Op-ed by Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Published in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

How can it be that for so long we have left our veterans — our nation’s heroes — with an agency incapable of meeting their needs?

In the past months I have spoken with dozens of veterans in Walla Walla and across Eastern Washington, and their narratives share common themes: they’ve endured inordinate appointment wait times; unjustifiable and excessive travel to Seattle, Portland, and Boise for treatment; and too often they’ve been treated like a burden, not a priority.

It greatly disturbs me to know so many veterans in our community have been given the cold shoulder by an agency that exists to serve them.

As these accounts increase in number — a six-month wait to get an X-ray; bottles of incorrectly filled prescription medications; a smattering of mixed messages when it comes to “following protocol” — it is clear we must address the unacceptable realities of our broken VA system. One veteran with severe PTSD turned to a Veterans Service Officer for help filing a claim to receive treatment, only to find he needed to be diagnosed before filing it — yet he had been told otherwise within the VA.

Dismayed and despondent, this veteran was left bewildered by paperwork and discouraged by bureaucracy at its worst.

We need to change this.

These stories are ongoing, and they are deeply rooted in the culture of the VA across the country.

As the wife of a retired Navy pilot — and as a member of Congress representing Fairchild Air Force Base — I am profoundly moved by what I have heard from our Eastern Washington veteran community, and I am working every day with my colleagues to set the VA on a new course — a course that puts our veterans first.

That’s why I was an original co-sponsor of the bipartisan Veteran Access to Care Act of 2014, which enables veterans who live over 40 miles from a VA facility to receive private, non-VA care, and guarantees veterans who have experienced extensive wait times access to non-VA care.

While legislation like this will bring immediate relief to many veterans, and suspend bonuses for all VA employees for the next two years, we have more work to do.

Last week, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller and I hosted a conference call with veterans from Walla Walla and across Eastern Washington. We discussed the work we are doing in the House to improve their access to care, and heard about the struggles so many Eastern Washington veterans have encountered. Chairman Miller joins me in my commitment to the men and women who have selflessly defended our freedom, and together we will continue to advocate for this community of heroes.

The time is now to encourage contracting with local hospitals to eliminate months-long appointment delays, and the time is now to improve access to primary care physicians, a good first step in improving overall care. We are working to cultivate an agency that makes the veteran the priority, because the Department of Veterans Affairs ought to be concerning itself with the needs of our heroes, not preoccupying itself with the likes of unwarranted bonuses and falsified paperwork. My commitment to our veteran community remains steadfast, and looking forward I will make every effort to improve their access to quality, compassionate care.