Bill Text: TX HCR44 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Urging Congress to pass S.2896, the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 13-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-12 - Laid on the table subject to call [HCR44 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HCR44-Comm_Sub.html
85R6398 BPG-D | ||
By: Metcalf, Keough, Bell, Darby, Flynn, | H.C.R. No. 44 | |
et al. |
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WHEREAS, The Veterans Administration is charged with | ||
ensuring the health and well-being of the nation's veterans, but in | ||
recent years, its failure to adequately perform its mission has | ||
been the source of scandal; and | ||
WHEREAS, In 2014, the United States Congress responded to | ||
unconscionable delays and denials of care at VA facilities by | ||
passing the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, | ||
Accountability, and Transparency Act, which allows access to | ||
private medical care providers for veterans who have been waiting | ||
more than 30 days for an appointment or who live more than 40 miles | ||
from a VA facility; the law is set to expire in 2017, but U.S. | ||
Senator John McCain of Arizona has filed the Care Veterans Deserve | ||
Act of 2016, S.2896, which enhances and expands the major reforms of | ||
the Veterans' Choice Act; and | ||
WHEREAS, Provisions of S.2896 include allowing access to | ||
walk-in clinics without preauthorization or copayment, the | ||
expansion of VA pharmacy hours and telemedicine, and extending the | ||
Veterans Choice Card program to permit all qualified veterans to | ||
see the doctor of their choice; moreover, the bill encourages | ||
best-practices peer review for VA facilities; the act would broaden | ||
access to timely health care while offering greater choice and | ||
flexibility to every eligible veteran; and | ||
WHEREAS, Our nation's veterans have made enormous sacrifices | ||
to guarantee our freedoms, and although the nation can never fully | ||
repay its debt of gratitude, it can and should ensure timely access | ||
to the highest quality of medical care; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass S.2896, | ||
the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016; and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |