Lincoln Highlights Rural Military, Veteran Needs in First "Rural Roundtable" Meeting

Press Release

Lincoln Highlights Rural Military, Veteran Needs in First "Rural Roundtable" Meeting

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln this week kicked-off her new "Rural Roundtable" series in a meeting with leaders of military and veterans organizations to address the unique challenges that service members and veterans living in rural areas of the country face. Lincoln serves as Chair of Rural Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.

"Our veterans, service members, and their families living in rural America face unique challenges, particularly when it comes to the issue of accessing health care," said Lincoln. "Three million rural veterans are enrolled in the VA health care system. As we've discovered during debate on health care reform, there is a chronic shortage of providers in rural America, specifically mental health and specialty providers. While on my statewide of Arkansas last month, I heard from veterans who are forced to drive long distances to receive care and expressed the need for more rural VA clinics. As a nation, we need to provide our veterans with the care they need and have earned, regardless of where they live.

"In addition, members of the Guard and Reserve face challenges that are different than those faced by their active duty counterparts, who return to military bases with the support of their unit and programs geared toward re-acclimating them to life outside of the combat zone. When rural members of the Guard or Reserves return home, they often are isolated from their units, leaving them to reintegrate back into their communities without a strong VA or DoD presence or support system. Additionally, thousands of members of the Guard and Reserve must travel 50-150 miles each way for training. This travel distance can be a financial burden to these reservists, especially lower ranking members with smaller salaries. With high prices and other travel-associated costs increasing, we fear that prohibitive travel expenses may have a negative effect on the retention of current National Guard and Reserve troops and may also interfere with future recruiting."

During the roundtable discussion, Lincoln spoke with military and veteran leaders about legislation to improve access to health care for rural veterans and members of the military, improve coordination of care between the military and the Veterans Administration, and tackle challenges confronted by rural Guardsmen and Reservists.

"As Arkansans, we are well-aware that our military simply could not function without the thousands of men and women at armories and bases in our state and across the country who continually train and prepare for future mobilizations and who work to ensure other members of their units are qualified and ready to deploy. Their benefits should better reflect their commitment to our nation," said Lincoln.

Participants in this week's roundtable included leaders of The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Military Officers Association of America, The National Guard Association of the U.S, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Reserve Officers Association, The Retired Enlisted Association, Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the U.S., and The National Military Family Association.

In advance of Memorial Day, Lincoln this week introduced a series of bills to provide service members, veterans, and their families with the benefits they have earned and deserve.

The Selected Reserve Continuum of Care Act ensures that health assessments for reservists are followed by government treatment to correct any medical or dental readiness deficiencies that impact their deployability. The legislation allows for a more medically ready, deployable force.

The Selected Reserve GI Bill ties education benefit rates for Guardsmen and Reservists to the "national average cost of tuition" standard that is already applied to active duty education benefit rates. The legislation ensures that when the national average cost of tuition increases, education benefit rates for Selected Reserve will increase by that same percent.

The Veterans Survivor Fairness Act enhances dependency and indemnity compensation benefits for survivors of severely disabled veterans and increases access to benefits for more families.

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