Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on rollcall 533, I was unable to vote, as I was in New York to receive an award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 532, I was unable to vote, as I was in New York to receive an award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. FILNER. I thank the gentleman. I would yield the balance of my time to the cosponsor of this amendment, Madam Chair, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin). I thank him for his leadership on these issues.

Mr. FILNER. I thank the Chair. I would like to thank Chairman Edwards and Chairman Obey for the incredible work they have done on this budget for the last, now, 2\1/2\ years. As I understand it, we have increased the health care budget in that time 60 percent. In this bill we have raised the health care budget 11 percent; and in a revolutionary kind of approach, I think, we forward fund the health care items for the VA, and the increase is 8 percent. This is an incredible victory for veterans; and we thank, again, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Obey for leading the charge on this. You know, in the last 22 years I think we've only had the VA budget approved on time in three out of those 22 years. From now on that VA budget will be approved a year in advance. It will make sure that we have timely and adequate funding, for the VA health care system needs to know what its budget is in order to be able to run efficiently and at high quality. So we thank Mr. Edwards for these items. I know there are numerable things in here that we're going to pass that will strengthen health care for our Nation's veterans. Some of my colleagues may recall that last year we authorized the VA to fund the Office of National Veterans Sports Programs and Special Events at a $10 million authorization which we believe is the appropriate amount to enhance and improve the quality of life for the men and women who have made a tremendous sacrifice for our country. The underlying bill provides $6.5 million, as requested by the administration, but it does not provide the full authorized amount. But what this amount does is it increases the level of funding by $3.5 million. I strongly believe that providing this program the needed funding to assist our injured servicemembers and veterans will enhance and improve the quality of life for these men and women while they heal from their wounds. Madam Chair, I think all of us have been inspired whenever we have a chance to watch these warrior athletes, those who have been ``disabled''--and I put that in quotes--perform at an incredibly high level in these Paralympics with their training. It obviously strengthens their quality of life and their optimism, but it helps us all as we realize not only do people sacrifice life and limb for their country, but we can provide the resources to make sure that they have a full and productive life. So I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment.

Mr. FILNER. Madam Chair, I rise to offer amendment No. 2.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, Jimmie Cannon, 80, an Imperial Valley legend, passed away on Thursday, May 21, 2009, at El Centro Regional Medical Center. Jimmie Cannon had a profound effect on the musical culture of the Imperial Valley and his students; he brought and nurtured music and jazz in the region for five generations. He will be remembered as a truly great and inspirational teacher whose lasting effect will be felt for many years to come. After fulfilling his military obligation in the Army, Cannon graduated from Philander Smith College, in Little Rock, Arkansas. While studying music, he was also a member of the football and track teams. Following his graduation, he began teaching music at Jones High School in North Little Rock, where we met and married his wife of 50 years, Maxine Sutton. They moved to Mahaska, Kansas in 1959, where he taught general music from kindergarten to 12th grades. In 1964, the family moved to El Centro, where he taught elementary and junior high music. In 1966, he became the band director of The Great Spartan Band at Central Union High School, where he distinguished himself as a teacher and band director for 30 years. Bands from Central High received many awards and honors from the Orange Coast College Jazz Festivals, El Centro Navy Base Jazz Festival, Southwestern College Jazz Festival, Imperial Valley College Jazz Festival, USC Concert of the Bands, UCLA Band Festival, Holiday Bowl Music Festivals, Columbus Day Parade, Mother Goose Parade, and the Disneyland Parades and concerts in 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1987. The Great Spartan Band traveled extensively beginning in 1972 with a trip to Mexico City, where they were honored by the President of Mexico. The band traveled four times to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and twice to Hawaii. The bands last trip before his retirement in 1996, was to Disneyworld in Florida (1995), where they participated in the Magic Kingdom Easter Parade. Throughout the years, the band performed for numerous local events. He received the Teacher of the Year Award in 1988, which led to the Imperial Valley Arts Council sponsorship of Valley Jazz; a nonprofit big band that sponsors scholarships and provides local musicians with performance opportunities. He is survived by his wife, Maxine; two sons, Derek (Jenee), of La Mesa, and Mike of El Centro; one daughter, Janine of El Centro: three grandchildren, Breanne, Carley, and Brenna of San Diego; two nephews, Hardy Thrower Jr. (Susan), of Sparks, Nevada, and Eric Thrower, (Sandra), of San Diego. Funeral services were held on Sunday, May 31st, at the Southwest High School Center for the Performing Arts where hundreds of friends, former students and fellow musicians gathered to honor his life and lasting legacy which became synonymous with jazz.