Veterans Day: On a day of observance we commit to action

Each Veterans Day, it is important to remember that this day is dedicated to our military veterans. It is a national holiday for all Americans to honor the service and sacrifice of ordinary Americans who answered the call of duty to serve our country.

This Veterans Day, let us take another step beyond simple recognition of our veterans, and pledge a renewed effort to help veterans that may struggle in our communities.

Every veterans’ sacrifice means freedom, security and opportunity for our citizens. Our veterans deserve not only our constant gratitude but also our best effort to provide them with high quality, affordable health care benefits to which they are entitled. However, unfortunately, this is often a struggle for millions of veterans, many who are here in Florida.

I was honored to have the opportunity to serve my country and I understand the challenges of dealing with the massive bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). One challenge I pledged to address on Day One, when I was elected to Congress, was veteran choice in health care. This is something Florida’s roughly 1.5 million veterans know firsthand how important choice of providers and access locally is to quality health care.

To revolutionize the care of our veterans, I introduced H.R. 6285, the Veterans’ True Choice Act of 2020. This legislation would enable service-connected veterans the ability to use TRICARE Select and TRICARE for Life. This legislation would expand care and offer new choices for all of our nation’s veterans — including giving them the ability to select local providers if services are not offered by a local VA facility. They could go to any doctor they choose for the health care they need and deserve without having to wait 30-60 days to receive the care.

Veterans Day is a wonderful tribute to our citizens who served our country, but we can and should do more. We can provide not only the promise but actual access to quality and affordable health care. Expanded choice for our veterans’ health care is a priority not only for our office, but the Republican conference as a whole in Congress. In fact, it is featured in our shared Commitment to America, that GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) recently released.

One of the most important efforts of our legislative team is to improve the lives and futures of Florida’s veterans by improving the performance of the VA.

We also introduced the VA Fiscal Responsibility Act last month, legislation which improves third-party billing and collections procedures at the VA. Our country’s veterans should be free from inefficient medical billing collections procedures. Our heroes should not be held financially responsible for system failures of third-party billings that go uncollected.

Beyond our work to improve the VA for veterans, our congressional district team continually works to properly honor our veteran heroes through educational programs so future generations will respect our nation’s active military and veterans.

Recently, our team was privileged to see our bill, the Free Veterans from Fees Act, pass the House with bipartisan support. If signed into law, this legislation will remove burdensome administrative fees from veterans’ special events, like honor flights, at war memorials managed by the National Park Service.

These efforts are a part of our ongoing work to serve those who served America to protect our freedoms and future generations. We will never stop fighting for those who fought for us.

Steube represents the 17th District of Florida and is a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.