Today’s Star Spangled Salute honors Ohio Representative and Veteran Steve Stivers and Puppies Assisting Wounded Service Members (PAWS) who just had their decade long battle clear a major hurdle. After 10 years, their initiative to have the Department of Veterans Affairs provide service dogs to veterans with mental health issues finally passed the house, thanks in part to Steve Stivers who introduced the bill. The plan is to have the VA create a 5-year pilot program to give grants to one or more organizations to train and provide service dogs to veterans with post-traumatic stress and other post-deployment mental health issues. The cost of obtaining service dogs for Veterans has often put them out of reach for most. Put simply, this bill can save lives. Thank you Steve for your service and thank you PAWS for the work you do.
related bills.
