NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Washington, DC – "VA nurses deserve fair pay," said Lane Evans of Illinois, Democratic Leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Evans said he was very pleased the Committee on Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee adopted his proposal to provide VA nurses the same annual pay raise other federal employees receive. "As the primary sponsor of key provisions within this legislation, I’m hopeful we can send it to the full House in time for action this session," he said.

The "Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel Act of 2000" will provide VA nurses -- the largest part of the VA workforce and its only VA health professionals without a definite annual comparability pay raise -- the same predictability of a pay raise every other VA health professional enjoys. It also allows directors facing nurse staffing shortages the opportunity to raise salaries to be competitive with other local health care facilities.

The bill comes at a time when competition for skilled health care personnel is fierce. Besides annual nurse pay increases, the legislation:

• addresses pay inequities faced by VA dentists, a concern of Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), whose bill was the basis for provisions incorporated into the legislation;
• 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 sent forward today, with a full committee vote scheduled for next week, 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. The bill also provides for a pilot project to pre-authorize geographically remote veterans who rely upon VA outpatient clinics to receive some basic medical hospital inpatient services in their own communities.

Evans summarized by stating, "I am pleased that the Subcommittee has approved this legislation that will redress so many problems faced by our hard-working and devoted VA medical staff. Many have devoted their careers to caring for our Nation’s veterans even when they might have been able to make more money in the private sector. VA employees have earned our speedy adoption of this bill."