{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://miller.house.gov/media/press-releases/letter-west-virginia-delegation-calls-president-biden-reject-air-commission", "LETTER: West Virginia Delegation Calls on President Biden to Reject AIR Commission Recommendations", "2022-05-10", "2022", "2022-05", "Republican", "House", "WV", "Carol D. Miller", "M001205", "miller.house.gov", "miller", "https://miller.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) joined U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Reps. David McKinley (R-WV) and Alex Mooney (R-WV) in sending a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to reject the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recommendations to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, which includes significant reductions in services at three of the four VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) in West Virginia.\n\nThe letter reads in part, \u201cWe write to you today to express our grave concern with the recommendations the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) submitted to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, pursuant to Title II, Subtitle A of the VA MISSION Act. These recommendations are the first step in a long process that will require the approval of both the White House and Congress before any VA facilities may be closed, relocated, or downsized. The VA\u2019s recommendations are based on faulty data and assumptions that fail to consider the actual needs of West Virginia Veterans and the capacity of West Virginia\u2019s healthcare network to meet those needs.\u201d\n\nThe VA has recommended that the Clarksburg, Beckley, and Huntington VAMCs all discontinue inpatient medical and surgical services, which would push Veteran healthcare needs to civilian healthcare providers that are already struggling. 54 of the 55 counties in West Virginia are designated partial or whole health professional shortage areas (HPSA), with only enough staff for 70% of the licensed hospitals beds.\n\n\u201cAs illustrated in a recent Government Accountability Office titled \u201cIncomplete Information Hinders Usefulness of Market Assessments for VA Facility Realignment\u201d, the VA used faulty data to make these harmful recommendations. We request that the AIR Commission hold public roundtables with VA leadership and local Veterans community leaders in West Virginia while assessing the recommendations to understand the concerns and impacts they would have in the local communities,\u201d the letter continued.\n\nClick here to read the full letter.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:29:07Z"]], "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://miller.house.gov/media/press-releases/letter-west-virginia-delegation-calls-president-biden-reject-air-commission"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0371780954301357, "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"}