Walter Reed Update: Giving Congress Some Credit

The Walter Reed fiasco was a travesty, but it helped to bring some much-needed attention to veterans' issues and Congress has really begun to step up. In the last few weeks, a flurry of new legislative initiatives have been introduced and adopted in Washington.

On Wednesday, two days before President Bush's photo op at Walter Reed, the House unanimously passed the Wounded Warriors Assistance Act. This was an unusually fast move for Congress, and the momentum reflects the amplified voice of this new generation of veterans.

With our Online Army of grassroots supporters behind us - civilians, veterans, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters - IAVA worked with Congress over the last few weeks to create and sustain meaningful change.

The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act was sponsored by Representative Ike Skelton and co-sponsored by twenty eight Representatives from both parties. The Act accomplishes a number of important steps, including:

* Assigning a case manager for all outpatients to oversee their medical and dental care. No case manager will be responsible for more than 17 patients at a time.

* Requiring surveys to be conducted twice a year to review the quality and timeliness of care, the adequacy of living conditions and case management, and the effectiveness of the disability evaluation process.

* Establishing a toll-free hotline for outpatients and their families to report any problems they encounter with medical facilities.

* Assigning independent medical advocates for service members to help them navigate their care options and the disability rating process.

* The creation of a 5,000 member pilot program to begin to streamline the problem-plagued transition of wounded service members from the military's care to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

With your support, IAVA came out strong and early in support of the Wounded Warriors Assistance Act, and its passage is a great step for veterans. I don't say this often, but give Congress some credit. They did the right things last week. Before they left Washington on Friday for recess, our elected officials made some solid progress on issues that impact the lives of veterans and their families. In addition to addressing Walter Reed, Congress also pushed out a historic and extremely necessary VA budget boost. The $6.6 billion increase to discretionary funding represents the largest annual increase to VA healthcare spending in the 77-year history of the department. And the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act, which I told you about last week, passed the House and should soon be passed by the Senate.

This flood of legislative movement is an excellent start for the new Congress. I hope this marks a new era in the way our country supports its troops and veterans. With over 1.6 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are going to need it.