The US House recently passed several bills to improve overall services for military veterans.

Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District Representative Randy Feenstra tells Raccoon Valley Radio the “Commitment to Veteran Support and Outreach Act” allows for additional funding for more staffing and creates more awareness of services available to veterans.

“The outreach through, whether that be a mailer, whether that be telephone or whatever, making sure that we are connecting with our veterans, getting more information out to our veterans through outreach (by) adding more people involved and then also doing the mailing or calls to our veterans to get them help.” 

Feenstra points out another bill is the “Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act” which authorizes Veterans Affairs to pay for certain veterans to receive care from a long-term facility. He notes this bill will also be a benefit for veterans in rural areas.

“You think of our rural communities, whether it be a town of 1,000, or 2,500, or whatever, they all have nursing homes or they have assisted livings. And we want to make sure that they can stay in their own facilities. So that’s what this bill does. It allows veterans to have the opportunity to stay in long-term care in their own hometown.”   

Feenstra adds a third bill is the “DOULA for VA Act” which provides services for pregnant female veterans who can also receive post-partum care and maternity leave who are enrolled in the VA healthcare system. All three bills passed out of the US House.