BAINBRIDGE – Congressman Anthony Brindisi fought to protect the Bainbridge VA clinic in Chenango County at a House Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday and confirmed with Dr. Richard Stone of the Veterans’ Health Administration that the clinic will not close in December 2019, as was previously proposed.

Brindisi invited Stone to visit the Bainbridge facility and see firsthand the need it fills for Chenango County Veterans.

“The bureaucracy down in Washington does not know what it is like to try and access care in our rural communities,” said Brindisi. “It would be helpful for them to see the Bainbridge facility firsthand and tell the Albany VA to put the brakes on this move. I don’t want to have VA stay in a location that’s not conducive to serving the needs of the Veterans in that community, but I also think that some of the analysis that’s been done in that region is flawed, and I’d like to point that out to the VA.”