House of Representatives passed the “VA MISSION Act of 2018” by a vote of 347-70. The legislation now heads to the Senate
By PVA National Staff
On May 16th, the House of Representatives passed the “VA MISSION Act of 2018” by a vote of 347-70. The legislation now heads to the Senate.
This historic, bipartisan legislation would reform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) community care programs by consolidating them into a single program with enough funding to get through May of 2019. Second, it would review and realign VA’s health care infrastructure and strengthen VA’s ability to hire and train medical personnel. And of highest importance to PVA, it would make caregiver services available to those veterans with service-connected injuries that were incurred before September 11, 2001. By ending this inequity, roughly 70,000 veterans would be able to receive care and remain in their homes. At the same time, their caregivers, having sacrificed their own health and employment opportunities, some for half a century, would finally have desperately needed supports, and be acknowledged for the decades of service given, and billions of taxpayer dollars saved.
On May 8th, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs acted to advance the bill with a vote of 20-2. Prior to the House Committee vote, PVA, alongside 37 other veteran and military service organizations signed a joint letter to Congress expressing our strong support of the bill and asking Congress make progress before Memorial Day, as the VA MISSION Act is an “historic opportunity to improve the lives of veterans, their families and caregivers.”
Since the access crisis, illustrated by wait times in Phoenix in 2014, Congress, VA, and VSOs have worked to create a system to ensure it never happens again. While the VA MISSION Act is not a perfect solution it is a monumental step forward to ensure veterans are never without options.
Also included in the markup hearing on May 8th were 15 other bills, which were favorably reported. These bills included H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017; H.R. 5520, the Veterans Affairs Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2018; H.R. 4245, the Veterans’ Electronic Health Record Modernization Oversight Act of 2017; and H.R. 4334, the Improving Oversight of Women Veterans’ Care Act of 2017.
If the VA MISSON Act is not signed into law by Memorial Day, the Choice Program is set to run out of funding on June 1st. This would result in private providers unable to provide care to veterans and increased wait times at VA.
Please call your Senators and tell them to vote “Yes” on the “VA MISSION Act.”
