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REPUBLICAN PRESS RELEASE

July 13, 2007

Women and minority veterans see progress in VA care; more must be done

For more information, contact: Jeff Phillips (202) 225-3527

Washington, D.C. — A joint oversight hearing held today by the subcommittees on Health and Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs considered challenges encountered by minority and women veterans as they seek care and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“In more than two centuries of service to country, women and minority servicemembers have formed a glorious legacy. That legacy has only been enriched by the intrepid and resolute accomplishments of their descendents in the global war on terror,” said Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. “Our challenge is to ensure that women and minority veterans — indeed all veterans — receive equal treatment for their qualifying service to our nation.”

Lead witness Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), herself an Air Force veteran, described a fundamental problem of awareness that has gradually improved in recent years. Women veterans represent about 7 percent of the nation’s 24 million veterans; Wilson said more must be done to ensure that care focused on their specific needs is integral to the system.

Wilson, who has introduced a bill to study the needs of wounded women warriors, voiced support for contracted care in areas, such as rural regions, where VA does not have facilities that can provide appropriate care for women veterans. Notwithstanding the type of care provided, she emphasized that VA must communicate to women veterans the availability of care specific to their needs.

Dr. Saul Rosenberg, associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, emphasized the need for VA to bring research out of the journals and make it readily available to clinicians. He also stated that health assessments should be culturally sensitive to account for race and ethnicity.

Representing Disabled American Veterans, Joy Ilem, assistant national legislative director, commended VA’s advisory committees on women and minority veterans. She said they are both doing an “effective” job of examining issues affecting their respective constituencies and reporting their findings to the VA secretary.

Ilem said VA had progressed in recognizing and responding to the needs of these veterans. She said that more should be done to provide adequate privacy in clinics providing care for women veterans. Ilem cited one instance where, as a VA patient herself, she could overhear the waiting room receptionist on the telephone with another patient, discussing that patient’s sensitive personal information.



Excerpts from Lamborn’s opening statement:

"America’s minorities and the women of our great nation are integral to the quality of our national security. Women make up nearly ten percent of our nation’s 24 million living veterans. Women on active duty represent more than 15 percent of our armed forces.

According to a 2005 Heritage Foundation study, about 25 percent of military recruits identify themselves as other than Caucasian; further, military women are more likely to identify themselves as members of a racial or ethnic group than men.

Our military has a higher percentage of some minorities – such as African Americans, American Indians, Native Alaskans and Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders – than the percentage of these minorities in the general population. These men and women are patriots.

In more than two centuries of service to country, women and minority servicemembers have formed a glorious legacy. That legacy has only been enriched by the intrepid and resolute accomplishments of their descendents in the global war on terror.

Our challenge is to ensure that women and minority veterans – indeed all veterans – receive equal treatment for their qualifying service to our nation.

The VA centers for women and minority veterans and the department’s associated advisory committees are charged with increasing awareness of VA programs, identifying barriers and inadequacies in VA programs, and influencing improvement.

We do not look to these VA programs to merely identify and report. We want them to influence policy and accept a measure of accountability for departmental results.

In that regard, I will of course be very interested in hearing today about the challenges facing women and minority veterans, such as gender-specific health care.

I want to learn about disabilities more likely to affect minority veterans. I want to hear about the challenges facing veterans who wish to take advantage of economic opportunities in the public and private sectors.

I will also, however, especially want to learn today how VA and its component organizations are effectively rising to meet those challenges.”

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Larry Scott

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