Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment, which would correct a decades-long gap in VA's Allied Beneficiary Program by extending this program to South Korean veterans now living in the United States who served alongside the United States during the Vietnam war. For 63 years, veterans of allied forces from World Wars I and II have been able to enroll in VA healthcare. The U.K., Australia, France, New Zealand, and Canada have had reciprocal agreements with the United States, reimbursing the VA for care provided to their veterans and vice versa. In the 1970s, Congress also made veterans of the Czech and Polish Armed Forces who have been American citizens for at least 10 years eligible for VA healthcare. However, neither the Czech Republic nor Poland have reciprocal agreements with the United States, so VA is not reimbursed for the care provided to these veterans. Yet still today, veterans of the Republic of Korea who fought alongside us in the Vietnam war and then went on to become citizens of the United States are denied what their European counterparts already have: access to veteran-centric, high-quality care from VA. Over 300,000 Koreans fought alongside the United States in Vietnam. Thousands went on to build lives here and become citizens, but today only 300 of these veterans are still living.…”