MEDIA RELEASE

Gabbard Proposes Bipartisan Action to Get Hawaii Veterans Immediate Access to Care

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) have introduced the ACT Now for Veterans bill (H.R. 5131) to direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to reimburse non-VA medical providers who provide care to eligible veterans.

This legislation will ensure that veterans in Hawaii and across the U.S. who are lost in the VA bureaucracy, and who have been sitting on unacceptably long waiting lists, are able to get medical care immediately.

“Hawaii veterans need care today, and shouldn’t have to wait for Congress, or the VA bureaucracy, to make the systemic changes necessary for the VA to fulfill its mission once again,” said Gabbard, a twice-deployed Army combat veteran. “Some Hawaii veterans have been waiting eight years to see a doctor. With 1,331 Hawaii veterans waiting to see a doctor, Hawaii’s Veterans Health Administration leadership only requested $250,000 from the VA to provide access to non-VA physicians for these wait-listed veterans. Other states have asked for and received more than $7 million to provide this access for their veterans to receive care from private physicians and deal with this crisis.

“Our bill will give veterans the flexibility they need to seek care from a doctor in their community immediately, with the assurance that the VA will cover the bill, as a temporary solution to this urgent crisis. Our veterans deserve far better than to have their service dishonored by the VA’s bureaucratic red-tape or even blatant negligence.”

“Our veterans have been failed by the system, and it is our responsibility to make things right,” said Congressman Adam Kinzinger. “Fixing the VA is no small task, and this bill will give veterans an opportunity to temporarily seek private care until we can make the necessary reforms. Frankly, keeping our promise of timely and quality care is the least we can do for the men and women who volunteered to defend our country.”

Read why Hawaii’s veterans need action now. Highlights of H.R. 5131 are below.

* The following criteria must be met:

1) a veteran must be currently eligible to receive care provided by the VA,

2) a veteran will provide their VA identification card or other proof of enrollment in the VA patient enrollment system, and

3) the VA has failed to schedule the veteran for an appointment with a doctor at a VA facility within 30 days.

* Veterans can choose a provider in their own community and seek medical care by showing their VA ID card or other proof of enrollment, and will not be required to wait for individual authorization from the VA.

* The access to reimbursed non-VA care would be effective immediately, and would not end until there is evidence that the VA is meeting its wait time goals.

* Does not require veterans to get VA pre-approval before seeking outside care, a bureaucratic obstacle in the comprehensive VA reform bill that is currently being negotiated in Congress.

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Gabbard to Pentagon Officials: Clear Objectives Needed Before Congress Funds Additional Overseas Contingency Operations Budget

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) has questioned Pentagon officials about the $5 billion request to fund the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund (CTPF) during a hearing on the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget request.

The budget request was met with bipartisan scrutiny due to the lack of detail and clear objectives for the fund. The CTPF was recently proposed by President Obama in his commencement speech to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on May 28.

Gabbard spoke specifically in response to testimony by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, who said of the need for flexibility in OCO funding requests for Iraq, “I think the president felt that we know we’re going to be doing something. We’re not certain what it is.… But it’s impossible for us to predict exactly right now what it might be.”

“Mr. Work, you made a comment earlier that struck me, about the need for flexibility and funding for Iraq. It is your and the administration’s position that it is agreed that we must do something but we’re not sure what. I think that assumption is what is troubling,” Gabbard, an Iraq veteran, said in the hearing.

“It should not be a given as we look at the different conflicts that are occurring, whether it be in Iraq or in other places, that we assume that we must do ‘something.’ Sometimes the answer to that question is what is in the best interests of the United States and the American people. The answer may be to not take action in that particular situation. That assumption that we must do something, particularly in Iraq, is where many [members of Congress] are concerned about writing this kind of blank check to fund that ‘something’ if that ‘something’ is not the right course of action to take.”

In response to proposed U.S. involvement in Syria and Iraq, Gabbard has repeatedly called for the administration to define a clear objective before committing U.S. resources or troops in a foreign conflict.

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Gabbard Votes to Pass Bipartisan Workforce Innovation And Opportunity Act

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) has voted to pass the bipartisan House-Senate agreement on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 (H.R. 803), which modernizes and improves existing federal workforce development programs and helps workers gain 21st century job skills.

“We have an incredibly talented and capable workforce, and we can help them succeed by empowering them with skills necessary to be competitive in a 21st century economy,” Gabbard said. “By updating and improving outdated federal workforce development programs and policies, this legislation creates a more efficient system to train workers, connect employers with skilled employees, and enable individuals with disabilities to enter the job market. The bill brings our federal job-training system into the modern age to empower workers in Hawaii and across the country.

“This bipartisan bill represents a strong commitment to investing in the economic future of our working-class families, expanding opportunities for workers with disabilities, and engaging with disadvantaged youth to provide them with tools necessary to be successful in today’s workforce.”

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act creates:

* A new grant to provide funding for Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native job training initiatives.

* A streamlined workforce development system by:

– Eliminating 15 existing programs.

– Applying a single set of outcome metrics to every federal workforce program under the Act.

– Creating smaller, nimbler, and more strategic state and local workforce development boards.

* Greater value by:

– Empowering local boards to tailor services to their region’s employment and workforce needs.

– Supporting access to real-world education and workforce development opportunities through on-the-job, incumbent worker, and customized training; and pay-for-performance contracts.

* Better coordination by:

– Aligning workforce development programs with economic development and education initiatives.

– Enabling businesses to identify in-demand skills and connect workers with the opportunities to build those skills.

* Improved outreach to disconnected youth by:

– Focusing youth program services on out-of-school youth, high school dropout recovery efforts, and attainment of recognized postsecondary credentials.

– Providing youth with disabilities the services and support they need to be successful in competitive, integrated employment.

The WIOA is supported by major labor unions, including SEIU and AFL-CIO, Chambers of Commerce nationwide, and many other economic development and community organizations.