The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States thanks the leadership of the
House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees for reaching a compromise
agreement to begin fixing the Department of Veterans Affairs health care
system, which for months has been inundated with confirmed allegations of
unofficial patient waiting lists, whistleblower retaliation, and mistrust of
everything the department says and does.
“The
compromise will be a huge win for veterans when it is approved,” said new VFW
National Commander John W. Stroud, “because it will allow the VA to begin to
fix what’s broken and hold employees appropriately accountable to the maximum
extend of the law, which will start the process of restoring the faith of
veterans in their VA.”
The
compromise package, introduced this afternoon by Senate VA Committee Chairman
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.),
and supported by many others, must still be approved by the conference
committee before going for a respective chamber vote, then on to the president
for his signature. Included in the $15 billion package is an expansion of
contracted care in non-VA facilities, a new hiring authority for additional
doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, a renewal of 27 VA
outpatient clinic leases, and more latitude for firing senior VA executive
employees.
“Leadership, management and accountability are
the only requirements the VFW has ever demanded of the VA,” said Stroud, an Air
Force retiree from Hawthorne, Nev. “The VFW expects all members of the House
and Senate to vote for the compromise legislation before they recess for five
weeks so that the VA can begin to heal and refocus on its primary mission of
serving America’s wounded, ill and injured veterans.”