Congress must seize the opportunity for a modern VA by supporting the AIR Commission

Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs released recommendations for realigning its infrastructure to best meet the needs of the veterans it serves. These recommendations, part of the Asset and Infrastructure Review process laid out under the VA MISSION Act, have been met with misguided, though predictable, responses from lawmakers and media outlets.

Most notably, both groups have chosen to zero in on recommended facility closures rather than the recommended facility upgrades and new builds — the things veterans need.

Though we have had our disagreements with the VA on how to best serve veterans, the area we do agree on is ensuring resources are aligned with veterans’ needs. To do that, Congress must support the AIR Commission and its process, just like they did when they overwhelmingly voted in favor of it in 2018. As Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said when the MISSION Act passed “I think this could be a real win for the veterans in the country and give them the ability to get more timely health care, better-quality health care and build the capacity within the VA, too.

The AIR process is meant to modernize the VA. Auditing facilities and assets is a responsible move that gives the VA and decision makers insight into what the VA is working with and what is aging out of use.

For example, the average VA facility is more than 60 years old, five times older than comparable private sector health care facilities. Further, many VA facilities are rated a C-, which means they are not a suitable environment for health care services.

It should be obvious that old and broken-down facilities are not sound enough to deliver the type of medical care current and future veterans need. After all, a lot has evolved in medicine and war injuries since the facilities were built.

AIR Commission recommendations, if implemented, would drive realignment of resources to where the veterans are — shifting them from underused facilities and adding them in new parts of the country. The VA has recommended more than 250 facilities be renovated or built.

The VA didn’t come to any of their recommendations out of nowhere but rather based on market data and population shifts showing where veterans are living and what types of care they need.

VA estimates show the veteran population will decrease nearly 40 percent over the next two decades. And those remaining veterans will have substantially different health care needs than those who went before them.

Additionally, veterans are moving to different areas of the country, increasingly finding homes in western and southern states. These population shifts demand realignment of VA’s facilities and offerings.

It doesn’t make sense to keep giant, antiquated, underused facilities open rather than aligning the facilities with where the veterans actually live. Critics making blanket statements about opposition to the VA’s recommendations are just making a show of “protecting” veterans while they are actually doing them harm.

As one senator recently stated, our veterans “deserve easy access to the health care they have earned.” We wholeheartedly agree, which is why we support community care options for those who want them. 

We and our organization represent veterans and states that would benefit from the results of the AIR Commission. Some live in rural states with long drives to VA facilities where veterans desperately need more options for accessing medical care. Some live in states that veterans are flocking to that need VA resources comparable with our veteran populations. All of us see the benefits of a dynamic VA that puts its resources where the veteran is, not where a politician would like.

That is why we put the effort into telling our stories and meeting with lawmakers to make sure they know just how much the AIR process and commission would help us and our communities.

Holding tight to aging, dilapidated, underused facilities doesn’t help veterans. What does help veterans is allowing the VA to align its infrastructure and resources to meet the needs of its patients. That should be the VA’s first priority — caring for veterans when and where they need attention.

It is our hope that Congress will prioritize the AIR process, vote to confirm commission nominees, and take VA reforms even further by supporting legislation that gives veterans access to community care options where a VA can’t meet the veterans’ needs.

That is what we were promised.

Russ Duerstine is the deputy director for Concerned Veterans for America and a veteran of the United States Air Force. Brian Fay is a grassroots engagement director with Concerned Veterans for America in Florida and a veteran of the United States Army.