Veterans, Families, Seniors

As the U.S. Representative for California's 29th District, a main focus of mine is to find ways to increase access to community services and health care for Veterans, working families and senior citizens to maintain or regain their self-sufficiency.

Honoring Our Veterans

I am committed to serving our Veterans in Washington, reducing the backlog in our VA Hospital system and ensuring that we maintain the promise made to those who protected, and who continue to protect, our nation and our freedoms. With the needs of our Veterans in mind, I've created a Veterans Advisory Committee in the 29th Congressional District. These men and women have been, and will continue to be, honorable public servants. In their new role, they will be both a conduit for the concerns of Veterans in the San Fernando Valley, and advocates, who will let me know what needs to change in our system, to properly honor those who have served.

If you have an issue that you feel the Veterans Advisory Committee needs to address, you can email the Committee at cardenasvets@mail.house.gov.

Encouraging Veteran Hiring

Because of high Veteran unemployment after the Vietnam War, a massive campaign was undertaken by the U.S. government to encourage the public to patronize companies that hired Veterans. Today, Veterans still face high unemployment, which is unacceptable given their sacrifice and service to our country. With that in mind,I joined David Jolly (R-Tampa Bay Region) to introduce the Honoring the Hiring of Heroes (HHH) Act. The HHH Act will distinguish and incentivize businesses to employ our Veterans by authorizing the Secretary of Labor to award special recognition to employers with Veteran-friendly employment practices.

Enforcing Accountability at the VA

Allegations regarding potential issues in Los Angeles at the Veterans Administration Hospital were troubling. Director Donna Beiter consistently responded to the concerns of both Veterans and our elected officials and I believe she and her staff acted in the best interests of serving our Veteran community. In May of 2014, I requested and received a briefing from Director Beiter, who was director of the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Important changes can be made, but I believe the VA in Los Angeles is on the right track to fixing the problems it has and properly serving our Veterans, who deserve the best service possible

I was also proud to sign on as an original co-sponsor to the bipartisan Veterans Mental Health Accessibility Act, which is intended to allow veterans better access to mental health care. Currently, veterans face a five-year window in which they must seek treatment for mental illnesses before losing their higher priority status.  This legislation would eliminate the five-year window and allow veterans to seek treatment for service-connected mental illnesses, regardless of when their conditions manifest themselves.

As the United States military and the VA continue to improve treatment for those who have served, there remains a gap for veterans struggling with mental illnesses. This bill seeks to bridge that gap.

Promoting and Protecting The Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act allowed more than 11 million Americans to finally be able to purchase affordable health insurance coverage. I am committed to providing materials to hospitals, small business owners and families in the San Fernando Valley, so everyone I represent understands the opportunities in the law, as well as the potential costs.

The California Health Benefit Exchange, Covered California, is online and ready to help you learn about this valuable tool for selecting private health insurance. In 2013 and 2014, I held events throughout the 29th Congressional District to help my fellow Californians find out how to sign up. Thanks to the hard work of my staff and the great people at Covered California, more than 1,000 Valley families now have affordable, quality health insurance.

Las políticas de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud Asequible ayudarán a que más de 40 millones de americanos finalmente tengan la oportunidad de adquirir un seguro de salud asequible. Me comprometo a trabajar con el gobierno del Presidente Obama para proporcionar materiales a hospitales, propietarios de pequeñas empresas y familias en el Valle de San Fernando para asegurar que todas las personas a las que represento entienden las oportunidades de la nueva ley, así como los posibles costes. Se puede obtener ahora más información sobre la Ley de Cuidado de Salud Asequible visitando CuidadoDeSalud.gov. (en Espanol)

Protecting and Supporting Medicare and Medi-Cal

One of the more important aspects of the Affordable Care Act was its impact on Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). The Medicare Trustees projected in late 2014 that the trust fund that finances Medicare’s hospital insurance coverage will remain solvent until 2030, four years beyond what was projected in 2013. While Medicare solvency increases, the number of Californians in need who are covered by Medi-Cal has increased by more than 31 percent to more than 11 million. As has always been the case with Medi-Cal, a vast number of these benficiaries are children. More than 40 percent of those protected by our social safety net are Californian kids.

I will continue protecting Medicare and Medicaid in Congress, because without these incredibly important programs, millions of California families would return to a life where even the simplest medical procedure is impossibly expensive. Medicare and Medicaid are the backbones of the promise we have made to all Americans that our nation will not allow an American Dream to be extinguished by medical bills.