Loebsack hears praise from veterans for VA service

IOWA CITY - It's been a rough couple of years for the Department of Veterans Affairs with allegations that officials falsified records to hide the length of time veterans waited for medical service and, in some cases veterans died while waiting for care.

But that's not what about 50 veterans wanted to talk about Tuesday with 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack.

Instead, they came to praise the VA system, specifically the health care and the veterans service officers.

'I just want to say something positive about the VA,” said Cathy Mrazek of Coralville, who served as an Army military policewoman for 12 years.

'There's not enough credit give to the VA for everything they do for veterans,” she said at the Iowa City Democrat's fifth annual 'Serving Those Who Served” town hall meeting at a veterans' memorial outside the Johnson County Administration Building. 'If they don't have an answer, they try to find one.”

Other veterans praised the care they had received in dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues.

Loebsack acknowledged 'there are issues in the VA,” but said Mrazek's comments were typical of what he hears in meetings with veterans around the 2nd District.

'They need to work it out, but in Iowa, relatively speaking, they do a good job from what I hear,” he said.

He was critical of the slow response to allegation in 2014 that the VA falsified records at a Phoenix medical center to hide the length of time veterans had to wait for appointments. That triggered similar reports from VA centers around the country.

'There has not been enough people held accountable,” Loebsack said. 'Not enough people have been fired.”

Loebsack, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, is doing a series of meetings around the Fourth of July with veterans to hear their concerns and to thank them for their service.

'There aren't many issues that folks on all sides can come together on,” he told the veterans. 'If it weren't folks that were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice we wouldn't be celebrating the Fourth.”