CAFC Wins a Major Victory For California’s Disabled Veterans:

Sacramento, October 11, 2009: CAFC is announcing another victory for military service personnel and veterans. Today Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 285, a bill to protect disabled veterans disability compensation from illegal attachment and garnishments.

The bill, SB 285, was authored by California Senator Rod Wright. It was introduced at the request of CAFC in cooperation with the American Retirees Association (ARA), a group we have a long association with .

SB 285 codifies existing federal law, United States Code, Title 38, Section 5301 into our states statutes to assure it is followed in our state courts. Although federal law is very clear in its wording and intent, civil court judges nationwide have routinely ignored it. The result has been illegal attachments and garnishments of the disability compensation and erroneously calculating veterans’ disability compensation into divorce settlements as a divisible asset or income.

Once again the experience and effectiveness of CAFC proved its worth. SB 285 passed California legislature without a single no vote, even though similar efforts in Iowa, West Virginia and Oklahoma have failed so far. We hope our victory will revitalize efforts in those states. CAFC is pleased to announce we have already received commitments from legislators in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to follow the California lead.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this announcement this was another national first to correct inequities that veterans have faced in our courts spearheaded by CAFC. CAFC also lead the nation in passing laws to help protect military parents’ child custody rights and fair child support treatment. What CAFC started in 2004/2005 has now led to approximately 30 states passing laws and changes at the Federal Level. For more details on our work for military parents please read this recent AmeriForce story and here.

CAFC wants to express our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for Senator Rod Wright’s unwavering willingness to stand up for our nation’s disabled veterans and the American Retirees Association for sponsoring the bill. CAFC also want to thank all of the approximately twenty four veterans groups that are part of the California State Commanders Veterans Council (CSCVC) and CSCVS for their support and help.

There is still a lot of work ahead and your help is the only way CAFC can continue our efforts to finish the job. We feel honored and privileged that our efforts are helping. A generous donation to CAFC will help us continue this valuable work.

SUPPLEMENTAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

According to Veteran's Affairs (VA), 60,000 U.S. service personnel have been wounded or have struggled with psychological disorders in the wake of their tours in Iraq since 2003. The percentage of amputees is the highest since the Civil War and the VA estimates that up to one-third of all those who have served in Iraq suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). See Boston Globe Story here.

Additional as with disabled people on SSI benefits most disabled vets are barely living on $700.00 to $800.00 a month and even though both SSI and VA benefits are protected against garnishments and attachments. Some agencies and companies are getting around the federal protection laws for disabled persons on SSI and VA benefit as recently reported by CBS News from a AP story: Creditors Use Loop Hole to Seize Benefits: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/03/business/main5057911.shtml?source=search_story.

Please read more here and read: CAFC Helps Disabled Veterans with Family Law Reform and Update: SB 285 Wright Veterans Disability benefits for more information on this effort and issue.

Texas Senator Pushing for Military Parents Protection

For Immediate Release: March 2, 2009

Sacramento, CA- Texas State Senator Jane Nelson is pushing Texas to join a list of other states amending the states' family law statutes to provide reasonable protection for military parents in child custody cases.

CAFC wants to sincerely thank and applaud Senator Nelson for her dedication to the issues facing deployed military parents and her willingness to stand up for reasonable judicial equity for them in our family law courts. We would also like the thank Travis Broussard, the Policy Analyst on the bill for Senator Nelson, for his thoroughness in handling the details of the bill.

This is not the first time Senator Nelson has taken on the issue. She had originally introduced legislation in 2007 in Senate Bill SB 43. This bill did make its way through the Texas Legislature passing out of all committees but died at the end due to other non related issues that the legislature was faced with, preventing many bills from the final floor vote.

The current bill, SB 279 was introduced in November 2008. As with the first bill, CAFC was contacted by Senator Nelson’s office seeking our assistance with research and witnesses to testify before committees.

CAFC is pleased to announce that the witnesses CAFC helped to provide for SB 43 did an outstanding job and that the bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote in support of the bill by all committee members and appears to be on its way of eventually passing on the floor of the senate.

There is also a companion bill in the House, HB 63 that was introduced by House Member Aycock. HB 63 has been referred to the house judiciary committee and is awaiting a hearing date to be set.

While there are some differences in language between the two bills, we expect that the differences will be worked out in a conference committee for a final floor vote towards the end of their legislative session.

So far CAFC has assisted 8 other states with similar legislation after spearheading the first successful bill in the nation in, SB 1082 Morrow/Ducheny, in California in 2005. Additionally CAFC assisted US Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio) in his successful effort to amend the Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) to add some limited family law protection for military parents in H.R. 4986 . Congressman Turner had introduced another bill in 2008 H.R. 6048 which passed out of the house but was never heard in the senate because of the housing and banking problems facing the country. We hope that Mr. Turner’s efforts in Washington continue.

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For more information contact: Michael Robinson @ 916-749-4033 or info@cafcusa.org