The American Federation of Government Employees is holding a rally at noon on Tuesday, October 10 in front of the federal building in downtown Reno demanding that Veterans Affairs vacancies be filled across the country.

Currently there are approximately 49,000 VA job openings nationwide, as those rallying believe veterans are being deprived of the health care they deserve.

As they raise awareness of low staffing levels, AFGE is urging lawmakers to enhance current VA services instead of sending veterans to services outside the department for medical care.

Last week, California Representative and House Veterans Affairs Committee member Julia Brownley said "The choice program is likely here to stay, but I will say that many of us like myself are advocating very, very hard in any of these debates that if we are going to invest in choice, that we need to make at least an equal investment in the VA to fill these jobs, to build clinics that need to be built and modernize where we need to modernize."

Congress had passed a bill in July that provided two billion dollars in funding for the Veterans Choice Program that is targeting to fill some of the vacancies, but the bill has mainly been used to give lawmakers more time on a permanent decision for Choice.

AFGE is advocating for a bill proposed in August by Senator Bernie Sanders that would add five billion dollars to the department for to hire medical physicians.