{"id":34677,"date":"2024-01-19T15:20:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T20:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=34677"},"modified":"2024-01-19T15:48:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T20:48:51","slug":"cronkite-news-native-veterans-travel-far-for-services-and-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/19\/cronkite-news-native-veterans-travel-far-for-services-and-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Native veterans travel far for services and benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\">\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_youtu-be\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-FJlcei9Qfg\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/plugins\/content-cards\/skins\/default\/content-cards-placeholder.png\" alt=\" - YouTube\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-FJlcei9Qfg\">\n\t\t\t &#8211; YouTube\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-FJlcei9Qfg\">\n\t\t\t<p>Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/s\/desktop\/92ead095\/img\/favicon.ico\" alt=\"youtu.be\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\tyoutu.be\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Indianz.Com Video: <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/-FJlcei9Qfg>House Committee on Veterans&#8217; Affairs &#8211; Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren    &#8211; January 11, 2024  <\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Navajo president calls for new VA medical, benefits centers at House hearing<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Friday, January 19, 2024<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Ian McKinney<\/div>\r\n<DIV class=source>Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n<DIV class=source-website><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PresidentNygren\/\">Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren<\/a> called on lawmakers last Thursday to put Veterans Affairs medical and benefits centers on the reservation to help deliver services that he said Indigenous veterans have earned but often cannot access.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;The lack of VA care in the Navajo Nation is not reflective of the continuous contributions the Navajo people have provided to this country,&#8221; Nygren in <a href=\"https:\/\/veterans.house.gov\/calendar\/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=6347\">testimony to the House Veterans&#8217; Affairs Committee<\/a>.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;Our veterans have earned the right to accessibility, quality care and benefits for their service and sacrifice. It is for these reasons I ask Congress to work with my administration to bring a full-service VA medical center to the Navajo Nation,&#8221; he said.<P><\/P>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1717807317&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=true&#038;show_comments=false&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=false\"><\/iframe> <figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Indianz.Com Audio: <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/indianz\/buu-nygren-navajo-nation\" title=\"Buu Nygren \/ Navajo Nation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">House Committee on Veterans&#8217; Affairs &#8211; Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren    &#8211; January 11, 2024  <\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nNygren was one of several witnesses from around the country <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/VR\/VR00\/20240111\/116705\/HHRG-118-VR00-Wstate-NygrenB-20240111.pdf\">testifying<\/a> on the challenges the VA faces in delivering services to the millions of veterans who the department said live in rural areas.<P><\/P>\r\nWitnesses cited similar problems that they said hinder the delivery of services to vets in remote areas, including scarce VA resources that are made more inaccessible by a lack of transportation and poor broadband service, among other issues.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;We&#8217;ve got 27,000 square miles, almost half a million people who live in some very remote areas,&#8221; Nygren said after the hearing. &#8220;A lot of these veterans have to travel a lot of hours just to get services in either Phoenix, Albuquerque or Salt Lake City.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\nThe warm reception advocates got from lawmakers was in stark contrast to the treatment of VA administrators, who spent the first part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/veterans.house.gov\/calendar\/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=6347\">three-hour hearing<\/a> touting the progress they said they agency has made in delivering services.<P><\/P>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/19\/cronkite-news-native-veterans-travel-far-for-services-and-benefits\/buunygren-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-34679\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" data-attachment-id=\"34679\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/19\/cronkite-news-native-veterans-travel-far-for-services-and-benefits\/buunygren-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/19\/BuuNygren.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2000,1500\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Buu Nygren\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Buu Nygren&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, center, testifies on January 11, 2024, before the House Veterans&amp;#8217; Affairs Committee on the challenges that rural vets, like those on the Navajo Reservation, face when trying to access health care and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Photo by Ian McKinney \/ Cronkite News&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/19\/BuuNygren-1024x768.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/19\/BuuNygren.jpg\" alt=\"Buu Nygren\"   class=\"size-full wp-image-34679\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"> Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, center, testifies on January 11, 2024, before the House Veterans&#8217; Affairs Committee on the challenges that rural vets, like those on the Navajo Reservation, face when trying to access health care and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Photo by Ian McKinney \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nVA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said that 25,000 rural veterans were among the more than 100,000 vets added to department rolls since 2022 under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/resources\/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits\/\">PACT<\/a> (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics) Act.