CVO currently has a seven-point program that continues to be developed. The points of our program will be the basis for CVO comments that I will be making at the Veterans' Awareness Day activities on August 29th. The points are:

1. Full Mandatory Funding of VA healthcare for veterans.

2. Eligibility for VA healthcare and benefits for all honorably discharged veterans—male and female—without co-payments and categories of service delivery.

3. Ending veteran homelessness and the realignment of the VA Per Diem grants system.

4. Reform of funding and full accounting for all VA mental health services for veterans.

5. Fighting for the inclusion of appropriations in the annual VA budget to fund benefits for World War II Filipino veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.

6. "Presumptive VA Benefits": That veterans applying for VA disability benefits who have the medical diagnosis and the military records to show appropriate stressors, should be granted the applied-for benefits when they apply. It should be the VA's responsibility to then award or disallow the benefits in a timely manner. If the benefits are disallowed (and after appeals are complete) the recipient should not have to repay any benefits paid.

7. Women's benefits and healthcare: CVO recognizes the special needs of women veterans and the current gap between services and benefits for women and those for men. That gap should be closed and the special services and benefits for women made available immediately on the same basis as those for men.