{"id":28798,"date":"2020-11-27T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/11\/27\/time-running-out-on-one-veterans-push-for-va-reforms\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:52:50","slug":"time-running-out-on-one-veterans-push-for-va-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2020\/11\/27\/time-running-out-on-one-veterans-push-for-va-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Time running out on one veteran\u2019s push for VA reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from Thanksgiving break, they\u2019ll have a host of major legislative hurdles to face, including a possible federal shutdown in early December, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/11\/17\/formal-ndaa-talks-begin-under-shadow-of-confederate-renaming-issue\/\" target=_blank>controversial defense policy bill <\/a>facing a presidential veto, and a path ahead on p<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/11\/24\/va-plans-for-vaccine-distribution-unclear-as-coronavirus-cases-continue-to-climb\/\" target=_blank>andemic relief<\/a> for the entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They\u2019ll also have Brian Tally\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tally, a Marine Corps veteran injured in a medical malpractice case five years ago, has been lobbying for reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs each of the last two Congresses. He has a pair of pending bills in the House and the Senate which would require the department to provide basic legal advice for veterans who file malpractice claims, in an effort to ensure their legal rights are protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis really has become my obsession,\u201d said Tally, who estimates he has spent about 11,000 hours of his own time lobbying lawmakers and working on the bill in the last four years. \u201cI get up thinking about passing this. I go to sleep thinking about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a mission I have to see through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/11\/24\/va-plans-for-vaccine-distribution-unclear-as-coronavirus-cases-continue-to-climb\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20328314981820.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA plans for vaccine distribution unclear as coronavirus cases continue to climb<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">More than 100,000 patients connected to VA have tested positive for the virus in the last eight months.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His bill is perhaps just days away from being finalized. Or, Tally may be just a few weeks away from walking away empty handed again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">December will be make-or-break time for dozens of bills like Tally\u2019s that are pending in congressional committees and languishing in legislative limbo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Typically, in the waning days of congressional session, relatively minor measures with bipartisan support and limited executive branch pushback get inserted into wrap-up legislative packages and advanced to the White House after larger fights \u2014 such as the still unresolved federal budget for fiscal 2021 \u2014 are settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But this year, amid a presidential transition and uncertainty in Congress because of the pandemic, those kinds of bills face a tougher road to passage. House and Senate leaders may run out of time in the final days of session (or simply ignore the less pressing issues) to pass those measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the proposals don\u2019t pass by Jan. 3 \u2014 the last day of the current session of Congress \u2014 the legislative slate is wiped clean. Advocates like Tally will have to start over their lobbying work again in the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m still confident,\u201d Tally said. \u201cI think Congress is going to do the right thing this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Years of pain<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tally, who served as a sergeant in the Marines, visited the Loma Linda Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California almost five years ago after a bout of extreme back pain. Doctors diagnosed him with a back sprain and sent him home with painkillers, without any blood tests or further examinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After weeks without any relief \u2014 or additional help from VA doctors \u2014 Tally visited a private-sector doctor (at his own expense), where new tests showed a bone-eating staph infection causing severe spinal damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe doctors weren\u2019t sure why I was still alive,\u201d Tally said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time, Tally was 38 years old, a father of four and owner of his own landscaping business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, he is unable to walk without significant pain. His bladder is mostly non-functional. He says he spent \u201cmost of my time living in a chair\u201d and struggled to believe that getting out of bed each morning was worth the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tally\u2019s family filed a claim against VA for malpractice, saying that doctors should have ordered more tests after his continued pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But after more than a year of working with department officials on the claim, they were notified that the primary doctor involved in the case was an independent contractor, not a VA staffer. The information was given to them after the statute of limitations to file a claim in state court had expired, leaving Tally with no avenue for justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI lost my house, I lost my family\u2019s primary source of income, and VA just left me completely holding the bag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His bills pending in the House and Senate would mandate that within a month of a veteran submitting a malpractice claim, VA officials provide \u201cnotice of the importance of securing legal counsel\u201d and clearly identify the employment status of any individuals involved in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would not be retroactive, so it would not change any of the result in his case. \u201cI just don\u2019t want other families to go through what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/11\/16\/va-moving-ahead-with-plans-to-outsource-all-compensation-and-pension-exams\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/RYW32DW23VCERNJQSYTDCRN7KA.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA moving ahead with plans to outsource all compensation and pension exams<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Lawmakers raised concerns about plans to move all of the medical exams to contractors.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Final hurdles<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tally has worked with multiple lawmakers \u2014 including former Rep. Mark Meadows, before he became White House chief of staff \u2014 on various drafts of the measure since 2018. The latest version, sponsored by Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., was advanced by the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before that passage, department leaders voiced opposition to the idea. In a statement to the committee, VA Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Patient Care Services Maria Llorente said that \u201cit is neither legal nor ethical for the (department) to advise a claimant of the law of a particular jurisdiction,\u201d citing the complexity of different state legal rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She also said that VA believes the current malpractice claims system is working properly, despite the problems Tally faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But VA\u2019s objections haven\u2019t turned into a major roadblock on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month, Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. (both members of the Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee) introduced companion legislation in their chamber to speed up consideration of the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of the lawmakers involved have told Tally they hope to include his measure in end-of-year wrap-up work to be considered over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before that, however, comes an inter-chamber fight over the budget, with the possibility of a Dec. 11 partial government shutdown if compromise can\u2019t be reached. Numerous party leaders are also pushing for an additional pandemic relief package. And lawmakers still haven\u2019t fully resolved the annual defense authorization bill, which contains hundreds of pay and policy provisions for the Defense Department next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tally knows his measure isn\u2019t a headline grabber compared to any of those issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut, at the end of the day, this will help veterans,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, he\u2019s doing his best to remain optimistic that the coming month will be his last waiting for his \u201cmission\u201d to finally finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get this through the craziest Congress in the history of the United States. Everything that could have happened \u2014 impeachment, covid, everything \u2014 seemed to have happened. But we still got this far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI feel confident. But if it doesn\u2019t happen, I\u2019ll begin the march again. I only have so much energy left. But I\u2019ll still be putting my walking shoes on and heading back there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Marine Corps&#8217; veterans multi-year effort to pass legal protections for veterans hangs in the balance during the last few weeks of this session of Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,93,12,25,67,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3226],"class_list":["post-28798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"K3BPVR3DLZCOVMPV23SIPPZJ4E","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/11\/27\/time-running-out-on-one-veterans-push-for-va-reforms\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - 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