Florida, stay out of US veteran disability claims | Opinion
By Joe Meyers
Read it in The Palm Beach Post
The American Legion Post 164 Honor Guard advances the colors at the Peal Harbor Day ceremony to honor vets at Tom Kaiser USN Veteran’s Memorial Pak in Boynton Beach, last month. Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post
States acting unilaterally to undercut what would logically appear to fall under federal jurisdiction seems to be all the rage these days.
The most well known cases are hyper-partisan and emotional. The left cheers Colorado and Maine for removing former President Trump from the 2024 ballot. The right cheers Arizona and Texas for erecting barriers on the southern border.
However, one more sedate issue that doesn't fall neatly along partisan lines is now witnessing Republican-dominated Florida following Democrat-dominated New Jersey over federal disability claims paid to veterans. Yes, federal disability claims.
In an effort ostensibly designed to thwart potential scammers, last summer the New Jersey legislature passed the most restrictive bill in the nation over who can legally assist veterans in filing claims for benefits and Governor Phil Murphy quickly signed it into law.
Now the Florida Senate is following along the same path.
Both states are reacting to what's been a stalemate at the federal level. Since 2019 a series of rival bills haven't broken through in either the Senate or House of Representatives, despite their collective bipartisan nature, with a mix of Republicans and Democrats divided into two camps.
One side is attempting to impose criminal penalties on anyone who helps veterans file claims for benefits unless they are attorneys accredited by the Veterans Administration (VA) or the Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) with the resources to hire them.
The other side is looking to compel the VA to expand the accreditation process so that those small businesses which have helped millions of veterans can continue to do so legally.
If the Florida bill becomes a law like in New Jersey, veterans in the state will be targeted for punishment because their options will be greatly curtailed in choosing who can help them. Since the VA-system is notoriously complex and slow, often taking years to adjudicate claims, veterans need more options, not fewer.
In the wake of COVID and its work-from-home policies, what was already a painstakingly long process to settle claims now will take a couple years to catch up on the backlog, according to the VA. The Florida bill will make it even worse.
There are also plenty of strawman arguments out there to be aware of.
Some in the VSO community have railed against "for-profit" companies charging veterans fees for services, at times even calling it wrong and insulting.
However, they typically omit the "profit" is on a fee-for-service model with money coming from winning claims and increased benefits for the veterans. Those same voices also omit how VA-accredited attorneys at specialty law firms in Washington typically rack up tens of millions of dollars in government fees each year while rarely winning more benefits for veterans, according to the VA's own Congressional testimony.
While I specialize in the financial sector and not veterans issues, as a former U.S. Army officer and small business owner in Florida, it seems to me this is a classic case of David vs. Goliath. The Davids are the small business owners who are helping countless veterans with their claims and the Goliaths are law firms and big VSOs trying to put them out of business.
Florida should stay out of it. The states don't pay out VA claims, the federal government does. The Constitution declares in Article I that Congress shall raise and support an Army, not the states.
If this small business-killing bill should pass and find itself on the desk of fellow veteran Gov. Ron DeSantis, hopefully he will cast a veto. Florida veterans should familiarize themselves with this issue while it's still up for debate.
Joe Meyer, a former Army major and founder of Meyer Capital, is a Palm Beach resident.
