MANKATO — Some area veterans had the chance to meet with Congressman Brad Finstad and U.S. Secretary of Veteran Affairs Doug Collins on Friday.
The first part of the discussion focused on Bravo Zulu House in Winnebago, the services it offers and work it does to serve the veteran community as the country’s first all-military sober home. After that, invited veterans were able to ask questions of Finstad and Collins about any range of topics, including healthcare, veterans affairs and the PACT Act.
Finstad was notably hands-off with this meeting, saying he really wanted Collins to be the one driving the discussion and addressing concerns.
“I thought it was really important for the people of southern Minnesota to speak directly to the secretary, to have their opportunity to tell them what’s on their mind, tell them the good and the bad and what they’ve seen through the VA through their experience working with our veterans,” the 1st District representative said.
Collins focused on a lot of the upsides of the veterans system, arguing people can’t use a system that they don’t know exists.
“We got great healthcare, and it’s just making people sure they’re aware of the benefits they’ve earned. Many times what we find is veterans don’t know what they’ve earned, and I think we’ve got to get that word out to them,” Collins said.
That’s a message that stuck with at least some of the veterans at the roundtable.
“There’s an improvement in the length of time that veterans are having to wait to get claims processed, and there’s an improvement and a commitment to projects like Bravo Zulu House, which is a private funded project, and yet, the government eventually will want to find a way to support this, but in the meantime, just having their support makes a big difference,” Bravo Zulu House Executive Director Tim Murray said.
Those improvements come, in part, thanks to events like this, where veterans are able to get time with their local representative and with the people who can actually make the change happen.
“It’s invaluable to be able to have face time, and both Rep. Finstad — who is extremely cordial, extremely available and a big advocate for southern Minnesota — to be able to then use his influence and power to be able to get the U.S. secretary (here). Of the 50 states that he could be in, he chose to not only be in Minnesota, but he chose to be in Mankato. I think that’s a big deal, that’s very encouraging and very exciting for people who feel like our government officials don’t care,” Murray said.
However, that hasn’t been everybody’s experience with Finstad, as there’s a growing movement calling for the Republican congressman to host an open town hall for anyone to attend. It’s an idea he’s still pushing back on.
“We just spent an hour of in-depth, really fruitful conversations about topics that are really important to southern Minnesota and really important to our country, and for us to be able to focus on that and not get distracted with the issue over here or the issue over there or, you know, putting so much into just an hour or an hour and a half time frame. I mean, we really dug deep on some issues that are affecting everyday southern Minnesotans,” Finstad said.
The representative from New Ulm says he feels he doesn’t need to host town halls, as anyone is able to contact him through his office at any point.
“I travel all over southern Minnesota. I’m a fourth-generation southern Minnesotan, I’m always listening and communicating with constituents that agree and don’t agree with me. I’m having those conversations and I would just say, reach out to me, reach out to our office. I’m more than willing to have a conversation and answer questions,” Finstad said.