Heard on the Hill



Teresa Morris, NOVA Director, Advocacy & Government Relations

Greetings NOVA Members –

Both the House and Senate have returned to Washington for the 2^nd session of the 117^th Congress.

Many issues remain on the agenda to include several packages of Veteran-related bills for the House and Senate VA Committees that will need final debate and votes. NOVA continues pushing H.R. 5575, the VA Nurse and Physician Assistant RAISE Act, which would increase pay caps by amending Title 38 for RNs, APRNs, PAs and others working at VA. I am hopeful that it will be included in one of the larger bills this session.

In other news, Congress has until February 18 to pass its FY 2022 funding bills. As noted in the previous newsletter article, VA is funded under advance appropriations which provides funding in advance, so the agency is not held hostage to the annual budget battles in Congress, but any long-term CR would have serious effects on VA services. Under a CR, all programs, services and benefits would remain funded at fiscal year 2021 levels, which would fall short of what VA need to take care of Veterans

FY 2022 funding for VA, includes about $270 billion in total discretionary funding with $97.5 billion for Medical Care.

I encourage all of you to remain engaged with your members of congress about H.R. 5575 and the need for more staffing, stronger HR, and critical incentives to hire healthcare professionals within VA.

Urge Congress to Support the VA Nurse and Physician Assistant RAISE Act - Nurses Organization of Veterans Affairs

NOVA will be posting its 2022 Legislative Priority Goals in the coming days – watch social media and the NOVA website for updates.  Key priorities will include HR Modernization, staffing levels and recruitment and retention of nursing professionals.VA must be able to remain competitive with the private sector and with the pandemic still in the forefront, hiring in all areas of healthcare is critical.

I look forward to continuing our advocacy in the next session and working with all of you to make sure VA nurse voices are heard in Washington. What you do is and continues to be critical to the health and well-being of our Veterans.

For a complete list of NOVA advocacy in action to include letters and congressional testimony, visit the NOVA website. NOVA Advocacy Toolkit (vanurse.org)

Stay tuned!