88 Percent of Veterans Who Applied to the VA Caregivers Program Were Rejected and Denied Benefits
ICYMI: Senator Murray Leads Bipartisan Call to Improve VA Caregivers Program for Veterans and Their Families – MORE HERE
***WATCH SENATOR MURRAY’S FULL QUESTIONING HERE***
(Washington, D.C.) – Yesterday, during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, continued her longtime push to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Caregivers Program following the VA’s announcement of changes to its Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (Caregivers Program). During the hearing, Senator Murray spoke with and heard from advocates who are fighting to improve the Caregivers Program.
Included in a number of proposed changes to the Caregivers Program was a decision by VA Secretary Denis McDonough to immediately halt the discharge of legacy participants and to start a new process to refine eligibility requirements to ensure the Program is meeting the intent of Congress.
“Thank you [to the advocates] for continuing to stay on this. And I certainly think when we first passed this, we never expected these kinds of challenges this far into this,” began Senator Murray. “I’m glad VA made some announcements yesterday, we’re going to be following up on this. Your testimony today is extremely important. I know I’m not going to give up, I know Senator Tester is not going to give up, Senator Brown or Senator Moran—we want this to work.”
“I think we are in this and we want you to know that, and we’re going to continue to work to make sure that this program is instituted the way we envisioned it when we first passed it. I do want to ask Mrs. Sawyer questions a little bit differently—it’s great to see you again and thank you for your steadfast leadership in advocating for veterans and their caregivers,” continued Senator Murray.
“As you know, we made changes in the last caregiver bill to make VA better account for the invisible wounds of war for which you have turned many to caregivers. Tell me has VA done a better job with invisible wounds and what would you like to see them do as part of this new look and regulations?” asked Senator Murray.
Senator Murray has long fought to ensure servicemembers and veterans have access to the critical services and care they have earned. A longtime champion for strengthening federal investments in caring for veterans, during her time as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Murray oversaw the initial implementation of the Caregiver Support Program in 2011.
Given the popularity and success of the program, Senator Murray first introduced legislation in 2014 to expand the program to veterans of all eras, reintroducing the legislation in 2015 and 2017. She successfully included provisions from her Military and Veteran Caregiver Services Improvement Act, which Senator Murray continuously fought to pass for years, in the bipartisan VA MISSION Act to expand the program to include veterans who served before September 11, 2001.
During VA’s rule-making process, she pushed back against efforts to curtail eligibility for the expansion of the VA Caregivers Program. In a recent Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, she pushed Secretary McDonough to review VA’s unnecessarily restrictive criteria for the Caregivers Program to ensure it aligns with Congressional intent.
Most recently, Senator Murray led a bipartisan group of her colleagues in calling for changes to improve the VA Caregivers Program and its appeals process after hearing concerns from veterans across Washington state.
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