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The Department of Veterans Affairs has rescinded a new rule on rating disability compensation. Now, the decision comes after the rule that was issued just last week drew outcry from veterans, who said it would lower their monthly benefits. Here's NPR's Quil Lawrence.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: The VA published a rule 10 days ago that could have changed a vet's benefits if medication improves their condition. Veterans groups saw it as a cost-cutting move.
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COLEMAN NEE: Our nation should never balance its budget on the backs of those who have stood to defend it. They already paid.
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LAWRENCE: Coleman Nee leads the DAV - Disabled American Veterans. He was on Capitol Hill this week for an annual hearing with the country's main veterans groups. Many of those groups say this second Trump administration hasn't been consulting with them, which Nee says can lead to unnecessary missteps like this rule.
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NEE: No veteran should be penalized for taking the medication they need to survive.
LAWRENCE: Groups like DAV worried that vets might forego treatment if it threatened to lower their disability payments. Others noted that these payments aren't welfare, but compensation for the wounds and trauma of war. VA Secretary Doug Collins first called the controversy fake news on social media. He said the VA has always calculated disability this way. Just a day later, he posted that VA would halt enforcement of the rule but leave it on the books.
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PAUL LAWRENCE: So we withdrew the rule.
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LAWRENCE: The deputy VA secretary for benefits, Paul Lawrence, addressed the issue at the DAV's National Convention also this week.
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LAWRENCE: And, candidly, we have no intention of ever doing anything or talking about it ever again. So you don't have to...
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LAWRENCE: Lawrence said it was all a misunderstanding, though he admitted that the confusion it caused could've been harmful. But Democrats in Congress say the Trump administration has been pushing for cuts at VA for more than a year. At the hearing on Tuesday with veterans groups, Senator Tammy Duckworth said leaving the rule in place was suspicious.
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TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Until Secretary Collins rescinds that rule, it remains in effect. If you think that this is the end of this administration's effort to attack disability compensation, then you're wrong.
LAWRENCE: The backlash kept building. At last count, more than 20,000 people had posted public comments on the rule. Finally, yesterday, VA bowed to the pressure, announcing that to maintain the trust and confidence of veterans, the rule is rescinded.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THIS WILL DESTROY YOU'S "LEATHER WINGS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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