Today on Veterans Day, we acknowledge the debt of gratitude we owe to the men and women in uniform who have selflessly served to protect our great nation. We are forever grateful for their service and we have a moral obligation to care for our veterans who need assistance—many of whom have faced devastating injuries because they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the safety and security of the American people.
In the words of President Teddy Roosevelt, “A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”
That’s why as part of our Better Way agenda, House Republicans have a plan to honor those who served by modernizing the institutions that serve them, improving the military retirement and health care systems, strengthening mental health research, and enhancing transparency and accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This includes ensuring that service members, veterans, and their families receive quality care and services in a timely, convenient, and efficient manner.
Specifically, our Better Way plan will completely overhaul the VA so it works for every single veteran and their families and to honor our commitments to those who serve by:
- Reforming the military health care system to safeguard the readiness of our armed forces while ensuring sustainable access to care for all beneficiaries.
- Ending the VA’s monopoly on veterans’ care, forcing the VA to operate more like a hospital system that must compete for its funding, and affording veterans the option of receiving care through a community partner instead of the VA.
- Requiring the VA to expand its partnerships with community providers.
- Supporting research on the physical and mental health issues prevalent in the veteran community and incorporating promising developments into the veterans’ health care system.
- Aggressively overseeing the VA to foster a new sense of commitment to its mission.
- Reforming the VA personnel system so that employees who do not meet the standards of service rightly expected of them will no longer be tolerated.
We look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to keep our promise to do right by veterans. To learn more about our Better Way plan, please visit BETTER.GOP.
