Cameron County Veterans Service Office

The Cameron County Veterans Service Office is the county's veterans county service office under Government Code 434.032; see the Texas entry. Its page describes "a venue that provides veterans, their dependents and survivors with assistance, guidance and information about entitlements that might be available to them", by appointment, with the sole purpose "To Serve Those Who Have Served". What it files. First-time VA claimants must submit "a copy of their service discharge form (DD214, DD-215, or for World War II Veterans, a WD Form)". The office's list: files Aid and Attendance, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, disability compensation, household benefits, non-service-connected pension and widow's or survivor's pension claims with VA; obtains discharge documents, military medical records, military personnel records and medals; assists with burial benefits claims, debt waiver or debt disagreement requests and appeals; assists with military discharge upgrade requests; and gives general information on property tax exemption benefits for disabled veterans and eligible survivors and on Texas State benefits. Staff. Dr. Martin Rodriguez is the Director of the Veterans Service Office - a Brownsville veteran who crewed AH-6 Little Birds in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and served 13 years in the Army Reserve's 370th Transportation Company, with a deployment to Iraq. The assistant veterans service officers are Vanessa Luviano (San Benito) and Kevin Winget, with administrative assistant Laura Lee San Miguel-Ortiz, veterans benefits clerks Kyle Alaniz and Daisy Martinez, and outreach specialist Eliazar Gonzalez. A Texas Veterans Commission claims counselor, John Murray, works from the office (956-247-3350), and the county's Veterans Services menu carries the Commission's, VA's and Veterans Land Board's pages. Where. Brownsville: 1124 E. Madison Street, Brownsville, Texas 78520; 956-544-0811; fax 956-544-0889. San Benito: 1390 W. Express Way 83, San Benito, Texas 78586; 956-247-3550; fax 956-361-8283. Both weekdays 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. The San Benito office sits in the county's San Benito Annex, whose space the Commissioners Court allocated to the Public Health Department and the Veteran Services Office on August 18, 2026. How it is funded. The office's page says the programme "is supported by a grant from the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans' Assistance" (the county announced a $200,000 TVC grant for the office in 2022). The county's FY 2026-2027 budget line-item detail carries the Veteran's Service Office as General Fund department 405: $570,926 budgeted for 2027 - $94,500 in assistants' salaries, $286,509 for employees, benefits and operating lines - after $543,552 approved for 2026 and $456,242 spent in 2025, with a $1,800 donations revenue line. The Court's veteran year. The Commissioners Court's agendas from September 2025 through October 2026 hold the office's own matters and a few more: the November 18, 2025 purchase of a case-management system "to be utilized by all county diversion courts (drug divert court, 445th District Judge Gloria Rincones; youth offender court, 197th District Judge Adolfo Cordova; veterans diversion court, 444th District Judge David Sanchez and mental health diversion court, probate judge Sheila Garcia-Bence)"; a January 27, 2026 resolution authorizing the 444th District Court to apply for a Criminal Justice Division specialty courts grant for "the Cameron County Veterans Court fiscal year 2027"; the February 24, 2026 travel of assistant veterans service officer Pablo Covarrubias to a PIV card course in San Antonio; a July 28, 2026 resolution "expressing support for the development of a Texas General Land Office (GLO) Veterans Home in Cameron County"; and the same meeting's trash-refund beach parking fee of $2 per vehicle, $1 for United States military veterans, at Beach Access No. 5 and Beach Access No. 6 from March 1 to September 7, 2026. Health care. The office's FAQ sends veterans to VA form 10-10EZ to enroll, and its contracted-hospitals page describes the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care Network's contract under which South Texas Health System and Valley Baptist Medical Center have taken enrolled veterans for inpatient and emergency care since April 13, 2009, with pre-authorisation rules and the four Rio Grande Valley contract hospitals listed. Claim status goes through the Houston VA regional office at 1-800-827-1000.