America's Work Force Union Podcast

Successful AFGE campaign prevented closure of VA hospitals

Written by awfblog | July 20, 2022

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Senior Policy Counselor Richard Loeb joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed a successful campaign by the AFGE to prevent the closure of multiple Veterans Affairs medical centers throughout the country.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of 12 senators, including a majority of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, voted to block the confirmation of the AIR Commission, which would have considered either the elimination of services or possible closure of hundreds of VA facilities nationwide.

Loeb encouraged listeners to call their Congressional representative and ask them to support the McGovern-Fitzpatrick amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which would reallocate $5 million in funding from the now defunct AIR Commision to efforts to help homeless veterans.  

Loeb also discussed the privatization of government services and the need to increase pay and benefits to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.