WASHINGTON
—
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 3230 today by a
vote of 420-5, paving the way to provide more than $15 billion in emergency
funding to help the Department of Veterans Affairs overcome the crisis in care
and confidence veterans have in their VA.
In
a letter to Congress this morning, John W. Stroud, the national commander of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, urged every member of the
House and Senate to vote "yes" on the H.R. 3230, the Veterans
Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014.
“New
VA Secretary Robert McDonald will need every tool available to fix what's
broken, hold people accountable, and to restore the faith of veterans in their
VA,” he wrote. “Your vote is key to the VA healing itself.”
“The
VFW salutes those 420 members of the House for putting veterans first,” said
Stroud. “Now we need the U.S. Senate to finish the job so that H.R. 3230 can be
sent to the president before Congress adjourns for its scheduled five-week
recess.”
Voting “no” were five Republican congressmen:
Reps. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, Jack Kingston of Georgia, Walter Jones from
North Carolina, Mark Sanford from South Carolina, and Steve Stockman of
Texas. The VFW national commander said “voting against veterans is nothing
short of contemptible and disgusting.”