Passing Bills to Help Veterans

While Monday was the day we remember those who gave their lives for our country, we should also remember we must keep our promise to all of our veterans. Since first being elected to Congress, I’ve been fighting for our veterans to get the care they were promised and earned. That’s why last week I voted for, and the House passed, seven bills to help veterans:

- H.R. 467, The VA Scheduling Accountability Act, which ensures that all VA facilities fulfill the VA’s scheduling policies, requires the VA to report to Congress on individual facilities’ compliance and prohibits VA medical center leaders from receiving bonuses if their facility fails to certify compliance.

- H.R. 1005, which directs the VA to enter into agreements with state veterans homes to pay for adult day health care for a veteran eligible for, but not receiving, nursing home care.

- H.R. 1162, The No Hero Left Untreated Act, which requires the VA to carry out a one-year pilot program to provide access to magnetic resonance therapy to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma, chronic pain or opiate addiction. Magnetic resonance therapy has been used successfully in the past to treat depression, PTSD and TBI.

- H.R. 1329, The Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act, which increases the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities as well as the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans as of December 1st, 2017.

- H.R. 1545, The VA Prescription Data Accountability Act, which clarifies current law to instruct that the VA is required to disclose information to state controlled substance monitoring programs for anyone – veteran or civilian – who is prescribed these medications through VA.

- H.R. 1725, The Quicker Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, which will expedite the VA disability claims processing by allowing private medical evidence in support of claims for disability compensation.

- H.R. 2288, The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act, which gives the Secretary of the VA the ability to test a new program to modernize the VA’s appeals process by creating three “lanes” for veterans’ appeals to expedite the process. These three "lanes" would separate those who are filing a new appeal, trying to submit further evidence for a current appeal and those appealing a current decision directly to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.

Issues: 
TexasGOPVote
 

© 2015 TexasGOPVote  | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy