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Veterans

Senator Wyden has worked to expand access to health care for all veterans.

In 2005, Senator Wyden successfully worked with Oregon and Washington’s Congressional Delegations to ensure that the Walla Walla, WA VA hospital was not closed as part of the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) process.  In 2010, when the VA announced plans reduce services at its Roseburg facility, Wyden held a series of community forums and forced an outside review of the hospital which kept Roseburg’s VA emergency room open and expanded distance medicine programs for veterans in Oregon’s rural communities.  Wyden’s advocacy also made a Community Based Outpatient Clinic for veterans in La Grande a reality as well as the creation of Bend’s Vet Center which opened in 2010.

In 2008, Wyden’s questioning of two Pentagon officials and subsequent follow-up with the Secretary of Defense revealed more than 39,000 cases of concurrent retirement and disability claims as well as combat-related compensation claims that had yet to be processed.  As a result of Wyden’s intervention, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service quadrupled the number of staff processing claims and ensured prompt reimbursement for veterans. In 2010, Wyden’s advocacy resolved a two year backlog of reimbursements for Oregon veterans who paid out of pocket for service-connected travel and health care.

Latest

• Oregon Lawmakers to Pentagon: Don’t Put Taxpayers on the Hook for Contractors’ Negligence

  Portland, OR - Six members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are urging The Pentagon to resist efforts by military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) to stick American taxpayers with the estimated $100 million bill for the company’s negligence in the 2003 poi...…Read More

  Posted on 12/07/12

• In Letter, Oregon Lawmakers Seek to Have VA’s GI Bill Housing Allowance Calculated Based on Where Veterans Live and Study

  Oregon lawmakers wrote to the Veterans Administration to object to regulations which shortchange Oregon veterans going to college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. In a letter to VA Director of Education Services Robert Worley, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (...…Read More

  Posted on 12/04/12

• Wyden Testifies at Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Hearing on Pension Poachers

  
  Posted on 06/27/12

• Wyden and Kohl Investigate Pension Poaching in VA’s Pension Program at Aging Committee Hearing

  Coinciding with the release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report investigating “pension poaching” practices by unscrupulous financial planners operating within the VA’s pension program, U.S...…Read More

  Posted on 06/06/12 | Seniors

• Aging Committee Hearing to Investigate Claims of Exploitation of Seniors Applying for VA’s Pension Plan

  U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will chair a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 2 pm to hear testimony from government officials, veterans advocates as well as those who have been victimized by unscrupulous “pension po...…Read More

  Posted on 06/04/12 | Seniors

• Have you been targeted by a Pension Poacher? Tell us your Aid and Attendance story.

  ...Read More

  Posted on 05/15/12

• Wyden Cosponsors Bill to Compensate Servicemembers for Miscalculation of Leave Time Under PDMRA

  As the bureaucratic struggles over the Defense Department’s handling of the Post-Deployment Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) program continue, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), has joined U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and other Senate colleagues in i...…Read More

  Posted on 02/02/12