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In order for VA and DoD to properly manage the human and financial cost of providing medical care for our casualties, more robust data must be collected and analyzed immediately by the Administration, Congress, academics, and advocates.

* VA must be able to answer simple, tiffany sale questions. For example, what is the total number of unique deployed Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have received any VA benefit (healthcare, disability, etc.) since returning home? In another example, is VA able to accurately and consistently provide the expenditures for all of these VA programs? VCS remains alarmed VA is incapable and unwilling to answer these two easy questions.

* DoD and VA cheap tiffany bangle an official accounting of the financial costs for medical care, disability benefits, education benefits, life insurance, home loan guaranty, and all other DoD and VA benefits for servicemembers, veterans, and families. For the past several years, VCS has requested this information from VA using the Freedom of Information Act. VA has not provided any cost data. Starting in 2001, VA employees urged VA leaders to begin tracking war-related benefit use and costs, and nearly all requests were refused.

* DoD must provide an accounting of all discharges by type and branch of service, sorted by year, to monitor trends for both deployed and non-deployed servicemembers since 1990. Two prior cheap tiffany bracelet by this Committee documented tens of thousands of improper discharges, often for veterans at high risk of readjustment challenges due to TBI and PTSD. As the number of less than fully honorable discharges increases, additional highly vulnerable veterans flood into society. Many of these veterans either don't seek VA assistance or are refused VA help, instead turning to private, state, local, or university campus programs for assistance that should have been provided by the Federal government.

* VA should monitor negative post-deployment outcomes, such as homelessness, suicides, divorce, and crime, as well as state, local, and private expenditures on veterans. The most important oversight remains the Administration's inability to provide complete and accurate active duty, Reserve, National Guard, and veteran cheap tiffany cufflink data. Every year DoD has set new, and highly disturbing, records of active duty suicides. Most of the initial monitoring began with FOIA requests from advocacy organizations or journalists investigating patterns of disturbing developments such as suicides, homicides, unemployment, and homelessness. VA and DoD only began limited monitoring and research after repeated advocacy organization, media, and Congressional inquiries.

* The Department of Labor should monitor unemployment and underemployment, both for veterans and families. Veterans often move from the military installation to their home town shortly after cheap tiffany earring. Often, these cross-country moves uproot spouses from their jobs. The use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, legislation introduced by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, by hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans may be masking already alarming reports of high unemployment among returning veterans.