We Can Do Better for Our Veterans (Rep. Paul Hodes)

Tuesday night, I introduced a bill that would create an Office of the Ombudsman within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  HR 2192 is motivated by the clear need for an independent office that advocates specifically for veterans and their families.  The office would function as one-stop shopping for veterans, protecting their interests and coordinating their benefits as they move through the system.

With more veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and the mismanagement we witnessed at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, it became clear to me that we needed to do something to pierce a federal bureaucracy that has become virtually unmanageable for our returning servicemen and women.

Everyone agrees that the process is unnecessarily complex.  After fighting our wars abroad, the last thing we should do is force our veterans to fight bureaucracy here at home.  Passing this bill will tell Americans that the government is looking out for our veterans, and that they have somewhere to turn.