HELENA — Montana’s only congressman, Rep. Matt Rosendale, has been tapped as the top Republican on the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization – an appointment he said will help Montana veterans better access their benefits.
“We’ve had a big deficiency in the care and treatment that our veterans have received over the last many years, so I’m hoping that I can get in and begin to work on cleaning some of these matters up,” he told MTN News.
The subcommittee is one of five on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Rosendale, who was elected last November, has also been assigned a spot on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Rosendale said it’s a bit unusual for a freshman to become the ranking member on a committee, but he’s guessing his experience as state auditor/insurance commissioner played a role.
As state auditor, Rosendale was involved in many health-care related issues.
He said one focus of the subcommittee will be electronic health records for military veterans.
“They have been in a quagmire for years now,” Rosendale said. “I think most veterans will tell you when they come out (from active duty) and begin to start the process of trying to access their veterans’ benefits, electronic health records is one of the larger problems they’ve been bumping into.”
He said the subcommittee will be examining how to make those records transfer from the active-duty military forces to the veterans’ health system.
