Lawmakers make pitch for veterans clinic
By Rob Jennings New Jersey Herald
Posted: Jan. 8, 2016 12:01 am
U.S. Reps. Scott Garrett, of Wantage, and Rodney Frelinghuysen, of Harding, spoke behind closed doors on Capitol Hill with VA Under Secretary for Health David Shulkin.
Shulkin was president of Morristown Medical Center until last spring, when the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination by President Obama to the VA post.
Garrett and Frelinghuysen, in separate interviews afterward with the New Jersey Herald, recapped the meeting.
Garrett said, “We were expressing our concern about the lack of adequate facilities here and to get a clarification on exactly what the VA is doing.”
Frelinghuysen said, “I think we made some progress.”
“He was very positive in his reaction to our request,” Frelinghuysen said of Shulkin.
The meeting was prompted by a Nov. 24 letter from Frelinghuysen to VA Secretary Robert MacDonald after Frelinghuysen, who said he had been led to believe that the clinic was nearing approval, subsequently learned of an apparent moratorium on new facilities.
Garrett said, based on their discussion Thursday, the moratorium was actually a short-term delay aimed at giving Shulkin an opportunity to assess the sprawling system.
Garrett said he is optimistic about the clinic’s prospects for approval, though Shulkin offered no commitments.
“I think it was a productive meeting. We made our cases strongly. It was heard,” said Garrett, whose 5th District includes most of Sussex County.
“We put a strong case that our veterans in Sussex, and also in Warren, are important. They’ve served. They’ve put their lives on hold,” Garrett said.
“A lot of them are just not taking advantage of the services that are available and that is in part due to the distance,” Garrett said.
The VA’s New Jersey Health Care System consists of two “main campuses” in East Orange and Lyons, with additional “satellite outpatient clinics and access points” in Brick, Elizabeth, Hackensack, Hamilton, Jersey City, Morristown, Paterson, Piscataway and Tinton Falls.
