Jul 30, 2014
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 3230 today by a vote of 420-5, paving the way to provide more than $15 billion in emergency funding to help the Department of Veterans Affairs overcome the crisis in care and confidence veterans have in their VA.
In a letter to Congress this morning, John W. Stroud, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, urged every member of the House and Senate to vote "yes" on the H.R. 3230, the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014.
“New VA Secretary Robert McDonald will need every tool available to fix what's broken, hold people accountable, and to restore the faith of veterans in their VA,” he wrote. “Your vote is key to the VA healing itself.”
“The VFW salutes those 420 members of the House for putting veterans first,” said Stroud. “Now we need the U.S. Senate to finish the job so that H.R. 3230 can be sent to the president before Congress adjourns for its scheduled five-week recess.”
Voting “no” were five Republican congressmen: Reps. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, Jack Kingston of Georgia, Walter Jones from North Carolina, Mark Sanford from South Carolina, and Steve Stockman of Texas. The VFW national commander said “voting against veterans is nothing short of contemptible and disgusting.”