Hearings to examine strengthening services for veterans with spinal cord injury and disorder.
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
2025-09-17
Source: Congress.gov
Summary
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Participants
Transcript
Good afternoon. I need to end the silence in this room. We should be warm and welcoming and we're glad you're here. I want to extend a particular welcome to all of our witnesses. Your presence and testimony are valuable and will work to fulfill, as we work to fulfill, our nation's promise to care for those who served. Veterans, particularly those with spinal cord injuries and disorders, are a testament to courage and resilience. The challenges they face are immense and often lifelong. For many, a new and different journey begins the moment they return home or receive their life-changing diagnosis, one marked by physical and emotional hurdles that require specialized care, innovative technology, and a dedicated support system. The VA's spinal cord injury and disorder system of care is a critical lifeline for these veterans, making certain they receive quality care when needed. During this hearing, we will examine the current state of the VA's SCID system of care, identify where the VA is succeeding, and pinpoint areas where the VA should do better. We must make certain that the access to care and benefits is timely and efficient, that the VA is at the forefront of medical research and technology, and that veterans and their caregivers have the necessary resources and support they deserve. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses this morning, I guess it's this afternoon, which include Shelly Hoover, a Navy veteran who has been living with ALS since 2013 and who will testify today using a speech generation device with eye gaze technology. Mandy Bailey, an ALS advocate who lost her Army veteran stepfather to ALS and has since dedicated her efforts to supporting veterans with ALS and their caregivers. Mary Ward, a spouse and caregiver to her Marine Corps veteran husband, who has been living with ALS for 15 years.
And Robert Thomas, an Army veteran and the national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America, which is the only veteran service organization dedicated to the veteran SCID community. These witnesses will provide firsthand accounts of the needs and challenges of living with spinal cord injuries and disorders and how the VA and this committee can best support these veterans and their families. I thank you all for being here, for your service to our country, and for their continued advocacy on behalf of others. With that, I yield to the ranking member, Senator Blumenthal, for his opening remarks.
I join Senator Moran in thanking you for being here. I know that as caregivers and veterans of very deep and immediate experience with spinal cord injuries and disorders the challenge of being here is probably even more difficult than for many of our other witnesses. And so your being here has special meaning. I'm glad we're focusing on a part of the veterans population that relies probably more than any other group on the VA. And that's a testament to the quality of the care that the VA provides. Employees who provide this kind of care are unmatched in the private sector, making these services extremely valuable but also vulnerable to the type of cuts and cancellations that we're seeing throughout the VA. And as the VA continues to bleed employees due to this Secretary's harmful policies, the services provided to people who are directly involved in SCID are particularly at risk. So I think today's hearing is very, very timely and important. Veterans who receive these services from the VA can't easily transfer that care to community providers where facilities are often inaccessible and providers rarely receive specialized SCID training. And the training isn't a luxury. It's essential. It's dealing with severe, life-threatening complications that can arise from seeing a provider who is not sufficiently trained.
And I'm very disturbed at how Secretary Collins has failed to provide any credible assurances that he'll fight to preserve access to SCID care at the VA, which even before these cuts needed bolstering and expanding. The administration has left many veterans with SCID and their loved ones in limbo by failing to publish a rule to extend eligibility for participants in the caregiver's program. And I think that's an immediate need that needs to be addressed. He's been slow rolling implementation of the Elizabeth Dole Act, which would improve access to long-term care services for veterans with SCID. He's delaying implementation of critical funding increases for organizations that serve veterans experiencing homelessness. Congress intended these funds to help providers to keep their doors open and continue supporting veterans. On both of these provisions, we were given a lot of assurances that immediate implementation was not only possible but also a priority for the VA. We are here months later. with no concrete implementation guideline for either authority. I wish we could be using today's hearing to discuss expanding SCID care at the Department of Veterans Affairs rather than just fighting to keep the status quo and asking the VA to implement laws Congress has already passed. We approved those laws. We worked hard on them. And the VA is failing to implement them because of the leadership, not because the dedicated, hardworking VA workforce has any reluctance to do so.
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