Veterans' Affairs

I am honored to serve as Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Riverside County has the 8th largest veteran population of any county in the United States. The brave men and women in our community and across the country deserve our deepest gratitude and respect. I am committed to supporting our veterans by:

Opposing efforts to cut VA funding or privatize VA care,
Preserving women veterans' freedoms by creating easier access to the comprehensive health care and benefits they’ve earned – including reproductive healthcare,
Ensuring no veteran is forgotten by bolstering the social safety net and working to address inequities for veterans in underserved communities, including Native veterans, rural veterans, homeless veterans, and deported veterans,
Delivering a VA for all veterans by working to rectify decades-long discrimination and gender disparities. Also, by continuing to push for better healthcare and handling of disability benefit determinations for veterans filing claims related to Military Sexual Trauma (MST),
Conducting critical oversight and implementation of suicide prevention and toxic exposure bills,
Modernizing VA care for the next generation of veterans by continuing an extensive oversight of VA contracting to ensure that VA employees and veterans are getting what they were promised, and
Ending veteran homelessness and food insecurity by taking steps to preserve proven “housing first” principles and supportive services, which are key in the fight to preventing and ending veteran homelessness.

These priorities are critical to providing America’s veterans the care and support they deserve.?

Caring for Toxic-Exposed Veterans

As Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, I authored and led the passage of the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021, known as the PACT Act. This legislation treats toxic exposure as a cost of war by addressing the full range of issues impacting toxic-exposed veterans including access to earned benefits and healthcare. The PACT Act provides health care for over 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans, provides extension of combat eligibility to health care from 5 to 10 years with a one-year open enrollment period, and streamlines VA’s review process for establishing toxic exposure presumptions.

Need help applying for and accessing your benefits under the PACT Act? Click here

I was also proud to author the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019. The legislation that was signed into law extended benefits to servicemembers that served in the territorial waters off the coast of Vietnam and were exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide and defoliant used by the US military in the Vietnam War. VA estimates that 2.6 million veterans may have been exposed to this toxin. It is vital that we continue to support veterans that were exposed to toxins while they served our country.

Increasing Mental Health and Well-Being Support

Veteran suicide prevention has been a top priority of mine. According to research, there are approximately 20 veteran suicides every day. As long as 20 veterans, National Guard members, and reservists die by suicide each day, our work is not finished. I authored the Veterans’ Comprehensive Preventions, Access to Care, and Treatment Act of 2020, known as the Veterans’ COMPACT Act, signed into law in December of 2020. Among other important initiatives, this legislation allows any veteran in suicidal crisis to receive free emergency health care from any VA or non-VA health care facility.

We also need to address veterans’ access to culturally competent mental health and suicide prevention care at VA, by making sure VA community mental health care providers are trained in military cultural competence and evidence-based treatments. We need to do more to ensure women veterans and veterans of color have an easier pathway to VA benefits and health care. That is why I introduced the Supporting the Resilience of Our Nation’s Great Veterans Act of 2022, known as the STRONG Veterans Act. This bipartisan legislation bolsters VA’s efforts to support veterans’ mental health and ensure that all veterans can equitably access VA’s life-saving resources.

I have also heard from many veterans who are unable to access the necessary mental health resources due to copays. That is why I introduced the Reduce and Eliminate Mental Health Outpatient Veteran Copays Act, or the REMOVE Copays Act of 2022. I am proud that both the REMOVE Copays Act and STRONG Veterans Act were included in the end-of-year appropriations omnibus bill that was signed into law.

If you or a loved one are in crisis and need support, call 988 then Press 1, or text 838255 to access 24/7 confidential crisis support from the Veterans Crisis Line.

Equitable Healthcare for our Veterans

While I was Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, I built on the Women Veterans Task Force by leading an initiative aimed at building awareness and identifying solutions centered on reproductive healthcare access at VA. Providing women veterans the necessary care to exercise their reproductive freedom will always be one of my top priorities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I undertook emergency actions to provide $17 billion in resources to VA, which ensured veterans and their spouses could receive necessary vaccinations. In addition, I authored the Strengthening and Amplifying Vaccination Efforts to Locally Immunize All Veterans and Every Spouse Act. The SAVE LIVES Act was signed into law in 2021 and authorized VA to furnish a COVID-19 vaccine to covered individuals during the public health emergency.

Approximately 3,000 Korean American Vietnam Veterans are naturalized citizens – and the number of surviving veterans continues to dwindle. Despite serving as wartime allies during the Vietnam War, these naturalized veterans do not have access to VA healthcare, unlike our allies in World War I and World War II. Many of these Korean American Veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, total disability, and the effects of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange. This is why I was proud to introduce and pass the Korean American Vietnam Allies Long Overdue for Relief Act, or the Korean VALOR Act, to provide a viable pathway to grant these veterans access to hospital and domiciliary care and medical services through the VA.

