Deborah Sampson Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize a significant legislative victory the Senate delivered for women veterans that will eliminate barriers to care and services that many women face when accessing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA estimates that women make up approximately 10 percent of our Nation's veteran population. That number is expected to increase to more than 16 percent within the next 25 years. As a result, the number of women veterans receiving healthcare from the VA has more than tripled since 2000.

The changing face of our military requires us to reexamine how we can best serve these veterans. The VA has been slow to modernize its delivery of healthcare and benefits to support their needs. Women veterans are more likely to face homelessness, unemployment, and go without needed medical healthcare. They are reluctant to turn to the VA for help. More than 50 percent of women veterans believe they are not entitled to or eligible for VA care. We must do more to fulfill our promise.

We need to create a culture at the VA that welcomes women veterans and makes them feel like they belong. It is long overdue, and we need to update the belief that when a women seeks care at the VA, it is because her husband is the veteran. So often, it is not uncommon for a veteran employee to pass a woman in line and ask, you know, is her husband around.

Arkansans have shared with me suggestions for improvement that include: expanding care options women can access at the VA to reduce the need for referrals to community care, increasing trained medical professionals who specialize in women's health issues, and enhancing privacy in exam rooms. These are reasonable steps that the VA can implement to ensure equitable access to services.

The good news is, we are one step closer to making these upgrades a reality, thanks to Senate passage of the Deborah Sampson Act. The Veterans' Affairs ranking committee member, Jon Tester, and I introduced this legislation, fittingly, named after a Revolutionary War veteran who disguised herself as a man to help defeat the British. In her spirit, we must do more to address the gender disparities at the VA.

We used the recommendations we heard from veterans in Arkansas, Montana, and all across the country to develop our legislation to eliminate the barriers to care. The Deborah Sampson Act creates a dedicated Office of Women's Health at the VA, expands the reintegration and readjustment group, counseling retreats for women veterans and their families, and improves call center services.

It increases the number of gender-specific providers and coordinators in VA facilities, trains clinicians, and retrofits VA facilities to bolster privacy and improve the environment. It provides access to legal services for women veterans and expands childcare for veterans receiving healthcare at the VA.

These are just a few of the improvements this bill requires the VA to implement so we can better serve the needs of women veterans.

I appreciate the leadership of Senator Tester and the support of veterans service organizations and encourage Members of Congress to support this legislation. I applaud the Senate for advancing the legislation and urge my colleagues in the House of Representatives to quickly approve this bill so we can ensure women who serve in uniform receive the care and services that they so earned.

Also, as always, I want to thank the staffs of myself and Senator Tester who worked so hard in this regard, and, simply, this would not have become law without their tremendous efforts.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source