After the historic election in November 2024, the 119th Congress was sworn in and convened on January 3, 2025, and went straight to work on issues directly impacting veterans and their families.

On January 22nd, the full House Veterans Affairs Committee (HVAC) held a hearing addressing community care. Mission Roll Call provided a Statement for the Record, including supporting data from your poll responses, that demonstrates the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to improve on delivering care to Veterans through more active use of the community care option. Watch the hearing

In a follow-up to the full HVAC hearing addressing Community Care, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC) convened a separate hearing addressing community care on January 28th. The SVAC heard testimony detailing administrative and bureaucratic shortcomings in the VA’s community care system. Senators discussed some of the causes of these shortcomings, particularly considering the MISSION Act’s express intent to solve many of these problems. 

Following these two hearings, HVAC Chairman Mike Bost, and SVAC Chairman Jerry Moran, introduced legislation to increase access to care for veterans through VA providers in the community. Watch the hearing 

On January 23, the House subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs (DAMA) held a hearing on the VA’s practice of reporting Veterans with fiduciaries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database, restricting their Second Amendment rights. Mission Roll Call joined a pre-hearing roundtable to ensure Veterans’ voices were heard. Watch the hearing 

February is already shaping up to be an equally busy month for Advocacy. We will keep you posted as major developments impacting Veterans come up! 

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