Washington, D.C. -  Congressman David Price (NC-04) released the following statement today on efforts in Congress to address the deficiencies in military and veterans health care.

Recent revelations about the difficulties our service members and veterans are experiencing in obtaining health care from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other facilities are disgraceful, and these problems must be rectified immediately. Unfortunately, this latest information comes as no surprise: the Administration’s neglect of our wounded warriors has gone on for far too long. As a former member of the House Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, I and many of my colleagues alerted the Administration to the increasing pressure on the VA’s capacity to respond to the mounting caseloads resulting from the many veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA’s claims backlog was already in crisis well before the latest exposé, and the Administration has left the VA short of adequate funding for health care year after year.

The good news is the New Congress is making headway on this critical issue. After opening far-reaching investigations and public hearings on the problems with Walter Reed and health care for returning war veterans, House leaders unveiled an emergency funding bill yesterday that supplies an immediate injection of funding to fulfill our moral obligation to care for our soldiers returning from the battlefield. It targets three and a half billion in funds to treat traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder, and to immediately improve conditions and the quality of care at our military and veterans hospitals. I strongly support this effort. As our brave men and women return from the war zone, we have a responsibility to take care of any and every health issue they face as a result of their deployment.