Image Credit: TN General Assembly & Canva
Submitted by Justin Johnson –
You may not know me, but my story is like so many veterans that live in Shelby County and in Tennessee.
I grew up in Millington, TN and during my senior year (2002) of high school the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center deeply impacted my classmates whose parents were stationed at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Midsouth in Millington in fear that their parents would soon be fighting a war.
From that experience I was moved to join the United States Marine Corps in which I served 5 years and two combat tours in Iraq (2005 Fallujah and Korean Village 2008/2009).
When I returned home, I carried on with my life until I started having difficulties with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and reached out for help through my private insurance healthcare provider.
Through that life experience I learned that there were veteran benefits provided to me through Veterans Affairs Healthcare. I was told if I wanted to be guaranteed VA Healthcare I would need to file a veterans disability claim.
The only benefits I had been familiar with before this were my educational benefits through the GI Bill.
Fast forward to today I am service connected for injuries for my service in the Iraq War and I can receive at no cost to me mental and physical healthcare. None of this was possible if I hadn’t received help with filing my veteran’s disability claim. I received that help from a County Veteran Service Officer (VSO) and a Department of Tennessee Veterans Services VSO at no financial cost to me.
Why am I talking about filing a veteran disability claim and its importance to veterans receiving help?
Well today all of that is being threatened in Tennessee. After the passing of the PACT (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins) Act in 2022 that added over $280 billion to veteran benefits for veterans exposed to toxic exposure it made two cohorts (Vietnam & Global War on Terrorism-Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc.) of veterans automatically eligible for benefits.
I can speak from personal experience as the Past Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5066 in Collierville, TN that Veteran Services in Shelby County and the Department of Tennessee was not fully staffed with VSOs to handle claims in a fast and efficient manner. This has been the case all around the country in which VSOs are overwhelmed with veterans reaching out for help with claims and the wait sometimes is months.
From this delay has arisen an underworld industry of unregulated private veteran disability claim companies that will help veterans file a disability claim in return if they are granted a percentage of their benefits having the disabled veteran paying them anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000.
Federal law (38 U.S. Code 5901 Prohibition against acting as claims agent or attorney) has made it a crime for an unaccredited claim consultant or representative to charge a veteran a fee or help for filing a veteran disability claim if they are not accredited by Veterans Affairs.
The problem is that Congress removed the criminal penalty in 2006 making the only punishment a strongly worded letter from the US Department of Veterans Office of Inspector General. This inaction has given birth to a criminal enterprise of claim companies called “Claim Sharks” by the Veterans of Foreign Wars that has grown into a multimillion-dollar business.
In April of 2023, 44 state attorneys introduced a bill to restore the criminal penalty for the Department of Justice to go after the “Claim Sharks” taking advantage of veterans, but the “Claim Sharks” criminal enterprise poured millions of dollars funding lobbyists to stall and stop it from coming up for a vote.
Across the country, state legislatures have taken upon themselves to ban for profit veteran claim companies operating in their states. To keep the criminal enterprise alive a group formed in 2023 named the National Association for Veterans Rights and is led by Peter O’Rourke the former acting Veterans Affairs secretary. Mr. O’Rourke and NAVR have been introducing the SAVE Act to state legislators with the hopes of it becoming legal for “Claim Sharks” to operate openly in states.
In Tennessee on February of this year Representative (Maryville) Jerome Moon and Senator (Knoxville) Richard Briggs introduced HB 0342/SB 0362 “Safeguarding American Veteran Empowerment (SAVE) Act to the 114th Tennessee General Assembly.
If this bill is passed it will open the flood gates for illegal veteran claims companies to operate in Tennessee with very little oversight and without fear of any legal action from the state of Tennessee.
Numerous Veteran Service Organizations in Tennessee have come out against the SAVE Act with the Veterans of Foreign Wars which has almost 16,000 members in Tennessee opposing it the hardest with media campaigns (pactactinfo.org) directed at stopping the Claim Sharks.
The largest population of veterans in Tennessee resides in Shelby County with an estimated population of 52,289. As of 2023 Shelby County veterans receive a total of $383,115,735 from VA compensation and pension from their service connection. Tennessee veterans in total receive $4,012,869 228 in C&P.
If the SAVE Act is passed, I believe it will negatively impact veterans as private unaccredited, for profit and unregulated companies will aggressively pursue veterans to file disability benefits and they (veterans) will unknowingly sign away a percentage of their benefits believing it is their only option to receive help. VETERANS DESERVE TO KEEP EVERY DIME OF THEIR BENEFITS.
Tennessee Veterans deserve better than this and I hope the legislature will not vote in favor of the SAVE Act but instead direct their efforts making sure the Department of Veterans Service is fully funded and there are enough accredited Veteran Service Officers to serve the 440,791 veterans that live in Tennessee.
Thank you for your time.
VFW National campaign against Claim Sharks: https://pactactinfo.org/
TN Dept of Veteran Services: https://www.tn.gov/veteran/vrbp/economic-impact-veterans-tn.html
Veterans Affairs Statement on Fraud : https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/document/2023-10/september_2023_fraud_alert.pdf
VFW One Pager on Claim Sharks: https://pactactinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Dont-Feed-the-Sharks-One-Pager-Light-version-1.pdf
The Washington Post Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/23/va-benefits-for-profit-companies-pact-act/
