Rep. Kind Highlights His Legislation to Improve the VA at Tomah Hearing

Tomah, WI – Today, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind attended the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s field hearing about the Tomah VA and highlighted the need to continue to work together to pass legislation that will make sure the problems seen there never happen again.

“Today’s hearing highlighted the importance of veterans and their families, health care professionals, VA leadership, and federal officials working together to make sure the problems seen at the Tomah VA never happen again. Moving forward our focus must remain on making it easier for veterans to receive quality care and increasing transparency and oversight at the VA,” said Rep. Kind.

“I am deeply disturbed by the failure on the part of the VA Inspector General to act on numerous troubling allegations. With my bill to increase transparency and require the VA Inspector General to publicly release their reports being signed into law, we have taken proactive steps to fix the problem.  Our work is far from done, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Rep. Kind has worked tirelessly to make sure that the issues seen at the Tomah VA never happen again, and Wisconsin veterans receive the care they have earned and deserve. He helped start the investigation into the problems at Tomah, by sending a 2011 anonymous letter the office received to the VA Inspector general. He is working to fix prescribing practices for pain medicine, passing the Jason Simcakoski PROMISE Act. Also, he remains in close contact with veterans, leadership at the Tomah VA, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to stay up to date on the changes they are implementing.