U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) the co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force today released the following statement upon reading an audit conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department internal investigator that revealed a lack of adequate services for traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors:

“The shameful lack of care available to brain injured veterans that was revealed in this investigation comes as little surprise.  This administration has looked the other way for seven years while thousands upon thousands of brain injured troops have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan undiagnosed and untreated.  It was only last month that the military began a mandatory post-deployment screening policy to identify brain injuries.  It is a policy that has arrived far too late, but it is a start for Congress to build upon as we fight to fight bring more troops home from the war Iraq. 

“The VA does not have an accurate read on the number of incoming brain injury survivors and therefore lack the resources to care for them.  They do not know the challenges that confront families when their loved ones return home from combat undiagnosed with behavioral and physical symptoms of an affliction that is far too often dismissed.  Despite my constant urging and the steadfast work of Congress to provide unprecedented levels of new funding for TBI and PTSD programs, the administration has acted without urgency on behalf of those suffering from what military experts call the ‘signature injury’ of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It is shameful that our troops be subject to the neglect highlighted by the Veterans Affairs Department’s internal investigator.  America’s brave military men and women deserve better and expect better.  I will not let this report be forgotten as I work to provide the adequate services and care for TBI victims and their families.”

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