WASHINGTON— Today, Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson released an op-ed regarding the importance of Veterans Day in the United States. 

Standing with Our Veterans  

By Rep. Mike Simpson     

The full op-ed is available below.     

Veterans Day is when we should all pause and honor the men and women who fought to protect our freedoms and way of life.  We’re reminded on this day that veterans deserve our gratitude and support all year long. Standing with our veterans means going beyond lip-service to provide real, tangible solutions to the challenges they face. Our veterans served our nation in our time of need, and I consider it my duty to stand with them in their time of need.   

Standing with our veterans means keeping the promises our nation has made to them.  This includes fully funding veterans’ health care programs, veterans’ benefits, and military construction projects that enable us to honor our commitments to America’s veterans.  I’m proud that House Republicans have done that this year.  Honoring our promises also means reforming existing programs when we discover they don’t meet veterans’ needs. For example, all veterans deserve access to high-quality dental care, not only those who are 100% disabled or have a direct service-connected injury.  Studies show that regular dental care helps alleviate certain chronic ailments, like diabetes and heart conditions.  I have cosponsored legislation to expand veterans’ access to dental care, which would not only meet the needs of our nation’s heroes, but would also drive down overall healthcare costs.   

Standing with our veterans also means standing up to those who prevent them from receiving the benefits they have earned.  Sometimes, this damage is deliberate, like when bad actors purposefully cheat veterans out of their benefits.  This infuriates me, and I’ve cosponsored legislation to hold them accountable by reinstating criminal penalties for those who prey on veterans by charging unauthorized fees for “helping” them file disability claims.   

Other times, the harm happens unintentionally, like when veterans can’t access healthcare benefits because of broken systems in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  One of my top priorities over the past year has been addressing widespread concerns about the VA’s rollout of a new but flawed Electronic Health Record (EHR) system at the Boise VA Medical Center.  Instead of making it easier for veterans to receive high-quality health care, this problem-riddled EHR system gets in the way of those trying to deliver needed care.  I continue to advocate for halting the rollout of this system before it is fixed and empowering medical center leaders, including the ones in Boise, to determine whether it is ready to serve the veterans in their care.  I will continue to advocate for both veterans and the hospital and provider staff who care for them. 

Ultimately, standing with our veterans also means honoring their memories and supporting the families they leave behind.  More than 81,500 Americans—including over 350 Idahoans—remain unaccounted for from conflicts over the past century.  For the families of these service members, their heartache is compounded by the difficulty of navigating the bureaucratic red tape as they try to learn information about their loved ones.  That is why I have cosponsored legislation to eliminate the obstacles that prevent families and caseworkers from accessing the records needed for recovering America’s Prisoners of War (POWs) or Missing in Action (MIA) service members.  

For over two decades, I have been proud to fight for the men and women who have fought so valiantly in defense of our nation and made tremendous sacrifices to preserve our way of life.  We are all indebted to them, and I consider it a privilege to stand with them.