Gus Bilirakis: “What an honor it is, an honor and a privilege, to serve with Mr. Sam Johnson, a true American hero. Mr. Speaker, I rise…”

“What an honor it is, an honor and a privilege, to serve with Mr. Sam Johnson, a true American hero. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 2372, the VA MISSION Act, which will provide significant reforms and improvements to the Veterans Choice Program. Since its implementation, the Veterans Choice Program has served over 1.7 million unique veterans seeking timely and high-quality healthcare for their physical and invisible wounds. Although progress has been made, there is more work to be done to ensure we balance resources from community care and the VA healthcare system. The VA MISSION Act will streamline and consolidate the Veterans Choice Program with the other duplicative VA community care programs to create one new cohesive Veterans Community Care Program. This new program allows eligible veterans to seek care from non-VA providers in the community if the VA is not providing the quality care the veterans deserve, and timely care. It also requires access to community providers if the veteran and doctor believe it is in the veteran's best medical interest to seek such care. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Roe, who did an outstanding job with this bill, for his hard work on this bicameral, bipartisan piece of legislation, which is the result of a long negotiation process, where both sides of the aisle put aside differences and compromised to strike a balance between each stakeholder. This is how Congress should work.…”