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;In addition to better staffing in rural areas, the VA meets the needs of even more rural veterans by providing telehealth services, mobile clinics, and transportation services,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/VR\/VR00\/20240111\/116705\/HHRG-118-VR00-Wstate-ElnahalS-20240111.pdf\">Elnahal said.<\/a> &#8220;During the fiscal year 2023, the VA delivered more telehealth services than in any fiscal year before including more than 2.9 million episodes of care delivered to more than 770,000 rural veterans.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\nBut many lawmakers on the panel were like Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who told the VA officials to &#8220;color me unimpressed.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;It\u2019s very apparent to me when I talk to veterans in my community that the Mission Act is not being implemented by the VA,&#8221; Miller-Meeks said, referring to the law that requires the department to deliver care to veterans in a certain time frame.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;That became readily apparent when we had out hearing on residential mental health and substance abuse disorder where the VA didn\u2019t even think residential mental health and substance abuse feel into the parameters of the mission,&#8221; she said.<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_twitter-com\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepEliCrane\/status\/1745553071537639645\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/ext_tw_video_thumb\/1745550051789742080\/pu\/img\/tfOO8S44CTdrnOvG?format=webp&#038;name=large\" alt=\"Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) on X\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepEliCrane\/status\/1745553071537639645\">\n\t\t\tRep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) on X\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepEliCrane\/status\/1745553071537639645\">\n\t\t\t<p>Proud to have Navajo Nation President @BuuVanNygren at today&#8217;s @HouseVetAffairs hearing as my guest. It&#8217;s critical that Congress works to better serve tribal veterans who have sacrificed so much for the whole of our nation. Thanks to Chairman @RepBost for holding this hearing.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/favicon.ico\" alt=\"X (formerly Twitter)\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\tX (formerly Twitter)\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWhile they had complaints for the VA administrators, lawmakers were more likely to offer the advocates suggestions for potential solutions.<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;Have we given thought to a possible joint facility with the VA and the IHS (Indian Health Service) so that the Navajo people could benefit from the economy of scale and to make it a much fuller array of services?&#8221; asked Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. &#8220;The best way to justify that would be to open it up to both the IHS beneficiaries as well as VA beneficiaries.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\nNygren said that sounded like a &#8220;great idea.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\nNygren also pointed to other initiatives, including a potential partnership between the Navajo Nation and a new medical school planned for Northern Arizona University, in order to help provide the nation with doctors and nurses. He said he is working with Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, to &#8220;find out if there is some sort of program that can be worked out (with NAU) that can be geared towards Navajo nurses and doctors that are closer to Navajo.&#8221;<P><\/P><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><P><\/P>\r\nAfter the hearing, Nygren said a VA medical center would help &#8220;the physical, mental and emotional health of our veterans&#8221; while a VA benefits center &#8220;is a great way for our veterans to really start utilizing some of the benefits that the VA does have to offer.&#8221;<P><\/P>\r\n&#8220;It would be nice to have another Navajo person be able to sit down with them and talk to them and walk them through everything because sometimes, it can be a lot of culture shock when you&#8217;ve got to travel to these other places and you\u2019re not sitting across the table from someone that looks like you,&#8221; Nygren said.<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">House Committee on Veterans&#8217; Affairs Notices<\/div>\r\n<a href=https:\/\/veterans.house.gov\/calendar\/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=6347>\r\nFull Committee Oversight Hearing &#8211; \r\n\u201cRural Access: Is VA Meeting All Veterans Where They Live?\u201d><\/a> (veterans.house.gov)<BR>\r\n<a href=https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/Committee\/Calendar\/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=116705>Rural Access: Is VA Meeting All Veterans Where They Live?<\/a> (docs.house.gov)\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<STRONG>For more stories from Cronkite News, visit <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=client\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><EM>Note: This story originally <a href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2024\/01\/11\/navajo-president-calls-for-new-va-medical-benefits-centers-at-house-hearing\/\">appeared on Cronkite News<\/a>.  It  is published via a <A href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative  Commons license<\/A>. Cronkite News is produced by the <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkite.asu.edu\/\">Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication<\/A> at <A href=\"https:\/\/www.asu.edu\">Arizona State University<\/A>.<\/EM><HR>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president of the Navajo Nation is calling on the federal government to open a full-service veterans medical center to the reservation.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,1,14],"tags":[3586,42,3240,346,4150,48,210,4502,4501,24,167,4503,164,508,234,57],"class_list":["post-34677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-national","category-politics","tag-118th","tag-arizona","tag-buu-nygren","tag-dc","tag-eli-crane","tag-house","tag-ihs","tag-mariannette-miller-meeks","tag-mark-takano","tag-navajo","tag-new-mexico","tag-shereef-elnahal","tag-transportation","tag-utah","tag-va","tag-veterans","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-91j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/19\/BuuNygren.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34677"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34692,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34677\/revisions\/34692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}