Democrats join Koch group to revamp veterans programs
WASHINGTON -- Democrats for years have seen the conservative Koch brothers as political enemies. Former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid even called them "un-American."
But Wednesday, Senate Democrats teamed up with Republicans to pass major veterans health care legislation championed by the Kochs.
The Koch-funded Concerned Veterans for America celebrated a big victory with the passage of the VA MISSION Act, a sweeping bill that overhauls how the Department of Veterans Affairs gives patients access to private-sector doctors.
It's a big win for the once-obscure advocacy group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch of Wichita. The group helped write the bill, which sailed through the Senate by a 92-5 vote after also passing the House overwhelmingly. It got broad support from politicians and veterans groups across the political spectrum, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law soon.
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The 92-5 Senate approval only happens with good bills, and "Dozens of veterans and military service organizations endorsed the bill,..."
And the Kochs' passion to destroy the VA has been overcome by the massive nationwide resistance, our Democrats in congress, and a GOP in disarray, at least for now.
All three main planks of the VA Mission ACT have been knocking around Capitol Hill for years and have come close to passage several times in just the last 6 months. It took a June deadline of money running out for the current VA Choice program to help push the bill over the finish line.
The most controversial part of the bill revamps the way VA reimburses veterans for private care appointments — replacing the seven different complicated systems currently in use. VA doctors will decide when a vet will benefit from seeing a private doctor because the nearest VA facility is too far away or appointments aren't available. In most regions, VA care performs as well or better than private care and is less expensive. Critics fear the new system could bleed resources away from VA care, and start a spiral that weakens VA care, pushing more and more vets into the private sector.
Dozens of veterans and military service organizations endorsed the bill, promising to closely monitor how it is implemented.
The bill also expands a popular stipend program for family caregivers, currently only available for post-9/11 vets. Now veterans from the Vietnam era and before would be phased in within two years. After another two years vets of all eras could apply.*
Finally, the bill initiates a review of the VA's aging and underutilized infrastructure, with the aim of closing down facilities that aren't worth their upkeep. Critics have compared this measure to BRAC - an often politically delicate process of closing down unneeded military bases. But supporters of the bill say VA facilities don't have nearly the same economic impact on the communities around them. Congress and veterans organizations says they will closely monitor any decisions to close down VA buildings.
* Each year more die before becoming eligible, saving money. An old tactic conservatives especially love and bargain into many bills. It was used to severely limit who could collect survivor benefits payable after the Revolutionary War; of course, in those days the nation was too poor to do right, and 30 years after the war, almost all the "survivors" were finally eligible.
Part of the sausage making that goes into passing bipartisan legislation.