Congressman Langworthy Pushes Back on Misleading Buffalo News Story, Highlights Real VA Progress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23) today issued the following statement after The Buffalo News published a misleading report on veterans’ care. Langworthy underscored the real progress being made at the Buffalo VA and across the nation to reduce backlogs, improve wait times, and strengthen care for America’s veterans.

“The Buffalo News’ Trump Derangement Syndrome is doing a disservice to Western New York veterans by using their political bias to extrapolate patently false conclusions from the IG report. President Trump is restoring accountability to the VA system. In fact, backlogs are down — the VA has already processed 2,524,115 ratings claims as of Aug. 8, an all-time high and a 37% reduction in pending claims since Inauguration Day. Moreover, in direct discussions with VA leadership we are assured that they have the allowance and means to hire the staff needed to provide the top care that our veterans truly deserve.

“The OIG report is not a count of real vacancies, but a survey of what facilities think are tough jobs to recruit. The truth is VA’s physician and nurse vacancy rates are 14% and 10%, far below the 19% and 20% rates seen under Biden. Wait times, too, are improving across most major categories after worsening under Biden. Nationally – the attention to care has been clearly prioritized as the VA opened 16 new VA healthcare clinics and invested $800 million on infrastructure improvements at existing facilities. This story conveniently ignores any of these facts. 

“When there were clear deficiencies under prior leadership at the Buffalo VA, I was the first to stand up and demand immediate change. Now we are seeing that change take root as we make long-term investments to strengthen care at the VA. Our veterans deserve nothing less than the highest quality of care, and I will always fight to ensure they receive the funding and support they need.”

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