Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. CARBAJAL. Mr. Chairman, my amendment seeks to provide additional funding for the Veterans Transportation Program, which would provide additional resources for the Highly Rural Transportation Grants, Beneficiary Travel, and Veterans Transportation Service.
A major challenge facing veterans across the Nation, including the central coast of California, is the lack of access to transportation when trying to get their medical appointments. This is especially prevalent in districts like mine, where veterans don't live in close proximity to a major VA medical center.
Available local transportation to health appointments at the local community-based outpatient clinic is a constant challenge, as there are an insufficient number of buses and drivers. Currently, there is only one bus serving my district, and this one bus must make six stops before reaching the VA hospital in Los Angeles. Once there, veterans only have a short window of time to attend to all their appointments before needing to rush back to the bus to catch their transportation home.
In many cases, with these time constraints, veterans are unable to fit all of their necessary appointments into one day, and must again struggle with transportation to get back to the hospital.
Passage of this amendment would provide more transportation solutions for our veterans, allowing them to get to their medical appointments on time and receive proper medical care without the fear of being left behind, unable to get back home.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. CARBAJAL. Mr. Chair, I would just appeal to my colleagues that ``thank you for your service'' is just not enough anymore for our veterans. We need to step up. We need to make sure that they know we are here and we have their back when they need the services at the end of their tenure in the armed services.
Mr. Chair, this is an important amendment. I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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