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Babin hears veterans’ concerns at meeting
The Pasadena Citizen
By Y.C. Orozco

It was a packed room of veterans Friday morning to hear Rep. Brian Babin speak at the Broken Yolk Grill in Pasadena.

The congressmen (36th District) was invited to meet and greet vets during a special breakfast hosted by Dr. Robert Garcia, Past Commander, Pasadena Memorial Chapter 134, an event welcomed by the restaurant’s owner, Neel McGovern.

The occasion was to touch base with area vets from Pasadena, Clear Lake, La Porte, Deer Park and other surrounding cities, and address concerns impacting them.

Babin, a veteran who served during the Vietnam War, son of a World War II vet and father of a decorated Navy SEAL, said he feels a kinship with vets and uses every opportunity to listen to their issues. He focused his speech on veteran’s health services and the gridlock that exists when dealing with those concerns.

Accountability on the part of the VA and other government veterans’ services was a theme echoed by several vets at the breakfast, with personal anecdotes about road blocks to receiving adequate medical treatment and other services.

Army Staff Sergeant Beau Stefka has had his own frustrations when it comes to veterans services and came to Friday’s breakfast meeting to hear how Washington plans to affect change in a system he says is obstructed by red tape at the local levels.

“My question to Congressman Babin is if they’re going to take care of it down at the local level, not just from Washington screaming out,” Stefka said. “You can’t scream things from afar and hope things are going to get done. They have to send people down and take care of it.”

Judy Cushman DuBose, an Army veteran and Army widow, agreed, and advocates change in veterans’ health issues and how veterans administration officials and employees address their concerns.

As a female veteran, she said, the issues regarding health services for vets are even greater.
“While they’re making a lot of strides (for female veterans), it’s not where it needs to be,” she said.

There are over 100,000 female veterans in the state of Texas, making up ten percent of the overall veteran population.

“I think it’s time for the VA to understand that women veterans are serving our country honorably and doing a lot of good stuff, and so when we don’t get the services we were promised it’s time for something to change,” DuBose said.

Babin said there are good administrations facilities with capable employees, but there are major problems at the local levels that have to be addressed.

Babin co-sponsored a bill, HR1038, which would make it easier to fire employees for poor performance and negligence.

“We approved a record high VA budget this year, and this will provide increased funding to ensure that resources are there,” he said. “This is near and dear to my heart; our veterans committee and our VA are not doing the job, so we’re here to see how these guys and gals are doing and to give them our telephone numbers to let them where our offices are. They’ve had promises made to them by the government and these promises need to be kept. The way the VA has been neglecting these duties is inexcusable and we need to hold them accountable.”