Sen. Jerry Moran visits Topeka V.A. Medical Center

A day before the Fourth of July, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) visited the Colmery-O'Neil V.A. Medical Center on Friday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – A day before the Fourth of July, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) visited the Colmery-O’Neil V.A. Medical Center on Friday.

Although the medical center has restricted their visitors, they made an exception for Moran.

“It’s still very special,” Moran said. “No better place in the world to live, and the opportunities we have in the United States of America…are created by those men and women I saw here today at Colmery-O’Neil.”

While at the medical center, Moran spoke with veteran patients and the staff, as well as saw how they are operating with the changes implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“When he comes here, it’s for the veterans to make sure that they are taken care of and that we’re doing what we should be doing,” said Rudy Klopfer, director of V.A. Eastern Kansas Health Care System. “I can wholeheartedly say that we are.”

The medical center has most PPE available for the staff and patients, but would like more N95 masks, said Moran, who is the chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Congress has passed four pieces of coronavirus-related legislation, and Moran said he anticipates more are to come.

“Taking care of people and their health, taking care of people and their paychecks. We need to make sure we’re doing things within the Department of Veterans Affairs and Congress is appropriating the necessary money on behalf of American taxpayers to do so,” Moran said.

Despite the medical center doing well on PPE as of right now, they should still prepare in case things worsen in the future, Moran said.

Moran hopes to continue working with the V.A. medical centers in Topeka and Leavenworth, he said, to ensure the veterans and staff have everything they need.