Senator Honig, Representative Foster, Senator Gordon and Representative Anderson, and members of the Veterans’ and Military Affairs Committee, my name is Alison Weir, and I am the executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. I am here to testify with regard to the following bills:

• H.B. No. 6874 (COMM) An Act Establishing Protection for Veterans from Benefits Claim Sharks.
• H.B. No. 6909 (RAISED) An Act Concerning Protections for Individuals with Regard to Providers of Assistance for Certain Veterans and Military-Related Benefits. 
• S.B. No. 1091 (COMM) An Act Concerning the Basic Property Tax Exemption for Veterans and Certain Other Military-Related Individuals.
• S.B. No. 1276 (RAISED) An Act Concerning a Property Tax Exemption for Veterans who are Permanently and Totally Disabled Based on a Disability Rating of One Hundred Percent and a Property Tax  Exemption for Gold Star Spouses. 
• H.B. No. 6765 (COMM) An Act Concerning Assistance with Dental Services for Certain Veterans
• S.B. No. 1277 (RAISED) An Act Concerning Affordable House for Certain Disabled or Elderly Veterans
• Proposed H.B. No. 5117 An Act Concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs and a Connecticut Veterans Cemetery
• Proposed H.B. No. 6764 An Act Providing Housing for Certain Impoverished Veterans
• Proposed H.B. No. 6768 An Act Requiring a Veterans Set-Aside for Certain Housing Units

The Connecticut Veterans Legal Center provides free legal assistance to low-income Veterans living in Connecticut. Our mission is to support, empower, and improve the lives of Veterans by providing free legal assistance to remove barriers to housing, healthcare, income, and recovery. Approximately 44% of our clients have a service-connected disability rating from their service and receive VA disability benefits. A large part of our work is representing veterans before U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. All of our attorneys who do this work are fully accredited by the VA and we do not charge for our services.

As such, I support the intent behind HB 6874 and HB 6909 to protect veterans from unscrupulous claims sharks who prey on veterans and claim high fees for questionable services. These claim sharks are not accredited by the VA. Note, obtaining accreditation is not hard—it requires a modicum of training (3 hours of continuing legal education for attorneys), a background check, and most important for these unaccredited claim agents, a commitment to not charge for initial applications and to not provide financial investment programs. Many claim sharks not only charge for the application, taking a cut of any benefits receive, but they also steer veterans into investment programs and other financial instruments from which they receive commissions. It is important to warn veterans that these claims services are not sanctioned nor accredited by the VA. However, as written, Connecticut Veterans Legal Center would also have to post the same warnings. We are all accredited by the VA, and we have a memorandum of understanding with the VA through our Medical-Legal Partnership, but we are not a Veterans Service Organization nor are we chartered by the federal government. We are a standalone nonprofit legal services program, following a common model for providing representation before the VA. The VA makes it easy for claimants to find accredited representatives in their area with a website search tool at https://www.va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative/find-rep/.  A quick review of accredited attorneys in Connecticut will bring up a list that includes all of our attorneys who handle VA claims.  I ask that the committee consider rewriting the warning to say:

“THIS BUSINESS and our employees are not accredited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to represent claimants before the Veteran Benefits Administration. YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR OTHER VETERANS BENEFITS BEYOND THE BENEFITS FOR WHICH YOU ARE RECEIVING ASSISTANCE SERVICES HERE. VETERAN AND MILITARY BENEFITS ASSISTANCE SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE FROM U.S. D.V.A. ACCREDITED VETERANS Attorneys, Accredited claims agents, Accredited Veterans SERVICE OFFICERS, and REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. You may find a list of accredited Veterans Representatives, Claims Agents, and Veterans Service Officers on the Veteran Affairs Website, https://www.va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative/find-rep/ TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT THESE ORGANIZATIONS.”

I also urge that the committee consider adding real penalties for offenders. The federal law prohibiting unaccredited representatives used to include criminal penalties for offenders. The removal of those penalties has, combined with the creation of the PA[i]CT Act which greatly expanded the amount of service connected disability benefits dispersed, has given rise to the proliferation of unaccredited claims agents. The GUARD Act (S.740 in the Senate and HR 1139 in the House in the last congressional session) would have restored fines and possible imprisonment up to one year. Other states have used the GUARD Act as a model for creating penalties, notably our neighbors New York, New Jersey, and Maine. In Maine, violations of the statute are violations of the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.[ii] Without meaningful penalties, these claims sharks will continue to prey on veterans even with the warning. 

I support many of the corrections made to the property tax exemption for permanently and totally disabled veterans identified in SB 1276, in particular the application of the exemption to not only the dwelling but also the property on which it sits, and the inclusion of Gold Star spouses in the exemption. However, I ask the committee to reconsider adding the provision that the exemption apply only to those veterans who have received a 100% service-connected disability rating from the VA. The VA rating system attempts to account for how a variety of injuries and their severity affect post-service employment. Sometimes, they get it wrong. There are many injuries that impede employability for which a veteran cannot be rated 100%, and there are many veterans with injuries who have a rating of 70% and are utterly unable to be employed due to those injuries. For this reason, the VA has a program called Individual Unemployability (UI) under which the VA adjudicates that the veteran is unable to maintain substantially gainful employment, The VA pays the veteran as if 100% service-connected, even if the veteran has a service-connected disability rating between 70% and 100%. For all intents and purposes, the veteran is totally disabled. Many of our clients, once they receive the IU rating, do not continue the process to increase their service connected rating because there is no additional benefit to be gained in the VA system. They are adjudicated as totally disabled by the VA, and sometimes, permanently disabled.  

