Political Quotes

“I would remind the Presiding Officer of the hearing we had yesterday dealing with veterans affairs and the opportunity we had to discuss the implementation of something we now refer to as the choice act. One of the successes and, in my view, one of the few successes we had last term--in fact, with Senator Sanders being on the floor as well-- was the passage of the choice act. That legislation was Congress responding to scandal within the Department of Veterans Affairs--the fraudulent wait lists, the lack of services available to veterans who were waiting, and a number of veterans falling through the cracks. Congress responded and passed legislation now referred to as the choice act. What that choice act said in simple terms is that if you are a veteran and you are unable to receive the services you need from the Department of Veterans Affairs within 30 days or if you are a veteran who lives more than 40 miles from a VA facility, the choice act allows you--in fact, requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide you with services at home if you so choose. It is your choice. That bill was passed by Congress in August of 2014, signed by the President in September, implemented since then beginning in November, and it is now March of 2015. What we have discovered during that period of implementation is there are a number of pitfalls by which veterans are not receiving the care we indicated they would receive following the passage of that legislation.…”