Bi-partisan measure makes meaningful improvements to VA community care, establishes review of VA infrastructure

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) voted in favor of the VA MISSION Act of 2018, a bill that aims to make sweeping improvements to VA health care.  The bill would streamline the department’s duplicative community care programs into one cohesive program; create a non-partisan process for reviewing VA’s assets to ensure veterans can access the care they have earned; and expand the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Post-9/11 Caregiver Program to include caregivers of pre-9/11 veterans. These reforms are supported by major Veterans Service Organizations.

“This bill represents the culmination of concerted efforts by both parties in the House and the Senate to make meaningful changes to VA health care,” said Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler.  “Congress has worked tirelessly with veterans’ service organizations and the VA to create this bill, and I’m so pleased with what it means for our veterans.  This bill will help veterans access care in their communities when it’s appropriate, take a close look at the VA’s aging infrastructure so that it can be improved, and help support the heroic efforts of those family members who have, in some cases, left their careers to care for the veterans in their lives.”

In April, Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie informed Congress that current funding for the VA Choice Program would run out in early to mid-June, ending the Choice Program and potentially creating another access to care crisis.  The VA MISSION Act would fund the Choice Program as it exists today until the new streamlined community care program created by the bill is fully instituted.  President Trump has urged swift action on the legislation, and tweeted that he would “immediately” sign such a bill upon passage by both chambers of Congress.  A joint letter signed by the leaders of 38 veterans’ service organizations in support of the bill was sent to Congress in early May.