Strengthening the Veterans Health Administration

Every veteran must have access to quality and timely health care. A strong VA health care system is critical to connecting veterans with highly skilled doctors and medical staff that have the expertise required to treat the unique and complex health challenges our veterans face. VHA doctors work exclusively with the veteran community and are familiar with military service and culture. As a result, VHA doctors can recognize service-connected issues that often go unnoticed or untreated by private healthcare providers. They can also access veterans’ service records to anticipate and address health conditions that are specific to certain regions or service histories. According to studies, the VHA delivers care that is equal to or better than the care provided in the private sector. I stand with the overwhelming majority of veterans and veterans’ organizations who reject proposals to privatize VA health care.

As VA continues to provide exemplary health services to our nation’s veterans, I introduced the bipartisan Ensuring Veterans’ Smooth Transition Act to streamline the enrollment process for VA healthcare.

Education and Job Training

For many young Americans, military service is both an opportunity to serve as well as a bridge to a better future. As a public-school teacher for more than 20 years, I strongly believe that we must provide returning servicemembers with the educational tools and support they need to make a successful transition into civilian life. I am working with my colleagues on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs to shape the programs that ensure every veteran has access to an affordable and quality higher education or vocational training. I am fighting to crackdown on for-profit education companies that continue to prey upon and exploit student veterans for their generous education benefits.

As Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, I worked to secure provisions in the American Rescue Plan that closed the “90-10 loophole” that allows predatory for-profit educational institutions to exploit veterans and waste the GI Bill benefits. For-profit colleges are no longer able to take advantage of this loophole to cheat veterans and servicemembers out of their education benefits.

I am also working to expand and protect the G.I. bill. President Obama signed into law my Career-Ready Student Veterans Act, which I introduced to ensure that all educational programs meet state licensure and certification standards if they are to receive G.I. Bill payouts.

Supporting our Non-Citizen Servicemembers

I have been fighting to prevent noncitizen veterans from falling through the cracks of our broken immigration system for years because it is shameful that they are being exiled from the same country they risked their lives to protect and defend. I was proud to introduce and pass the Veteran Service Recognition Act in the 117^th Congress to allow noncitizen servicemembers to apply for naturalization during basic training, establish a review process for those who are in removal proceedings, and provide an opportunity for noncitizen veterans who have been removed or ordered removed and who have not been convicted of serious crimes to obtain legal permanent resident status. This is a critical step to ensure that our men and women in uniform are honored for their bravery, heroism, and service, no matter where they were born.

A Culture of Excellence at the VA

After unacceptable instances of underperformance and misconduct at the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA must refocus its efforts on building a world-class workforce. Recruiting and retaining talented and passionate staff is critical to building a VA that offers veterans a consistently excellent experience. In addition, strong and continuous leadership, organization-wide training and development, and accountability for those who fail to meet veterans’ needs are necessary steps toward earning the trust of the veteran's community.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is vital to keeping the promise we make to veterans. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure the VA is providing veterans the care, support, and respect they have earned through service to our nation.

Congressman Takano was also a proud Co-Sponsor of many other pieces of legislation supporting our veterans signed into law, including:

H.R.5545 — REMOTE Act: To extend certain expiring provisions of law relating to benefits provided under Department of Veterans Affairs educational assistance

programs during COVID-19 pandemic, and for other purposes.

H.R.4591 — VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act: To require the Department of Veterans Affairs to report quarterly on (1) the costs of its Electronic Health Record Modernization Program, including by describing all expenses driven by the program; and (2) the performance metrics and outcomes of the program.

H.R.2911 — VA Transparency & Trust Act: To require the VA to submit a plan for obligating and expending covered funds, which are funds made available to the VA for response to the COVID-19 pandemic and require the VA to submit biweekly reports regarding obligations, expenditures, and planned uses of the funds until seven days after the VA has expended all covered funds.

H.R.1545 — VA Prescription Data Accountability Act: To direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to disclose information about an individual who is dispensed medication prescribed by a VA employee or by a non-VA provider authorized to prescribe such medication by the VA (currently, about a veteran or the dependent of a veteran) to a state controlled substance monitoring program to the extent necessary to prevent misuse and diversion of prescription medicines.

H.R.4352 — Faster Care for Veterans Act: to direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to begin an 18-month pilot program in at least three Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) under which veterans use an Internet website or mobile application to schedule and confirm appointments at VA medical facilities.