Secretary McDonough Commits to Visiting North Dakota Soon

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) discussed his Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough. At the renewed invitation of Senator Cramer, Secretary McDonough reaffirmed his commitment to visit Fargo, North Dakota soon. 

“I want to [express] appreciation for the VA [in] supporting our legislation for getting burial rights straightened out for our guard members,” said Senator Cramer. 

“On that bill, Senator Cramer, I thought that worked really well. You all raised this to my attention and we dug into it, and very transparently and straight-forwardly our staffs and teams working together came to a good outcome. I’m really proud of that work,” said Secretary McDonough. 

The Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act of 2021 ensures all reserve components and the National Guard are eligible to be buried in state veterans cemeteries so long as their service was terminated under honorable conditions. It received a legislative hearing in SVAC last month and brought Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs (USMA) Matthew Quinn to Fargo to hear directly from North Dakotans on this issue.

The senator then pivoted to talking about his Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Veterans (HBOT) Act, one of Senator Cramer’s main priorities on SVAC. He pressed Secretary McDonough for an update on implementation on the bill, which makes HBOT an available resource for veterans suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have exhausted other evidence-based treatment options.

“We put [the pilot program] in the law, both within the VA and outside organizations, so we could put together a large enough sample,” said Senator Cramer. “It sounds so easy until you bump up against that giant wall called bureaucracy. It gets in the way.”

Senator Cramer previously discussed HBOT with Secretary McDonough in March, where Secretary McDonough recommitted to fully implementing the legislation.