Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, our veterans have put their lives on the line to protect this country. The very least we can do is keep our promise to take care of them when they return home. But since the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, the VA has demonstrated little progress in addressing the emergency medical claims processing backlog hurting our veterans. When I pressured the VA for statistics on this issue last year, the VA was processing only 14 percent of the claims within 30 days in my home region--14 percent. Since that time, the VA has conveniently loosened their timely processing goal from 30 days to 45 days, making it impossible to measure real progress. Despite this change in internal procedure, not a single VISN has reached a satisfactory timely processing rate. When these claims are not paid on time by the VA, the bill often gets passed onto the veteran--in many cases, threatening their personal credit rating. This is just unacceptable. While the VA wants to claim it is making progress by changing internal metrics to cook the numbers, it has taken constant pressure from my office, providers, and veterans groups just to get this agency to pay attention and try to do their job. American veterans should never have to worry about calling an ambulance or taking a trip to the emergency room and wondering whether this will hurt their finances. They should be focused on their health and their recovery. My amendment is very simple.…”