Visiting Our Veterans

Dear Friend: 

This is Congresswoman Nellie Pou writing to you about supporting our nation’s veterans.

Recently, I had an opportunity to visit and tour our Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Paterson. I met with doctors, nurses, and patients. I wanted to visit the facility to thank the staff for their vital work and ask what they needed from Congress.  

After our tour, I was able to sit down with a group of veterans and veterans’ leaders. I thanked them for their service and for their leadership on behalf of New Jersey’s veterans’ community. I also wanted to hear what was on their minds right now. 

In both events, the emotion I kept hearing over and over was concern. Among veterans, doctors, and other care providers, so many of them are worried about their medical benefits and the future of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA.  

Several veterans raised reported plans by the Trump administration to fire up to 80,000 employees at the VA, or approximately one-quarter of all VA staff. Veterans in our district are worried that mass downsizing at the VA could impact their benefits. I agree, and reiterated my opposition to these cuts. That’s also why I voted against a VA funding bill that would privatize VA care by transferring billions to private hospitals and clinics, leading to higher costs and longer waits. 

Veterans and doctors in our district also asked me about the impacts of the recently-enacted budget law. The new law could ultimately take health care away from 17,000,000 Americans, many of them on Medicaid. In our district, where nearly 200,000 people rely on Medicaid, these are life and death issues. I expressed my strong opposition to these cuts and made clear I voted no to these changes. 

Several people also raised the importance of expanding women's health services at VA facilities. This is something I am going to look into. 

Our VA community does so much. Hearing fear from their professionals, and from the veterans they serve, breaks my heart. 

If you have served our nation in uniform, your livelihood should be protected and not arbitrarily targeted. The VA’s existence is a fulfillment of our promise to veterans to take care of them for all they’ve done for our country. 

As long as I am in office, you can count on me to support our veterans and protect the benefits they have earned. 

Sincerely,

Nellie Pou
Member of Congress