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Yesterday, the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved the fiscal year 2015 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill (H.R. 4486) by a vote of 416-1. In total, this bill increases funding for veterans programs by $1.5 billion.

Congressmen David Scott and Larry Bucshon added report language to the bill in regards to the recruitment of psychiatric physicians to the VA. The report language reads as follows:

Physician recruitment- The Committee remains concerned by the high rates of PTSD in returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Committee believes there is a continuing need to recruit highly trained physicians to address this problem. The Committee encourages the Secretary to establish an action plan to address this shortage, including the possibility of strengthening the current loan repayment program to recruit psychiatric physicians for full-time employment in the VHA.

The report language can be found on page 34 of the bill report, which can be found online at this link: http://beta.congress.gov/113/crpt/hrpt416/CRPT-113hrpt416.pdf. Earlier this year, Reps. Scott and Buschon introduced H.R. 4234, the Ensuring Veterans Resiliency Act, which is a bipartisan bill to improve psychiatric care in military and veteran communities. The bill was introduced in response to several disturbing reports of VA patient suicides, including at the Atlanta, VA hospital. H.R. 4234 is pending in the Veteran’s Affairs Committee.