Helping veterans and their families is a large part of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s priorities as he sits on the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

“We are trying to put in things that are good for our veterans and our country,” Cassidy said Tuesday during a visit to the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Jennings.

Cassidy and his staff met with veterans and their families, listened to their concerns and updated the veterans on what is being done in Washington, D.C., to help veterans.

“Thanks to our veterans, we are free,” he said. “They deserve the best health care available to them. We will continue to improve clinics, provide private health care options and help veterans and their families who have issues with the VA.”

Cassidy said he wants to make sure veterans programs are adequately funded and no money is wasted.

In addition, he said Congress is working to ensure veterans have access to long-term health care by making more services available at local health clinics, including those in Lake Charles and Lafayette.

The Mission Act strengthened the nationwide VA Health Care System by offering veterans more health care options to include access to medical care outside the VA system including private providers.

“The Mission Act allows people to get care near where they need to have it,” he said. “You also want to make sure that the veteran doesn’t get taken advantage of. That he doesn’t go in for a minor condition and just because the VA is paying for it, everything is done to him. I say that because you can do things to patients which hurts the patient, as opposed to just benefit the patient, and is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

During his visit, Cassidy called for accountability for all veterans services and programs.

“We want to make sure there is enough money for veterans and that the money is not wasted,” he said. “We want to make sure money is spent on you and folks like you, but not on people to just make them rich, those who pretend they are going to provide services but don’t really provide services.”

In other veteran related accomplishments, Cassidy passed a measure into law last fall, which requires the VA to contact every veteran three times by phone in the first year after they leave active duty, to connect them with VA programs and benefits. He also passed into law last March legislation to ensure there is quality podiatry care at the VA. He also supported the PACT Act, which provides post-9/11 combat veterans with health care for toxic exposures.

Cassidy said he is also working hard on issues related to veterans, including disability, VA issues and preserving Social Security.

Efforts are underway to preserve the program to make sure it works better for the people who are currently on Social Security or will be, he said.

“Social Security is going broke in eight years,” he said. “There’s going to be a 24 percent cut in how much people are receiving. None of our presidential candidates are really speaking about it seriously, but it’s the people that run the program that are saying if nothing is done there will be a 24 percent cut. We are working hard to make sure that cut never occurs.”