releases: https://lamborn.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2175
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://lamborn.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2175 | Rep. Lamborn Introduces Veterans Empowerment Act | 2017-11-21 | 2017 | 2017-11 | Republican | House | CO | Doug Lamborn | L000564 | lamborn.house.gov | legacy | Representative Doug Lamborn (CO-05) introduced the Veterans Empowerment Act in the House today. This landmark reform legislation allows veterans to choose civilian medical providers or use existing VA medical facilities, without requiring VA pre-authorization. The Veterans Empowerment Act comes in the wake of systemic issues in VA programs widely documented since the 2014 nationwide scandal. Last Thursday, a VA Inspector General report highlighted the falsified patient wait times at the Colorado VA for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress. The legislation would give veterans options similar to the highly-successful Tricare Standard program long in use by the active duty military community. “This bill throws out the idea of acceptable patient wait times and eliminates the requirement of the veteran to ask for VA permission to use civilian medical providers,” said Congressman Lamborn. “It gives veterans full authority to use the existing VA system or not.” “Our veterans deserve the highest degree of care. Giving them options to choose their healthcare plans and doctors is empowering. This bill means veterans, especially those with extreme disabilities, can expect to have their needs taken care of quickly and efficiently. Its good policy and makes sense.” Rep. Mark Meadows (NC-11) and Rep. Franks (AZ-08) are original cosponsors of the bill. This legislation builds on work done last Congress by Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) to ensure that veterans have access to the high-quality care they deserve. Note: Critics have inaccurately claimed this approach would “privatize” the VA. The Washington Post gave this claim three Pinocchio’s… twice. Articles are here and here. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |