White House unveils expanded veterans’ health care, anti-scam task force

by Amee LaTour - 11/10/23 4:34 PM ET

Evening Report

White House boosts veterans’ health coverage

As the U.S. observed Veterans’ Day on Friday, the White House announced expansions to veterans’ health care along with a task force designed to protect veterans from scams.

🩺 Changes to health care coverage include:

No-cost health care services, including nursing home care, for World War II veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs beginning this month.
Accelerated eligibility under the PACT Act; veterans exposed to toxins and chemicals who haven’t enrolled in expanded benefits can do so next year.

🪪 White House launches the Veteran Scam and Fraud Evasion task force:

The task force will be comprised of leaders from the VA, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and departments of Education, State and Defense.
The White House said in a press release that “veterans, military personnel, and their families reported 93,000 fraud complaints that cost them more than $414 million” in 2022.

Tomorrow: President Biden will lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans’ Day.

More Veterans Day coverage:

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Amee LaTour, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

CATCH UP QUICK

Election offices in at least five states have received suspicious letters, with the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service saying four letters contained fentanyl, The Associated Press reported.
Former President Trump said in an interview “sometimes you have to let things play out” when asked what the U.S. can do to stop the killing of civilians in the Israel-Hamas war.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) filed a judicial ethics complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron alleging he showed “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance” toward Trump.

📊 FRIDAY FIGURES

Swing State Series — A snapshot of where things stand one year out from the 2024 election. Today, in Part 4 of our series, we look at Nevada.

The Cook Political Report rates Nevada’s presidential election and Senate race “lean Democrat.”

Presidential peek: Most recent polling out of Nevada shows former President Trump and President Biden roughly tied or Republicans with slight leads.

In RealClearPolitics’s polling averages of a hypothetical head-to-head, Trump has 48 percent to Biden’s 44 percent.

The latest New York Times/Siena College poll of both registered and likely voters found Trump besting Biden by 11 percentage points among each group. With independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the mix, Trump’s lead shrunk, with Kennedy polling around 20 percent.
That poll also showed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley ahead of Biden. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis led within the margin of error (MOE).
The latest polls from Emerson College and Bloomberg/Morning Consult show Trump with narrower leads, mostly within MOEs.
A late October poll commissioned by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) found Trump and Biden tied in Nevada.
Check out how FiveThirtyEight’s (now 538) polling averages for Trump and Biden in Arizona trended throughout 2020.

Keep in mind: Nevada voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections, with Democratic candidates winning by fewer than 3 percentage points against Trump in 2016 and 2020.

The Senate side: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) is running for reelection. The Republican field includes former Army Captain Sam Brown, who placed second in last year’s GOP Senate primary.

In 2022’s Senate election, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt by less than 1 percentage point.

The late October poll from NRSC showed Rosen leading Brown 45 percent to 40 percent, with a 4.1 percentage point MOE.

In the House: Nevada may also have at least one competitive House election next year. Cook rates the 3rd District race “lean Democrat.”

ICYMI: Check out previous installments of our Swing State Series on Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan.

Check back next Friday for an analysis of Wisconsin’s 2024 battleground terrain.

Keep up with The Hill’s 2024 election coverage

The Hill has launched presidential candidate pages showing candidates’ positions on the economy, foreign policy, climate & health. See them here

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Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders face off in same Grammy category

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OP-EDS IN THE HILL

“Methane from landfills is another climate emergency. Here’s how to fix it.” — Gina McCarthy, managing co-chair of America Is All In, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former White House National Climate Advisor. (Read here)

“For Native American economic freedom, unravel the ‘white tape'” — Terry Anderson, the John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow with the Hoover Institution, and Thomas Stratmann, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and distinguished university professor of economics and law at George Mason University. (Read here)