Senator Murray Pushes Bipartisan Bill To Improve Transportation Services for Rural Veterans

Senator Murray joins legislation to permanently expand travel assistance programs & advance travel reimbursement for low-income veterans

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, joined committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-KS) in championing bipartisan legislation to improve rural veterans’ access to transportation services. The bill, which Senator Murray cosponsored, advanced out of committee this week and now heads to the Senate floor for consideration by the full Senate.

The senators’ Rural Veterans Travel Enhancement Act of 2021 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand successful initiatives that provide veterans living in rural areas with transportation services and reimbursement for their travel to VA medical facilities. The bill will also establish a pilot program for providing Beneficiary Travel payments to low-income veterans in advance of their medical appointments, allowing veterans living in rural areas to travel as far as necessary to receive the care they deserve while lessening their financial burden.

“We make a promise to our veterans—that after their service ends, we’ll take care of them when they come home. But for too long, getting to and from VA medical facilities has been a huge challenge for so many veterans in rural communities,” said Senator Murray. “These services are critical to helping veterans receive the essential medical care they’ve earned, but too often struggle to access. Supporting rural communities has to be a priority and this legislation takes an important step toward ensuring those who have served our country can get the full range of care and attention they need—whether they live in the Yakima Valley or out in Okanogan County.”

A longtime advocate for veterans in Washington state and across the country, Senator Murray held a roundtable on Veterans Day with women veterans from across Eastern and Central Washington to discuss what she is working on to help women veterans and to continue hearing about what more can be done at the federal level for women veterans. During the roundtable, many of the veterans highlighted the challenges that veterans in rural areas have to overcome in order to access care.

Among its many provisions, the bill will:

• Make permanent the Veterans Transportation Service program, which allows local VA facilities to hire drivers and purchase vehicles to transport veterans to their appointments;
• Make permanent VA’s authority to provide grants to Veteran Service Organizations and state veteran service agencies for assisting highly rural veterans’ travel for health care;
• Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a report on any fraud, waste, and abuse of the VA Beneficiary Travel program;
• Direct GAO to conduct a report on the effectiveness of the Beneficiary Travel program’s current mileage reimbursement and deductible amounts in encouraging veterans to access care;
• Establish a pilot program where low-income veterans who are eligible for the Beneficiary Travel program can receive reimbursement 48 hours in advance of their confirmed medical appointments;
• Establish a pilot program that reimburses veterans and eligible beneficiaries for travel to appointments at Vet Centers for mental health care and counseling; and
• Establish a pilot program to expand public transportation to facilities that serve veterans.

Full text of the senators’ bill can be found HERE. Email

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