At the end of 1986, NOVA President Elaine Lloyd stated, “We must expect that Congress will listen when we, as VA nurses, see that the delivery of health care to our nation’s Veterans is at risk.” Congress did begin seriously listening in February of 1987 and continued to listen as NOVA presented testimony in February, April, and May. NOVA was invited by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs to present testimony on the VA Medical Fiscal Year 1988 Budget. President E. Elaine Lloyd and Legislative Chair Noreen Sommer’s testimony was entered into the hearing record on February 4, 1987.  NOVA Board members voiced concerns regarding the shortage of nurses, the growing problems of recruitment and retention of nurses, and the increased workload for nurses while they were in Washington D.C. in March 1987. President E. Elaine Lloyd and President-Elect Claudette Morrissey met with Chief Medical Director John Gronvall, MD and Legislative Chair Noreen Sommer met with staff of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees to talk with them about issues important to NOVA.  

On March 11, 1987, several members of NOVA were in the Senate Gallery as Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation authorizing bonus pay for nurses.  It was exciting to hear Senator Murkowski recognize the contributions of nurses. He called registered nurses: “the matrix upon which our health-care system is built. For too long, registered nurses have been taken for granted. The quality of the health care delivered to our nation’s veterans relies upon the quality of the professional nursing care delivered.  We can appropriate all of the dollars we wish to expand our VA Health Care System, but in the final analysis, without professional nurses, we would have no alternative but to close the doors of VA hospital wards, clinics, and nursing homes.” 

NOVA’s views on the major issues confronting VA nurses were presented by President Lloyd when she testified April 22, 1987, before the U.S. Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Hospitals and Health Care on the Status of Recruitment and Retention of VA Health Care Personnel. She again testified on May 21, 1987 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs regarding the need for competitive salaries, tuition reimbursement, and realistic workloads. She reminded Congress of the 15 recommendations from the study mandated Congressionally by Public Law 96-330, Recruitment and Retention of Nurses in the Veterans Administration.