The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Polly Parks
Sometimes it pays to watch the sausage being made. For instance, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA) has consolidated 60 veteran-related measures that have languished in the gridlocked 119th Congress. It includes must-pass legislation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.
I am the surviving spouse of a retired U.S. Army Colonel and currently serve as President of the Tucson Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). MOAA is a nationwide, non-partisan membership organization of nearly 360,000 active-duty, reserve, National Guard, and retired uniformed service officers and their surviving spouses from all the service branches, the Coast Guard, U.S. Public Health Service, and NOAA. The organization preserves and protects earned benefits for our uniformed services, veterans, their families, and surviving spouses through advocacy, leadership, education, and service.
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Much of the legislation that MOAA, the American Legion, Wounded Warriors Project, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and other Military Coalition partners have spent precious political capital advocating for during the 119th Congress is included in the TCAVA.
The more than 60 provisions address veterans' benefits, health care, education, transition assistance, caregiver support, and survivor benefits. The Act includes the Major Richard Star Act, the Justice for ALS Veterans Act, the Love Lives On Act, and the Veteran Caregiver 3R Act. It also includes the CHIP-IN Act, which is especially important to Tucson.
Southern Arizona is home to over 200,000 veterans, most of whom served in the quarter-century since 9/11. That is a large number of veterans who, thanks to the PACT Act passed in 2024, which targets diseases, including cancers, caused by toxic exposure, are eligible for VA care. Tucson, with over 80,000 veterans, is served by the main VA Hospital campus, supplemented by three small clinics offering limited services and the VET Center, which provides mental health services.
The situation is even more dire at Davis-Monthan AFB (D-M), home to nearly 11,000 joint personnel, where the clinic is outdated and cannot provide care for mental health and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, which have accounted for 82% of duty-limiting conditions since 2001. It is also not equipped to address routine medical needs, leading military personnel and their families to rely on off-base emergency departments and urgent care clinics, which are neither designed nor staffed to provide follow-up care and may require out-of-pocket costs.
Mental health and MSK account for over 510,000 annual health care visits for veterans and service members in the Tucson area, a number projected to increase by 10% by 2028. Nearly 66,000 of those visits occur in emergency departments and urgent care clinics across 66 locations in the Tucson area. 50% of those visits result in unresolved conditions without treatment.
To begin addressing these issues, SAVAHCS and the Air Force are working on resource-sharing projects, including manpower and facility use, to further improve care for veterans and active-duty service members. The TCAVA includes legislative language that makes these types of sharing agreements and infrastructure projects more feasible through legislation like the CHIP-IN Act.
Unfortunately, the TCAVA (HR 9737/S 4774) has stalled because several national veterans’ organizations have objected to Section 108 of the bill, which would reduce future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea to partially offset the legislation's costs. However, supporters of the legislation counter that the VA has already signaled its intent to take those actions and that the omnibus bill's language will direct any savings to support veterans' programs rather than disappear into the broader federal budget.
Following a push by veteran groups to secure a vote before the August recess, MOAA President Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly (USAF, Ret.) said, "Veterans don't need this legislation tomorrow. They don't need it even today. Veterans needed this legislation yesterday, and the day before that.” However, House leadership postponed the scheduled July 16 vote.
Time is running short to pass the critically needed legislation. I urge you to contact our Senators and Representatives to express your support.
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Polly Parks is the editor of the D-M Retirees Activity Office newsletter and the surviving spouse of retired U.S. Army COL George L. Cajigal. She lives in Ward 5.
