by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Calling it part fact-finding mission, a congressional delegation of five from the House Committee on Veterans Affairs paid the island a visit today, not only meeting with leaders but taking an assessment of veterans affairs with hopes to bring more information back to our nation's capital.

They're on Guam to assess the operations, programs and activities for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and according to Florida congressman Jefferson Miller, Guam's geographic location is rather unique and its distance from the continental U.S. certainly presents some challenges. He said, "One of the things we're here for is to be able to tell the folks back in Washington whether or not they're doing a good job providing healthcare to the veterans here in Guam and look at new options and avenues to be better serve the heroes of this nation."

It's the third trip to Guam for Miller, who also chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He's accompanied by Maine congressman Michael Michaud, Alabama congressman Jo Bonner, Florida's Gus Bilirakis and Minnesota congressman Timothy Walz.

They paid a visit to the Community-Based Outpatient Clinic and new Naval Hospital facility, followed with a wreath laying ceremony at Veterans Cemetery in Piti. "Our congressional delegation wanted to be able to come here and pay our respect to those who have worn the uniform of this country," Miller said.

And with oversight of $140 billion in the VA's budget, Miller says they're here not only to look at veteran healthcare on island, but the backlog of veteran benefits. "We have almost a million claims in backlog right now," he stated. "We're trying to do the very best we can to get benefits that have been earned by the veterans to them as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile, during his State of the Island Address Governor Eddie Calvo talked about his concern over the lack of a VA office on Guam along with 16,000 veterans who have to wait three months for a clinic appointment. Senator Frank Aguon, Jr. shared similar concerns with the codel. He said, "Right now at this point in time, they're already breaking at the seams in terms of their spacing accommodations for the physicians and the administrators up at the clinic itself."

The VA oversight chair says approximately 3,300 vets are registered to access services at the clinic and discussed with miller how to increase that number. "If we can get at least 10,000-plus veterans to register at the clinic then we can fight for more resources so that there can be increased serves to our veterans," he said.

Aguon adds he also discussed the impact of sequestration to Guam having just written to the U.S. congressional budget office over its potential impact to Guam and the local economy. Aguon says Miller told him that while there are certainly going to be reductions down the road, how it's carried out is yet to be seen. Miller however told media today that sequestration won't have an impact on Veterans Affairs. "One of the things our committee has fought for is to make sure that veterans benefits and healthcare is exempt from sequestration, so I would say that sequestration is not going to be an issue that veterans that veterans should be concerned with regarding their benefits and healthcare," he said.

The codel leaves tomorrow and next heads to the Philippines.