Senate Considers Chiropractic's Fate in VA

The bill that the House of Representatives passed (H.R. 2792)¹ to fully establish chiropractic within the health care system of the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) health care system now faces Senate scrutiny. There are negotiations between the two legislative houses to combine H.R. 2792 with other veterans-related legislative proposals and enact it before adjournment.

The thinking by some in the Senate is to provide chiropractic on a "test" basis. Such a scenario is unacceptable to most chiropractors, given that chiropractic has already participated in an extensive Military Demonstration Project that gave high marks to chiropractic care in the military. A "test" to the chiropractic profession is seen as a delaying tactic to incorporate what Congress already mandated the Department of Veterans' Affairs to do last year. Further, as the House has already voted to fully incorporate chiropractic in the VA system, anything less from the Senate is a defeat.

The key members of the Senate VA Committee are the chairman, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking member. The ACA has called upon doctors of chiropractic and their patients to contact their senators and urge them to lobby Senators Rockefeller and Specter to support a permanent chiropractic benefit for our nation's veterans similar to the legislation passed by the House.

The most efficient way to contact the senators representing your state is via email or fax.

Contact information on all senators can be found at www.senate.gov or http://thomas.loc.gov.

Below is also provided the contact information for the members of the Senate VA Committee:

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee
Key members:

John Rockefeller (WV) Chairman

tele: (304) 347-5372
fax:(202) 228-4656
senator@rockefeller.senate.gov