Today Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) condemned the continued long wait times for veterans seeking health care at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio.

More than a year after news first broke of deaths caused by long waits for care at the Phoenix, Arizona, Veterans Health Administration facilities, veterans in the San Antonio region are still waiting unreasonably long times to receive the care they deserve for their service.

According to a letter sent to Secretary of Veterans Affairs by Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn on Thursday, data shows that as of October 1, more than one-fifth of all appointments scheduled at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS) exceeded a wait time of 30 days, an unacceptable situation.

Across his career, Congressman Cuellar has fought to honor veterans and to preserve their rights. Over the summer, he voted to make it easier to fire bad actors from the Department of Veterans Affairs and helped rename and dedicate a post office in Floresville, Texas, to honor veterans. He has previously supported other means to support our veterans, including by finding ways in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund some of the most pressing infrastructure needs of the military and VA and by providing payments to disabled veterans and a tax credit to businesses that hire unemployed veterans, and by voting to allow veterans to visit private facilities closer to home.

“I do not like to see our veterans continue to have to wait for the care they deserve as former service members,” Congressman Cuellar said. “It has been more than a year since the VA scandal first broke and yet we are still having these problems. Why is that? Something has gone wrong, and we need to fix it. I support Sens. Cruz and Cornyn’s effort to improve wait times for veterans and look forward to reading Secretary McDonald’s response.”

Sens. Cruz and Cornyn have asked for a long list of information to better get at the problems causing delays for veterans and have asked for a response from Secretary McDonald by November 30. The letter can be found here.