Scott Taylor’s 3-Point Plan for Veterans
1.Build a local VA Hospital in VA-022.Fight veterans’ suicide 3.Extend eligibility of GI Bill benefits
- Build the already-funded veteran’s hospital in the 2nd district to serve the Southside and relieve the pressure on the existing Hampton VA hospital. We have the fastest growing veteran population in the nation, and breaking ground on this Congressionally-authorized hospital is long overdue.
- Combat veterans’ suicide by passing the Bill Mulder and Ryan Larkin Post-Traumatic Growth Act that I introduced in 2018. The act is named after a 2nd district resident and would fund a pilot program to make innovative and effective mental health treatments available to our veterans.
- Reintroduce the GI Bill Transfer Act: This bill will extend the period in which members of the uniformed services may transfer entitlement of benefits. Once a member has been retained/retired, they should be eligible to transfer this entitlement to his/her dependents.
- Improve the VA Mission Act: As with any game-changing legislation, there have been lessons learned from initial implementation. To further streamline processes, I propose removing the VA from the decision-making chain for follow-on appointments to reduce wait times for more expedient and efficient veteran care. The VA can spot-check for potential fraud, rather than slowing down the process itself which impedes care.
Scott’s Congressional Accomplishments for Veterans
- VA Mission Act law: Giving Veterans choice to seek private community care when wait times were too long, thousand so Virginia veterans have utilized.
- VA Accountability Act law: Allows the VA to fire, demote, or suspend underperforming on non performing employees
- The SEA Act: (Taylor’s) law that holds the highest levels of the VA accountable, requiring them to give transparency on under-performers when transferring leaders to other facilities.
- Cohen Military Family Clinic in Virginia Beach- Instrumental in helping get the clinic open, which provides mental health services for veterans and their families.
- Introduced the Bill Mulder and Ryan Larkin Post-traumatic Growth Act: This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct a two-year pilot program to study the effectiveness of nonprofit post-traumatic growth programs to determine: (1) the outcomes of such programs in contrast to traditional models of mental health care, (2) the possible integration of such nonprofit programs into VA mental health care programs, and (3) the budgetary impact of such integration.
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