefits so all good things lots of

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money going

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to to those areas and again i think

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specifically for the veterans homes you

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know this is an area that is

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much needed in order to help combat

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homelessness which is really

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a huge problem um and so i think

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this is a welcomed improvement um

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so amy turning back to you there are

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really several additional benefits that

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are contained within this law

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that will additionally help veterans in

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different ways

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maybe you could walk us through some of

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these additional benefits and describe

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these provisions for us

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yeah sure so some of the other

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initiatives that are really going to

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help out veterans in this case and

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in this bill include providing emergency

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funding to

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community investments to ease challenges

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experienced by many native americans

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and their families many of whom have

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been hit especially hard by this

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pandemic

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the bill also allocates 80 million

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dollars to establish

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the department of veterans affairs

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employee leave fund

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which provides funds for paid leave for

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covet 19 related causes

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this is so important because 30 percent

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of va's workforce is veterans

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and they will all benefit from this

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initiative

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additionally veterans with kids are

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going to potentially benefit

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from additional stimulus payments and

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an increased child tax credit and

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expanded child care tax benefits all

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really important those of us who have

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kids out here

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know how you know the child care can get

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pretty expensive it also improves

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va supply chain system so important

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because that's going to help va get more

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of that ppe

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and it assists veteran and non-veteran

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communities disproportionately impacted

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by the pandemic

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and lastly veteran restaurant owners are

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going to

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get priority for the restaurant

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revitalization grant which is also

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a really really great benefit for

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veterans

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yeah thank you amy and thank you bethany

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there really is a lot to unpack

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in this new law and as you can tell

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we're just very briefly going through

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um some of the uh more important i think

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provisions of the law as they relate to

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veterans but it's a it's a huge bill um

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you know there are a lot of different

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tentacles so to speak and there's a lot

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of funding that

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that's provided specifically to the

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veteran community uh which

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is which is great um so uh we hope the

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information was helpful

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and that the legislation has a positive

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and meaningful impact on

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our clients and veterans at large um

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hopefully you can keep up this keep up

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with us on social media for the latest

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information and updates on veteran

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