Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 512, the WINGMAN Act. I am honored to represent the First District of Michigan, which, as a State, has a higher than average percentage of veterans, and the First District has double the percentage of veterans of the rest of the State. To advocate for these fine men and women who have served so honorably, we have the absolute imperative to make sure that they get the help that they need to cut through the bureaucratic red tape at agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. I have been serving in Congress for just over a month now, and, already, my office has been flooded with requests from veterans seeking aid in navigating the benefits claims process. Unfortunately, the VA is notoriously plagued by a culture of complacency and inefficiency. Even something as simple as checking the status of a veteran's claim means that congressional staff members have to circle back around numerous times with VA employees before being able to provide the veterans in the First District with an accurate update. As a veteran of the Vietnam war, I know that time is valuable to our veterans. We have to introduce more efficiency and transparency into the benefits claims process. H.R. 512 is designed to cut out the middle step. The WINGMAN Act provides congressional offices with read-only access to veterans' records within the Veterans Benefits Administration.…”