WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will open a Veterans Center in Everett next year to provide counseling and other services to combat veterans, two members of Congress announced Wednesday.

Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, both Washington Democrats, hailed the new center, which will provide a number of veterans services, including counseling on mental health, bereavement and employment.

“I am pleased that the VA has recognized the needs of the Everett veterans community,” Murray said in a statement.

Especially now, with the Iraq war producing more and more veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, “it is imperative that veterans have a support system that is close at hand,” Murray said. “This center will be a place where veterans can get help finding a job or accessing the support services they have earned.”

The Everett site is one of 23 new VA Vet Centers scheduled to open across the country in the next two years. The centers are staffed by teams of counselors and outreach specialists, many of them combat veterans.

Veterans who served in combat are eligible for care at a VA vet center at no cost, as are their families for military-related issues. Also eligible are veterans who were sexually assaulted or harassed while on active duty and the families of service members who die on active duty.

The announcement of the Everett center follows news last week that the VA will open a health clinic in the Mount Vernon area to serve veterans in a five-county area in northwest Washington state. The clinic is scheduled to open within a year.