Ryan Ray
The 2016 Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. David Jolly rolled out a new petition Monday in support of Jolly’s so-called “Freedom Card” Veterans Affairs reform plan.
The Clearwater Republican unveiled a new website, VeteransforJolly.com, where voters can register their support for Jolly’s proposal to issue new ID cards to vets which would allow them to access care outside of existing regional or VA constraints.
“The time has come to put the veteran in charge of their health care decisions, not the VA,” said Jolly in a statement. “We should always be grateful to the thousands of Americans, our neighbors, who continue to dedicate their lives to providing for our veterans at local VA facilities.
Because of a a “broken Washington bureaucracy and big government arrogance,” Jolly said, “too many veterans are still waiting too long for care or simply going without. And, many die while waiting for care. It’s a national disgrace that dishonors every man and woman who has served our great nation in uniform.”
The Jolly campaign hopes the new site will help the measure – which, as Florida Politics noted last week, seems to have attracted the attention of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump – gain further traction.
The VA has been beset by reports of delays and malfeasance going back to the years shortly after the 2003 Iraq War began.
The bill containing the proposal was recently sponsored in the Senate by Sen. John McCain, the longtime lawmaker and 2008 GOP nominee known for his valor as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Jolly – likely to be drawn out of his congressional seat when a Florida court redraws maps later this year – is leaving the House to pursue the open Senate seat abdicated by Marco Rubio, who is leaving the upper chamber after one term to run for president.
Jolly faces U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera in a Republican primary and Democratic U.S. Reps. Alan Grayson and Patrick Murphy in one of 2016’s most hotly contested federal elections.
