{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-rubio-introduce-legislation-to-ensure-continuity-of-care-in-the-va/", "Tuberville, Rubio Introduce Legislation to Ensure\u00a0Continuity of Care in\u00a0the\u00a0VA", "2024-07-25", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) in introducing the Ensuring Continuity in Veterans\u2019 Health Act to require the VA to consider continuity of healthcare when deciding whether seeing a provider in the community is in a veteran\u2019s best medical interest. The legislation follows Senator Tuberville\u2019s recent letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough urging him to reassess recent actions taken by the department to drastically cut VA referrals to community care.\n\n\u201cOur veterans have sacrificed to defend our country and deserve access to the best care possible,\u201d said Senator Tuberville.\u201cOver the last several years, the Biden-Harris VA has deliberately bogged down the community care referral process to stop veterans from getting the care they are eligible for by law. I am proud to join Senator Rubio\u2019s legislation that will require the VA to add \u2018continuity of care\u2019 to its evaluation criteria so that the VA must consider this as a factor to facilitating community care referrals.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur veterans have sacrificed so much for this country and often have PTSD or other mental health issues as a result,\u201d said Senator Rubio.\u201cAddressing mental health issues takes trust and time. The Ensuring Continuity in Veterans\u2019 Health Act will ensure our veterans can continue receiving care from their long-term providers that they have established a trusted relationship with.\u201d\n\nAlso joining Senators Tuberville and Rubio in introducing the legislation are U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), James Lankford (R-OK), John Thune (R-SD), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rick Scott (R-FL).\n\nU.S. Representative Scott Franklin (R-FL-18) introduced companion legislation in the House. Complete text of the bill can be found here.\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nAs Alabama\u2019s voice on the U.S. Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee (SVAC), Senator Tuberville has long advocated for quality and timely care for Alabama\u2019s more than 400,000 veterans. This includes not only physical, but mental health needs as well.\n\nSenator Tuberville has helped introduce multiple pieces of legislation\u2014including the Veterans\u2019 Health Empowerment, Access, Leadership, and Transparency for our Heroes (HEALTH) Act\u2014to expand healthcare options for veterans, protect their options for community care, and improve the quality of care at VA medical facilities.\n\nSenator Tuberville also introduced the No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act to ensure that VA resources intended for courageous veterans are not used to care for illegal aliens. He pressed Secretary McDonough about this and the rehiring of 4,000 VA employees who were dismissed under the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 for their failure to provide swift and safe care to veterans.\n\nMORE:\n\nTuberville: We Have to Take Care of our Veterans\u2019 Mental Health\n\nTuberville Pushes Legislation to Improve Quality, Access to Care for Veterans\n\nTuberville, Blackburn Introduce Bill to Improve Veterans\u2019 Access to Health Care\n\nTuberville, Colleagues Push Back Against Cuts to Prescription Reimbursements for TRICARE Members\n\nTuberville, Blackburn Introduce Legislation To Improve Veterans\u2019 Access To Free-Market Health Care\n\nTuberville Calls for Transparency from the VA Secretary\n\nTuberville Condemns VA Re-hiring Incompetent Employees, Using VA Resources For Illegals\n\nTuberville, House VA Chair Bost Introduce No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act\n\nTuberville Denounces Settlement to Rehire Fired VA Employees\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and HELP Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "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.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-rubio-introduce-legislation-to-ensure-continuity-of-care-in-the-va/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4204669278115034, "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"}