NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Washington, DC - "VA nurses have waited for fair pay too long," said Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, "and dentists and physician assistants will get a fair shake, too." Evans, Democratic Leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, was a primary sponsor of legislation adopted today by the House, having won an agreement with other bill architects to include a provision to give VA’s nurses the same annual pay raise other federal employees receive.

Nurses are the largest part of the VA workforce, and have been the only VA health professionals who work without a definite annual comparability pay raise. The "Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel Act of 2000" provides VA nurses the same predictability of a pay raise that every other VA health professional enjoys. The bill also allows VA hospital directors who face nursing staff shortages an opportunity to raise salaries so they can compete with other local health care facilities.

Today competition for skilled health care personnel is fierce. Besides annual nurse pay increases, the legislation:

• addresses pay inequities faced by VA dentists;
• provides physician assistants long-sought representation within VA headquarters along with better training opportunities; and,
• helps VA retain social workers, pharmacists and medical support personnel.

In addition, the legislation adopted by the House today provides for a pilot project to provide geographically remote veterans some basic medical hospital inpatient services in their own communities. "The concept of this pilot is simple," Evans said. "VA will pre-approve certain veterans who rely upon VA outpatient clinics -- but who are distant from VA medical centers -- to receive some general medical and surgical hospital inpatient services in their local communities. Far from being the ‘end of VA health care as we know it,’ this is a project that is consistent with VA’s goals to bring veterans’ health care into the community."

The bill also mandates a follow-up survey of the status of the readjustment of Vietnam-era veterans advocated by veterans organizations. The follow-up survey was proposed earlier this year to Congressman Evans during an issues seminar he sponsored marking the 25^th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

"This legislation will address many problems faced by the VA’s hard-working and devoted medical staff," Evans said. "Many nurses and other skilled professionals have devoted their careers to caring for our Nation’s veterans, when they might have been able to make more money in the private sector. We need to take care of the people who take care of our veterans."

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