{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=13D4D1EC-D312-4663-A47F-2DCC39AA32A3", "Boozman Calls for Robust Outreach in Rural Areas to Connect Veterans with Info on PACT Act Benefits", "2023-07-27", "2023", "2023-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", "boozman", "https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) pressed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials on their outreach efforts to inform former servicemembers about expanded benefit eligibility as a result of historic legislation that became law last year delivering all eras of toxic-exposed veterans VA health care.\n\nBoozman previously championed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, helping secure its passage.\n\nSince its enactment, the VA has received more than 744,000 PACT Act-related claims, including more than 8,700 in Arkansas, and enrolled more than 2,200 Natural State veterans in VA health care.\n\nDuring a Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday Boozman shared the need to target rural communities for outreach.\n\n\u201cOne of the concerns that we have coming from Arkansas, and really all the states represented here - we have very rural areas,\u201d Boozman said. \u201cThat\u2019s where so many of our veterans come from.\u201d\n\nVeterans and survivors must file a claim before August 9 to be eligible for retroactive compensation. Post-9/11 combat veterans discharged more than 10 years ago and not enrolled in VA health care must enroll by October 1 to avoid a phased-in enrollment.\n\nThe law includes Boozman-backed provisions to expand benefits to Vietnam War-era veterans who served on military bases in Thailand as well measures to bolster recruitment and retention of the VA workforce in order to respond to the increase in benefit claims.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:25:20Z"]], "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://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=13D4D1EC-D312-4663-A47F-2DCC39AA32A3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.266357023268938, "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"}