Van Hollen Secures Funding for Veterans’ Services and Health Care in Congress-Passed Appropriations Bill

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has announced the inclusion of over $86 billion for veterans services and health care as a part of the funding legislation passed by the Senate last week. Senator Van Hollen also secured language in the text of the legislation urging the Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General to provide rigorous oversight of the Washington, DC VA Medical Center (DC VAMC), which has been recently plagued with issues. Senator Van Hollen has written to the VA twice (letters can be found here and here), highlighting his concerns with the DC VAMC and urging the VA to address these issues in order to adequately serve local veterans. The legislation will now head to the President’s desk.  

“After all of the sacrifices our veterans have made, we owe it to them to provide top-notch and accessible health care,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen. “In the Senate, I am committed to fighting for the necessary funding to provide our veterans with first-rate medical care, and I will continue working to improve the quality of care at our local facilities for our veterans. They deserve nothing less.”   

Senator Van Hollen recently attended the opening of the new Montgomery County VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) – the result of over 10 years of effort by the Senator to bring better, more convenient care to the Montgomery County veteran community. He also worked closely with county leaders to end veterans homelessness in Montgomery County and is working hard to combat this issue across the state. The funding legislation includes $549.7 million for Housing and Urban Development – Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH), which combines rental assistance for homeless veterans with case management and clinical services provided by the VA.

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