NEW YORK – Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D (NY-16), Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-06) and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) led the New York City Congressional Delegation in a bipartisan, bicameral letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Dennis R. McDonough, inquiring about VA facilities in New York.

“Supporting our veterans completely is a given, however we need to ensure the support they receive is accessible, effective and tailored to their needs,” said Reps. Bowman, Meng and Malliotakis. “Veterans’s healthcare should remain public, accessible, affordable and high-quality. In New York, veterans rely on VA facilities for all of their medical attention. Civilians, too, rely on these institutions during emergencies like Hurricane Sandy and COVID-19. The attention veterans receive at the VA is personalized and research shows the quality of care offered in VA centers outperforms that offered in private healthcare centers. We are deeply concerned that  recommendations made to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) could have closed the Manhattan VA Medical Center and Brooklyn VA Medical Center leaving our veterans with severely limited access to care. We are asking for more insight into how infrastructure changes to local VA facilities will be determined moving forward so that our nation and New York’s heroes receive high-quality, affordable medical attention they need, when they need it.”  

To read the full letter please click here. 

Additional co-signers of this letter include: Senator Charles E. Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Representatives Yvette D. Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Hakeem Jeffries, Carolyn B. Maloney, Gregory W. Meeks, Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Thomas R. Suozzi, Ritchie Torres, and Nydia M. Velázquez.

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