I support HB 6765 in principle, and look forward to seeing more details about the planned implementation. Currently the VA provides full dental services to only a small number of veterans: those veterans with a service-connected dental disability for which they receive compensation; former prisoners of war; and totally and permanently disabled veterans (those with 100% service-connected disability ratings and those determined receiving the equivalent of a 100% service-connected rating for individual unemployability (IU)), with a handful of other categories receiving one-time care. Dental services are so sought after that any time there is a free pop-up dental clinic serving veterans, the place is mobbed and not everyone in line gets seen.

I have serious questions about SB 1277. If the intent is to create more housing for low-income disabled veterans, it would be hard to oppose that. As a general matter, I appreciate incentivizing towns to provide more housing for low-income disabled veterans. One of the greatest difficulties we and our colleagues in the VA and VA-sponsored programs have is finding affordable housing for our clients. Having more housing designated for veterans will help and may also serve to create more veteran communities. That said, I am not sure this bill does that. It appears to be a way for towns to gather additional points without adding any more housing to apply for a moratorium on building new affordable housing under 8-30g. As such, I am reluctant to support any bill that reduces the affordable housing stock generally even as it creates more veteran-designated housing.

Any bill that provides more affordable housing for veterans is generally favorable to CVLC and our clients, provided it provides meaningfully increases the availability and affordability of housing for low-income veterans. For that reason, while I support the idea of providing prefabricated housing for homeless veterans with vacant property on which to erect such structures, as proposed in HB 6764, it is generally not our experience that many homeless veterans possess such property. I suspect the number of people who would qualify for the proposed assistance would be very small, and that the bill would not make a dent in the veteran homeless population. Additionally, local ordinances may be at play as well. We have served a veteran who was living in an RV on a relative’s land, with the relative’s permission. There was a zoning complaint filed by a neighbor which had to be adjudicated. The process took months before the variance was granted and the veteran did not have to worry that he would be evicted from his trailer.

I have fewer reservations about HB 6768, which establishes a ten percent set-aside for veterans in new housing authority projects and new builds. That said, the bill lacks specificity. I would be happy to volunteer some of my housing staff to work with the committee in fleshing out the bill if you would like.

As a veteran myself, I support SB 1091 as a manifestation of the state’s valuing of veterans. The current property tax exemption of $1000 off the valuation of a veteran’s real property is so low as to be meaningless in a high-cost state like Connecticut. I also agree with the cap on property values for which this applies. Although the vast majority of our clients are struggling to make ends meet, not all veterans are struggling and several veterans go on to have very profitable careers following their service. It is important to recognize the sacrifices made by veterans with a meaningful deduction, but to not create a windfall for the very wealthy.

Likewise, I support HB 5117. The state veteran cemetery in Middletown is not only the largest memorial to veterans in the state, it is the only place in the state for veterans requesting the veteran burial benefits to which they are entitled to be buried. It is going to run out of room soon. There are only 800 spaces available now—nowhere near the space needed for the 131,000 veterans currently in the state. It is very popular for people to say they support veterans and to say “thank you” to any veteran they meet, but if we do not provide a space for veterans’ final rest because of misinformation about materials leaching from graves or concerns about possible reduction in property values, can we really say we honor veterans? The bill should include enough money to fund a new cemetery; the governor’s proposal for $7.5 million in the budget is estimated to be only half the $15 million needed. It is disappointing that misinformation about a proposed expansion of the existing cemetery in Middletown derailed that proposal. I hope that any community in Connecticut would be proud to serve as the final resting place of the state’s military heroes.

Finally, I support both HJ 28, the resolution in support of Chief Harold Tantaquidgeon, who served with distinction and honor in the Coast Guard for over 20 years, and HB 6724, the creation of a license plate to recognize the contributions of the Borinqueneers, the 65^th Infantry Regiment of the US Army, primarily made up of residents of Puerto Rico, The unit has served with distinction since WWI but most especially during the Korean War, where they racked up multiple combat successes in a war not noted for those, including helping to safely evacuate fellow American troops from the North Chosin Reservoir following a brutal 17 day battle. The historical successes of the American Armed Services are the result of the action of individuals who represent all of the United States and its territories in its diversity and depth of experience. This diversity should be celebrated and recognized.

Thank you for your work to improve the lives of Connecticut Veterans.

[i]

[ii] See 37-B Maine Revised Statutes §12, https://trackbill.com/bill/maine-legislative-document-2259-an-act-to-prohibit-receiving-compensation-for-assisting-a-person-to-obtain-veterans-benefits-except-as-permitted-under-federal-law/2531777/ ; see also New York Assembly Bill A8106 (2023), https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/A8106.