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I think as we approach the July 4 holiday, this is an appropriate way to say thank you to our Nation's veterans. As I said earlier, this is one of the most significant steps, if not a revolutionary step, taken for veterans in the budgeting process. This will assure that one of the largest health systems in the world, if not the largest, will have, in fact, funding available on time and in the need that is required for our Nation's veterans. So I urge my colleagues to unanimously support this bill, H.R. 1016, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is undoubtedly one of the most significant bills that this Congress will pass in this or any other session. The Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act was introduced in February, and this bipartisan measure is a response to years of chronic underfunding of the VA medical care system. During the last two decades, the VA budget has been in place at the start of the fiscal year barely four times. We all know that this delay in providing vital funding puts the provision of health care to veterans at a risk and hampers the VA's ability to plan its health care expenditures, hire needed health care professionals, and plan needed construction. In an unprecedented step, nine veterans groups formed the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform. These groups, including The American Legion, AMVETS, Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Vietnam Veterans of America, formed to advocate for a VA health care budget that is sufficient, timely, and predictable. These groups put forward the idea that resources for VA health care should be provided through advanced appropriations so that when the fiscal year starts on October 1, the VA will know what its budget is a year in advance. That is what will happen when H.R. 1016 passes. It will ensure the VA can best plan and utilize taxpayer dollars to provide veterans with the health care they have earned and deserved. It provides the framework with which we can realize advanced appropriations for VA medical care accounts. As part of the annual budget submission, the President will be required to submit a request for certain VA accounts for the fiscal year following the fiscal year for which the budget is submitted. As part of the administration's FY 2011 budget, the President will include budget estimates for VA medical care, information technology, and medical and prosthetic research accounts for FY 2012. The VA will be required to provide detailed estimates in the budget documents it submits annually to Congress. Each July, the VA will be required to report to Congress if it has the resources it needs for the upcoming fiscal year in order for the Congress to address any funding imbalances. This will help to safeguard against the VA facing budget shortfalls such as it did just a few years ago. H.R. 1016 provides the framework for advanced appropriations, and we look to our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to provide the dollars. I want to express our thanks to our colleague, Chet Edwards, who chairs the Military Construction/VA Subcommittee, for providing advanced funding for the VA medical care accounts for 2011, providing for an 8 percent increase for fiscal year 2011 above the historic fiscal year 2010 levels. I want to thank also Chairman Obey for supporting advanced appropriations and Chairman Spratt of the Budget Committee for including advanced appropriations language in his budget resolution. All of us, working together, have succeeded in providing veterans with their top legislative priority. They spoke and we listened. I ask the rest of the House to join us in support of this bill, H.R. 1016, which passed unanimously from the Veterans' Affairs Committee last week. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Hare of Illinois came to us as the successor of a legendary member of our committee, Mr. Lane Evans, who worked so hard for veterans during his whole career, and our thoughts are with him as he faces his disease. Mr. Hare was on our committee. He had to go off this year, but we miss him greatly, and he's one of the strongest leaders for veterans in our Nation. I yield to him such time as he may consume.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1016, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1016) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide advance appropriations authority for certain medical care accounts of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would yield 3 minutes to another new Member from New Mexico (Mr. Teague). He's also on a committee that has half of our committee's new members. They have added a real element of dynamism. We thank Mr. Teague for his commitment to veterans also.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Halvorson). She is a new member of our committee and of this Congress, but she has added a dynamic element to our deliberations, and we thank her for her commitment to veterans.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a critical piece of legislation which expands and improves health care services available for women veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill will be explained in greater detail by the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Ms. Herseth Sandlin, as the person who introduced the bill and we thank her for her steadfast commitment to helping women veterans. Mr. Speaker, we had a roundtable at our full committee, where we had representatives and women veterans from all around the country. It was searing testimony which revealed serious weaknesses in the culture of the VA. The VA health care system, after all, was built to accommodate the war-related illnesses and injuries of male veterans. The increased percentage of female veterans that has been occurring, especially with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, has led many women veterans to say that we need some changes in the culture of the VA. Women walk through the lobbies of VA hospitals and are given catcalls. There are not sufficient women doctors available for the women who want them. The male doctors don't yet seem to have the respect for the sacrifice of women veterans. There was one woman who testified who had an amputation of one arm from combat. When she showed up at the doctor's office, he just assumed that it was lost from something else like cancer. He didn't even think that this could be a combat-related injury. And we can go on and on, but we need to change the culture and change the resources and change behavior, and that's what this bill by Ms. Herseth Sandlin starts to do. There are about 1.8 million women veterans today, or 7 percent of the nearly 24 million veterans that we serve. Assuming that the current enrollments remain the same, the number of female veterans who use the VA system will double in the next 5 years, making female veterans one of the fastest growing subgroups of veterans. In this environment of organizational transformation and changing demographics, H.R. 1211 has the potential to lay the foundation for improved health care services for our women veterans. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I was listening to Ms. Herseth Sandlin talk about the need for pilot programs for child care. We've had testimony that if a woman veteran showed up with her child or children, they would be denied their appointment and sent home. I mean this is a way that the culture just must change, which this bill is the first step toward that change. So I would urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1211, as amended. Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 1211. This piece of legislation will assist our women veterans in obtaining better health care. First, I'd like to commend the chief sponsor of this resolution, Ms. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. I would also like to recognize my other colleagues for their strong support and co-sponsorship of this piece of legislation. Currently, there are an approximated 200,000 female troops in our Armed Forces serving to help protect our Nation. It is not only an important issue but a matter of responsibility that we ensure the fair and first-rate treatment of our brave female troops when they return and/or retire from the Armed Forces. This resolution will benefit our women veterans by providing graduate education for them. I believe education is a keystone for every U.S. citizen and our government should provide the right to an education for our valiant troops returning home. This gives the opportunity for women veterans who enlisted right after high school to continue on with their education at higher levels. This legislation will also train and certify mental health professionals so we can aid any of our veterans who are in need of help. It is imperative that we service our veterans in the best way we can. On a day-to-day basis, thousands of veterans suffer from conditions such as sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. The number of female veterans that tested positive for military sexual trauma was 8,705 and this was a climb in number. It is crucial that we take care of our female troops especially because around 20 percent of female veterans test positive for sexual trauma while only 1.8 percent of male veterans test positive. The resolution is also beneficial to our veterans due to the fact that this piece of legislation provides for the study and analysis of any current problems that our women veterans face in the current state of our system. It will help us make amends and additions to the structure of health care for our female veterans. Another important piece of this legislation that will help Veterans Affairs greatly is including recently discharged women veterans in the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans and the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans. This will only add more experience to the current committee because having recently discharged troops is important in knowing what health care issues recently discharged female military personal need. Mr. Speaker, it is important that we take care of our veterans. These veterans put their life on the line to help protect all of us that live in this great Nation. It is of the essence to provide easy access to health care and to a better current health care system for our women veterans. Again, I would like to thank my colleague Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for being the chief sponsor of this key resolution in aiding our women veterans. I strongly urge my other colleagues to support this resolution as well.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I would like to recognize the gentlelady from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth Sandlin) for as much time as she may consume, but I also want to thank her for her incredible leadership as Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. Lots of bills have come forward from this committee and will continue to do so, and we thank her for her leadership.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1172, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1172) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to include on the Internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs a list of organizations that provide scholarships to veterans and their survivors, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1172, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, this is the last week before the July 4 break, and we have a series of bills to suitably commemorate July 4 with bills that will really aid our veterans who have made July 4 possible. I rise in support of the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009, S. 407, which is a companion to the House bill, H.R. 1533, which was introduced by one of our new members on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and sure to be one of our body's most productive members, Mrs. Kirkpatrick of Arizona. I thank the gentlelady for her leadership on this important bill. The House leadership demonstrated its commitment to our Nation's veterans, their families, and their survivors by getting this bill to the floor, after reporting from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and by getting this companion bill, sponsored by Senator Akaka, to the floor shortly after receipt in the House. As it has done every year since 1976, Congress, with the passage of this measure, directs the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs to increase the rates of basic compensation for disabled veterans and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation, DIC, to their survivors and dependents along with other benefits in order to keep pace with the rising cost of living. This disability COLA would become effective on December 1 of this year and will be equal to that provided on an annual basis to Social Security recipients. Last year, the COLA was set at 5.8 percent, an increase we all agree was direly needed, as the financial crush of the recession closed in on many of our disabled veterans' households. While it is likely to be a lesser percentage of an increase this year, the measure will now move to the President's desk for his signature. Enactment ensures that veterans get a matching increase to the Social Security COLA on that date. Mr. Speaker, this bill will benefit each of the nearly 3 million disabled veterans and their survivors, whether they are from the World War I era through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We would be derelict in our duty if we failed to guarantee that those who sacrificed so much for this country receive benefits and services that keep pace with their needs. We fund the war; let's make sure that we fund the warrior and his or her families and their survivors. I urge my colleagues to support passage of the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, S. 407, without delay. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 407.

Mr. FILNER. I urge my colleagues to unanimously support S. 407. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 407) to increase, effective as of December 1, 2009, the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans, and for other purposes.