Arlington, Va. – Concerned Veterans for America is thanking the House Veterans Affairs Committee for advancing the VA Care in the Community Act (HR 4242) – a bill which would help stabilize the VA health care system. The grassroots organization is encouraging the House to continue to improve this bill without adding unrelated provisions that would increase costs and complicate the budget process.
The group also thanked Chairman Rep. Phil Roe for introducing an amendment that would establish an Innovation Center for veterans health care, creating an opportunity for continued work toward improving health care access and outcomes for veterans.
CVA Executive Director Daniel Caldwell issued this statement:
“We applaud Chairman Roe for working in collaborative manner and for continuing to improve this important piece of legislation. We encourage the House to continue to look at ways to improve the bill, and we also urge members not to add other unrelated provisions that would unnecessarily complicate this effort to stabilize the VA health care system.
“We are extremely disappointed by the partisan games that the minority on the committee engaged in during the mark up of the bill. Even though every member of the committee had already co-sponsored this piece of legislation, the minority, led by Ranking Member Tim Walz, decided to grandstand and undermine a bill they helped write. This should show once and for all that Ranking Member Walz and other members of the minority on the House VA Committee are not serious about fixing the VA.”
The VA Care in the Community Act passed the committee by a vote of 14-9 even though every member of the committee had sponsored the legislation previously.
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