This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Veteran’s ID Card Act, which means veterans would no longer be forced to carry DD-214 paperwork, which contains sensitive information including Social Security numbers.
U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent said that bill has been of particular interest to veterans, as it would permit the Veterans Administration to issue veterans an ID card proving they are veterans.
“Right now, if you hope to qualify for a veteran discount, a lot of times you have to tote around a DD-214. That’s not practical,” Nugent said.
Proponents of the bill content an ID card will be more convenient and will do a better job of keeping veterans’ personal information secure.
The bill now moves to the Senate.
The Congressman in his weekly address, also said VA funding has fared well.
“In the last six years, the VA’s budget has increased by about 73 percent. The funding bill we passed a few weeks ago provides $163 billion for the VA’s budget next year. To put that in perspective, Florida’s entire state budget for roads, education, healthcare, etc for the 2014 fiscal year was about $74 billion. The VA has the resources it needs. What remains is largely a question of leadership and management,” Nugent said.
The Republican who represents The Villages said Congress allocated billions of extra dollars in the wake of the Phoenix VA scandal that was designated specifically for efforts to reduce the VA’s wait times – new infrastructure, more physicians, medical staff and so on.
“But on VA’s end, very little has happened. From that pot of $15 billion, the VA still has roughly $14 billion and change left to allocate. We’ve brought in the head of a Fortune 500 company to bring some private sector know-how to the agency, but still only one person ended up getting fired for the scandal about secret waitlists and records manipulation at more than a hundred VA facilities. Congress has tried to help things along some more by passing historic reforms that give the Secretary of the VA the ability to fire underperforming executives, but that authority is only worth so much if it isn’t used. Fortunately, because Congress controls the money directly, we’ve been able to put a block on bonuses within the agency,” Nugent said.
He added that he like most members of Congress invests a lot of personal time and staff resources in trying to help individual veterans with specific VA problems.
“If we hear that somebody is experiencing excessive wait times, for instance, most of us will crack heads until that situation is resolved,” Nugent said.
