Dayton Outraged by Senate's Failure to Support Emergency Healthcare Funding for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans

Dayton Outraged by Senate's Failure to Support Emergency Healthcare Funding for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans

Funding would have provided critical support to Minneapolis and St. Cloud VA Medical Centers.

Today, U.S. Senator Mark Dayton voted to provide the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with $1.9 billion in emergency funding to cover healthcare costs for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation, which failed to pass on a party line vote of 46 to 54, would have expanded mental healthcare services for service members and would have helped local veterans' facilities to cover budget shortfalls, purchase much-needed equipment, and make necessary capital improvements.

"It is absolutely outrageous that we are not providing our brave men and women in uniform with quality health care, after their devoted service to our country, and it is astonishing that Republicans do not recognize this as an emergency," said Dayton. "It is an emergency to the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, which has been designated as one of the primary recipients for those soldiers most severely injured returning from the war in Iraq, and yet has received absolutely no additional resources to treat those veterans.

"It seems incredible to me that people can say that they support our troops, as we all do, and yet those same individuals oppose providing soldiers, some of whom have returned home with life-altering physical and mental health problems, with the resources necessary, everything they need, to resume healthy and normal lives."

This year, both the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and the St. Cloud Medical Center are running nearly $7 million and $4 million budget shortfalls, respectively.

http://dayton.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=236295&&