Working to Integrate Networks Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about Carl, an Army veteran from Springfield, Illinois, who couldn't get a response from the VA to receive cancer treatment through the VA Choice program.
After multiple communications, my office was finally able to get the authorization from the VA.

Bette, from Staunton, Illinois, the wife of a decorated Vietnam vet who served his country for more than a decade, waited over a year for an answer from the VA about benefits owed to her late husband. Finally, my office was successful in getting Bette, who was experiencing financial difficulty at the time, the accrued benefits owed to her husband.

Kenneth, of Urbana, Illinois, a Bronze Star recipient while serving in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, was denied benefits due to a missing doctor's examination because he was deployed at the time and the VA never rescheduled the appointment. He contacted my office, and we worked with the VA to ensure that the benefits were received.

Lawrence, of Palmer, Illinois, another Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient, simply wanted a copy of his medical records but never heard back from the VA. After several months, he reached out to our office and we were able to get them from the VA.

Another constituent of mine recently asked my office for help after her husband, who was a veteran, passed away. She has been waiting for 6 months for an answer from the VA, and now my office continues to wait for a
response from the VA.

These examples not only show the sometimes incompetence and unresponsiveness of certain personnel at the VA, but they also show how important congressional offices are to getting the answers our veterans need and deserve.

Many times when a veteran contacts their Member of Congress for help, it is their last resort. It is not their first call. They don't know where else to turn. Our caseworkers become the middleman between the veteran and the VA.

VA casework in my office remains highest in volume. We currently have over 96 open cases, and we have closed nearly 1,000 in the 4 years that I have been in office. Ask almost any caseworker, and they will tell you the VA is one of the most difficult agencies to get a response from.

It is unacceptable that it takes this long. That is why the WINGMAN Act, H.R. 5166, needs to be passed. It simply allows our certified constituent caseworkers, our advocates, to access certain VA files in order to check the status and progress of claims. This technology will be used to help our veterans get the answers they deserve. It is not going to solve the systemic problems we see at the VA, but it is going to help us hold the VA accountable and get answers for veterans whom we are honored to represent.

I want to thank my colleague, Representative Yoho, for working with me and many others on this important piece of legislation; and, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller not only for his help on this, but for his service to this great institution. He is somebody who has put our veterans first as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and somebody who has spent his career making sure that commonsense proposals like this get enacted so that our veterans, those whom he cares about the most and we care about the most, get the answers and the responses they deserve.

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