Bill Text: TX HCR44 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Urging Congress to pass S.2896, the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 13)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-12 - Laid on the table subject to call [HCR44 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HCR44-Comm_Sub.html

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85R6398 BPG-D
By: Metcalf, Keough, Bell, Darby, Flynn, H.C.R. No. 44
et al.

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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.