By Teresa Morris, NOVA Director, Advocacy & Government Relations

Greetings NOVA Members –

It is hard to believe that it is already July, and we are quickly moving towards the last weeks of the 117^th congressional session. It is a busy month as August recess approaches and the Midterm election looms. Deadlines for finalizing FY 2023 funding, legislative packages and important policy become urgent.

The VA Committees who have jurisdiction over Veterans policy continue to be focused on getting toxic exposure (PACT Act) and other critical legislation passed before the session ends. One item that looks to be stalled is the completion of the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission that was tasked with reviewing and making recommendations to Congress and the President on modernizing and realigning VA’s aging healthcare system.

As background, the AIR Commission was included as part of the MISSION Act and mandated a review of VA’s healthcare infrastructure through market assessments and evaluating its footprint and ability to care for Veterans across the country. The final report was released in March and organized by Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN), the plan included closing three major hospitals and dozens of clinics, but also recommended building about eighty new clinics across the country.

VA Recommendations to the AIR Commission Home

Congress and veteran advocates immediately reacted to recommendations and to the knowledge that much of the report and its assessments were made prior to the pandemic. The Commission and its work seemed doomed before it began and as often happens any news of VA hospital closures in congressional districts raised the ire of many including Senators who said “they would not approve the nine nominees up for confirmation to establish the AIR Commission." So, any decision to shift services for a constituency as crucial as veterans seems DOA for now.

VA and others have said that although lawmakers have left the agency with no blueprint to modernize its aging system, they plan to continue to fight for the funding and modernization that veterans deserve.

NOVA provided its opinion on provisions included in the MISSION Act in 2018 and was wary of the AIR process. There is a need to look at infrastructure use and aging facilities, but Congress has not provided adequate funding for VA construction and maintenance needs for decades. NOVA supports the Independent Budget recommendations for these accounts. The Independent Budget Veterans Agenda

Some see AIR as another way to increase the number of Veterans using community for care which was expanded as part of MISSION. Veterans surveyed by the VFW overwhelming prefer care at a VA. (VFW-Our-Care-2017--Executive-Summary.pdf (azureedge.net). NOVA stands by our views that Veterans prefer VA healthcare and that treatment at a VA facility is far better suited to their individual health care needs and service-connected disabilities.

I ask all of you to continue to watch NOVA’s website and social media for our August Recess Priorities. Congress will be home working the entire month of August with most campaigning for reelection. Now is the perfect time to become familiar with VA nursing issues and to educate your members about what is important to you and how you do your job as a healthcare provider taking care of Veterans.

I also encourage you to review NOVA’s Legislative Priority Goals on the website under the Advocacy dropdown and help us continue our work on behalf of all VA nurses. Links to the toolkit can be found here: NOVA Advocacy Toolkit (vanurse.org)

Stay Tuned!