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Congressman Garamendi Meets with His Veteran Advisory Group for Frank Conversation on VA Services in Northern California

June 27, 2014

FAIRFIELD, CA – Today Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), a Member of the House Armed Services Committee, met with 43 members of his Veterans Advisory Committee to discuss the status of Veterans Administration (VA) services in Northern California. The meeting, which took place at Travis Air Force Base, was designed to be an open forum for the participating veterans and veterans’ advocates to explain to their Congressman specific problems and satisfactory encounters they’ve experienced with the VA. Following the conversation, the veterans explored Travis’ David Grant Medical Center, a flagship hospital that combines specialized services provided by the Department of Defense and the VA. Representatives from the VA were in attendance at the event cataloguing the concerns, and in a number of specific cases, they promised follow through to the concerned veterans.

“As your representative in Congress, I need to have a clear understanding of all the challenges our veterans in the community face. I heard several related yet different concerns about the VA today. I also heard that overall, the care being delivered is still high quality, albeit sometimes with unacceptable delays,” Congressman Garamendi said. “Our lawmakers in Washington need to understand what’s working and what’s not. I heard concerns about demand of services outstripping supply, programs underfunded, procedures poorly conceived or not properly followed, and policies that need to be changed. This was a productive meeting, and I will take what I learned back to my colleagues.”

Participants highlighted shortfalls with the system such as documents being lost, procedures taking months to get scheduled, infuriating phone trees sending veterans from department to department without resolution, and certain contracted work being of deficient quality and hard to schedule. They also noted that overall, care at the VA remains at a high standard of quality, even though unacceptable delays cotinue in some cases.

During the tour of David Grant Medical Center, the Congressman and Veterans Advisory Committee heard briefings on services offered from experts in Radiology- Hematology Oncology, Dialysis, and the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.

Congressman Garamendi promised to follow up with the VA on some of the concerns he heard and to work to incorporate more accountability and funding into all future VA legislation. Garamendi has consistently voted for bills designed to improve VA services and to reduce the VA claims backlog. He is also the cosponsor of a dozen bills that would help veterans through improved health care, job placement and training, education, and housing assistance.

Garamendi is pushing for the Conference Committee for the bipartisan Veterans Health Administration Reform legislation to produce a bill that dramatically reduces wait time for medical services by overhauling the intake structure and providing greater capacity.