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Reed Pushes Bill To Give Dental Care To Veterans

Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, announced he will co-sponsor a bill that he intends will provide better dental care for veterans.

In his weekly conference call with regional media, Reed brought up how a woman addressed him by saying how difficult it was to get her veteran husband dental care. He said that conversation helped inspire the bill’s creation. It would require the secretary of Veteran Affairs to provide dental care in the same manner as other medical services.

Reed highlighted that physical and mental care of veterans is paramount and that those care-related services should cover all things dental. The elimination of dental care restrictions, Reed said, would be the next step to providing fair treatment for veterans.

As a son of a Silver Star recipient and veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Reed said he is inspired to help veterans. As important Reed said it is to support troops when they are deployed, Reed mentioned it’s even more important to stand by veterans when they return home.

“We’re going to continue to support our vets,” Reed said. “Currently, most veterans are not eligible for dental care in the same way they are eligible for other care from the Veterans Administration. This bill will ensure dental care is provided to our veterans in the same way they would receive health care for anything else from the VA.”

This announcement follows Reed’s ongoing work to ensure the Canandaigua VA Medical Center receives $190 million for construction and repairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs has also received the highest level of funding in history, something Reed said will help to ensure “fair and quality treatment” of veterans.

In other news, Reed recently visited the Salvation Army Anew Center in Jamestown. After a tour of the facility and hearing stories first-hand from survivors of domestic violence, Reed said their mission is “something I care deeply about.”

“The people here at the Anew Center are doing valuable work by helping and investing in the lives of those who have been touched by domestic violence,” Reed said. “Standing with these survivors and making sure they have a refuge like this is critical.”

As far as a location for that refuge is concerned, Reed stated that he thinks it is important to help the staff stay at the existing primary location. If that space becomes no longer vital, he said another location would be imperative.

Reed responded to national controversies his opponent Mitrano also addressed earlier Tuesday. When asked about Trump’s reaction to the Hurricane Maria and Irma death toll in Puerto Rico being released as an estimate of 3,000, Reed said he wasn’t concerned with Trump’s idea that Democrats were fabricating numbers to make him look bad. Reed said that, regardless of how many died, the U.S. can learn to improve their response to natural disasters. He said one death is too many and imagines that someday there should be enough preventive measures for natural disasters, so that no one dies as a result of hurricanes or other storms.

In a reaction to the sexual assault allegations asserted against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Reed said that accusers’ stories always deserve to be heard. That being said, he thinks the timing of the claims seems to be “extreme political maneuvering at the eleventh hour” to jeopardize the process of vetting Kavanaugh. Reed said that since the allegations are being used as a political tool, he thinks that could have a chilling effect on other assault victims who come forward in other situations.

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