Teresa Morris, Director, Advocacy & Government Relations

Greetings NOVA Members –

As I write this article, the Election has been called for Vice President Biden. The House remains controlled by the Democrats and the Senate is razor thin in favor of Republicans with a Georgia run-off to determine control in January. Final election results will change the dynamics of the 117^th Congress and among leadership roles within the Administration. I will have more on the congressional breakdown in the December NOVA News.

The current congress will convene in a lame duck session to wrap up priorities before ending the 116^th second and final session. One critical item that remains is funding to keep the government open and running until the new year. Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 11 in September. The CR basically takes the place of funding all 11 appropriations bills and is a “stop gap” to keep agencies running, meaning another CR or funding package has to be cleared before December 11.

In other news, the President signed into law several Veterans bills that look to combat suicide prevention and expand mental health services within VA. They included S. 785, the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement, Act, H.R.1812, Vet Center Eligibility Expansion Act, H.R. 2372, the Veterans' Care Quality Transparency Act. Among the collective bill’s provisions  are creating a strategic plan for veterans transitioning from active duty, pilot programs that integrate alternative therapies, establishing a VA-DOD clinical provider treatment toolkit, improving care and services for women veterans, expanding access to Vet Centers, mandating GAO to assess suicide prevention and mental health services of non-VA entities who have entered into a MOU with VA, and increasing the mental health medical workforce.

It is worth noting that suicide prevention was the number one priority for the House and Senate VA Committees and VSO community this Congress. NOVA commented throughout the process on the bills.

NOVA’s thoughts on legislation can be found on our website at: https://www.vanurse.org/page/congressionalstatements

A list of the bills and all current VA Committee legislative activity can be found on the HVAC and SVAC websites at

https://veterans.house.gov/

https://www.veterans.senate.gov/

I would like to take the time to thank all of the NOVA Legislative committee members who helped pave the way for our successful advocacy this year.   Keep an eye out for our year-end report which will provide all NOVA’s legislative and advocacy for the 116^th Congress--Its was a remarkably busy and active year!

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask any NOVA member who is interested in advocacy and policy to consider joining the NOVA Legislative Committee. A call for new members will be going out soon with more information and details about the committee. We are always looking for individuals to help develop our annual legislative agenda and priority goals and to educate and mobilize other members on the best way to advocate for the VA Nursing community.

Stay Tuned!