Concerned Veterans for America Launches Ad Campaign Highlighting U.S. Rep Joe Heck’s Support for VA Reform
Television and Digital Ads Are Part of Multimillion Dollar Nationwide Campaign to Pass the VA Accountability Act and Other VA Reform Bills
Arlington, Va. – Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) launched a $700,000 television and digital ad campaign in Nevada today highlighting U.S. Rep. Joe Heck’s consistent and longstanding support for reforming and fixing the broken U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Nevada’s scandal-plagued VA system has caused many veterans in the state to face long wait times, neglect and blocked access to health care. A 2014 IG investigation revealed the Reno VA had the longest average wait times for VA processing claims in the entire nation, and over half of the disability claims there were not accurately processed.
CVA Vice President for Legislative and Political Action Dan Caldwell issued the following statement:
“Rep. Joe Heck is a strong advocate for repairing the broken VA, which sadly has been failing Nevada’s veterans. Rep. Heck has consistently supported expanding health care choice so that fewer veterans are forced to navigate the slow and mismanaged VA in addition to co-sponsoring and voting for legislation that would make it easier to fire bad VA employees.
“CVA has long championed the reforms supported by Rep. Heck — they are critical to fixing the VA and ensuring that our veterans get the care and benefits they earned in the timely manner they deserve. The VA is a glaring example of what happens when government bureaucrats create unnecessary obstacles to accessing quality health care.”
Rep. Heck — a veteran of the Iraq war who served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a brigadier general and emergency room physician — has continued his record of service in Congress through strong VA reform advocacy. In response to the 2014 VA scandal, he co-sponsorsed the VA Management Accountability Act, which would make it easier for the VA secretary to fire and discipline senior executives for performance as well as the Veteran-Centered Access to Coordinated Health Care Act, which would have expanded health care access for veterans by allowing some to seek care options outside the VA. Importantly, Rep. Heck also voted for the creation of the Veteran Choice Program of 2014, a first step to offering many veterans true choice in their health care by letting them visit the doctors they want.
In 2015, Rep. Heck continued his efforts by voting for the VA Accountability Act, a CVA-backed bill that would make it easier for Congress to fire bad VA bureaucrats in order to ensure better health care for our veterans. He has also consistently worked to cut red tape for doctors who are trying to improve access to care at the VA, and supported reforms that expanded retirement benefits to more troops and gave them more options in how they use their retirement benefits.
CVA has had an active grassroots Nevada chapter since 2013 and has been calling for reform and accountability at the VA since 2012. The organization helped pass the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, a sweeping VA reform law, and has been pushing for the VA Accountability Act since 2015. In February 2015, CVA released the Fixing Veterans Health Care Taskforce Report, a 100-page veterans health care reform proposal which has received bipartisan praise and support.
To schedule a TV, print or radio interview with a CVA expert, please email press@cv4a.org . For media inquiries or requests for comment, please email CVA Press Secretary John Cooper (jcooper@cv4a.org).
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Concerned Veterans for America is a non-partisan, non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for policies that will preserve the freedom and prosperity we and our families so proudly fought and sacrificed to defend.