{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://herrerabeutler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398780", "Congress Advances Jaime Herrera Beutlers Measures to Speed Up Care for Southwest Washington Veterans", "2016-09-29", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Jaime Herrera Beutler", "H001056", "herrerabeutler.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved Jaime Herrera Beutler\u2019s measures to address the lengthy VA hiring process and staff vacancies that have delayed care for Southwest Washington veterans. \r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n      Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved Jaime Herrera Beutler\u2019s measures to address the lengthy VA hiring process and staff vacancies that have delayed care for Southwest Washington veterans. The measures were included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations portion of the legislation, which is expected to be signed into law by the President in coming days.\r\nAlso part of the package approved last night was $1.1 billion in emergency funding for combating and preventing the Zika virus \u2013 resources Jaime has been working to secure since earlier this year.\r\n\u201cThis effort that will soon be signed into law gets at the root problems in Portland and Vancouver-area VA facilities that are making veterans wait too long for care,\u201d said Jaime.\u00a0 \u201cFunding is important, but it\u2019s clear the problems plaguing the VA go beyond just more funding, whether it\u2019s turnover of VA doctors and care providers, or the burdensome hiring processes to replace them.\u00a0 This legislative effort I\u2019ve been leading aims to uncover the causes of those problems so they can be fixed.\u00a0 Our veterans deserve timely access to high quality care from the VA, and I\u2019ll keep working for them until that happens.\u201d\u00a0\r\nIn addition to Jaime\u2019s reforms, the bill includes a total of $176.9 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, an increase of $14.2 billion. The 9% increase provides additional funding to address management problems and health care shortages, and to increase the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of its services to veterans.\r\nHerrera Beutler-authored veteran wait time accountability measures included in the bill:\r\nWait times due to staff turnover \u2013 Jaime\u2019s legislative directive requires the VA to investigate the steps, and cost of those steps, in its hiring process and continues Jaime\u2019s previous work to address long wait times at the Vancouver and Portland VA due to high staff turnover.\r\nWhile the Vancouver VA clinic should have 16 primary care physicians, it recently only has 11 physicians on staff.\u00a0 This staff shortage contributes to more than 10% of veterans being forced to wait 30-plus days for health care appointments, which is three times the national average.\r\n\u201cChoice Act\u201d resource scrutiny\u2013 One of Jaime\u2019s accountability measures will look at the amount of funding from The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act \u2013 a bill Jaime supported that was signed into law in 2014 \u2013 was allocated to each VA region to hire additional staff, the number of staff actually hired, and the number of employees who left VA in the same period, and the net gain/loss of healthcare providers.\r\nMedical staff retention \u2013 Another one of Jaime\u2019s accountability measures builds on her legislative provision signed into law last year that required the VA to collect data on the number of medical staff who have left the VA system including their main reasons for leaving, and a detailed plan of how the VA can address these issues. In response to last year\u2019s provision, the VA has uncovered a multitude of reasons behind providers\u2019 decision to leave the VA. \u00a0However, the VA only provided data at the national level.\u00a0 To better address this range of issues, Jaime\u2019s directive requires the VA to break down the data by region, facility and primary verses specialty care. \u00a0\r\nVA care capacity for severely disabled veterans \u2013 It is unclear if VA has maintained capacity to care for severely disabled veterans.\u00a0 Jaime included an accountability measure requiring the VA to report on its capacity to provide for the health care needs of severely disabled veterans, including veterans with spinal cord dysfunction, blindness, amputations, and mental illness.\u00a0\r\nVouchers for homeless veterans program \u2013This accountability measure would have the VA report the specific numbers of vouchers it issues to house and provide services for both male and female homeless veterans in rural and urban areas.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://herrerabeutler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398780"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9194607846438885, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}