Veterans Affairs

As a veteran himself, Senator McCain has long gone to battle with the bureaucracy at the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce wait times and improve the care provided to our nation’s veterans. 

Because of his status as a well-known veteran in Congress, Senator McCain is often contacted by veterans in need of assistance from across the country, not just Arizona. Most all other offices refer those out-of-state cases back to their home-state Senators, but Senator McCain's office actually works cases for any veteran who contacts us. As a result, Senator McCain’s office works far more veterans-related cases than any other office of the Senate. 

Senator McCain has 10 caseworkers on staff. Nine are working VA issues right now and five of those are solely dedicated to working VA issues. In 2014, at the start of the VA scandal, Senator McCain’s office worked 3,500 VA-related cases (1,200 of these cases were out-of-state individuals). Senator McCain’s office has helped veterans receive hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of benefits and retroactive benefits payments in just the last year.

If you have information concerning mismanagement, or waste, fraud, and abuse within our VA system, you can contact the VA Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-488-8244 or vaoighotline@va.gov, or Senator McCain’s Office at 602-952-2410 or here. If you, as a veteran, are encountering problems receiving care, or if you know a veteran who is having similar difficulty, please contact Senator McCain's office at 602-952-2410 or here.

Please note that, if you are a veteran encountering problems receiving care and would like the Senator’s assistance, in order to assist you with your situation his office must have your written consent. The Privacy Act of 1974 protects your personal information, and prohibits a federal agency from distributing your personal information to another party without your written consent. A federal agency will not allow the Senator’s office to assist you without a completed written form of consent. Confidential crisis counseling is available 24/7 through The Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255.

Additional links to helpful resources for veterans are below.  

Resources For Veterans

• The Department of Veterans Affairs, Phoenix Regional Office
• Understanding the VA Fully Developed Claim Process
• The Phoenix VA Healthcare System
• The Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System
• The Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System
• Military Personnel Records Request
• The GI Bill
• Find your closest VA Center
• The Veterans Crisis Line

Over his career, Senator McCain has successfully advanced numerous pieces of legislation to help veterans, including these recent examples:

VA Reform

• In 2014, Senator McCain led a bipartisan effort to address the scandal in delayed and denied care at the Phoenix VA Health Care System. He led a bipartisan effort with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to write and pass by a 93-3 Senate vote the Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, legislation that makes some of the significant reforms to the VA in decades.

• The bill aims at addressing the culture of mismanagement and neglect at the VA; providing veterans more choice and flexibility in their health care; and introducing reforms that would make it easier to hold all those responsible for the scandal in care accountable.

• A hallmark of the bill is the Choice Card, which Senator McCain first proposed when he ran for president in 2008, which addresses veterans’ wait-times for appointments at VA facilities, and which received praise from veterans advocacy organizations such as Concerned Veterans for America.

• The bill also included $10 billion in emergency spending to let vets who cannot get VA appointments within 30 days of requests or who live more than 40 miles from VA health care facilities seek treatment from private providers.

• It aimed to increase the capacity of the VA health care system by pumping $5 billion into hiring new doctors, nurses and other VA medical staff. Also, $1.27 billion would be spent on leases for 27 new medical centers in 18 states and Puerto Rico.

Veterans Suicide Prevention

• Senator McCain has been a leader in improving care for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and reducing the rate of 22 American veterans committing suicide every day.

• Senator McCain was the original cosponsor of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, legislation that was passed unanimously by the Senate and signed into law by the President in February 2015, which reforms and strengthens veterans’ suicide prevention programs at the Department of Defense and the VA.

Military Family Support

• Senator McCain sponsored an amendment to the Senate-passed National Defense Authorization Act for 2016 that would ensure that no American family ever has to pay out-of-pocket to witness the dignified transfer of a loved one’s remains.

• The amendment is inspired by Marine Lance Corporal Jacob Hug from Phoenix, Arizona who was killed while on a humanitarian relief mission following the devastating earthquake in Nepal.