Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 603, I was unable to vote due to previous commitments in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on rollcall 604, I was unable to vote due to previous commitments in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 601, I was unable to vote due to previous commitments in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 602, I was unable to vote due to previous commitments in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, I urge Members to support an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 2219) to restore funding for the Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP) of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The FY2012 Defense Appropriations bill, as passed by the Committee, cut many CDMRP programs by 20%. The amendment offered would restore $3.6 million to the GWIRP, bringing funding for the program back to FY2008 levels. This program has made dramatic progress during the past year and deserves additional funding. In a landmark Gulf War and Health report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recognized that the chronic multi-symptom illness affecting 250,000 Gulf War veterans is a serious disease--not caused by psychiatric illness--that also affects other U.S. military forces, and called for a major national research effort to identify treatments. The scientific community has responded with a dramatic increase in the quality and quantity of proposals submitted to GWIRP. Most encouraging, GWIRP-funded researchers have completed the first successful pilot study of a medication to treat one of the major symptoms of Gulf War illness. This effective small program demonstrably merits continuation and expansion, even in a time of fiscal austerity. As stated by the Institute of Medicine Chair, Dr. Stephen Hauser, it is ``vital to the health and effectiveness of current and future military forces, in addition to Gulf War veterans.'' The GWIRP is the only national program studying this issue. It is a competitive peer-reviewed program open to any doctor or scientist on a competitive basis. By contrast, Veterans Affairs (VA) research programs are only open to VA doctors, few of whom have expertise in chronic multi-symptom illness. To effectively address a difficult and specialized problem like this, it is necessary to enlist the entire medical scientific community. Most importantly, it is working. GWIRP-funded researchers at the University of California, San Diego, will reported in June on the first successful medication treatment study in the history of Gulf War illness research. The study showed that the supplement CoQ10 produced significant improvement in one of the most serious symptoms of Gulf War illness, fatigue with exertion. It is not a cure, and the study needs to be replicated in a larger group, but the result is extremely encouraging. At long last, the scientific community has recognized the severity and scope of this problem and is engaged in its solution. Congress has created this superb program, which is succeeding where others have failed. Congress must provide the necessary resources to continue this progress. Additional funding would be used for pilot studies of promising treatments, for clinical trials of treatments shown effective in earlier pilot studies, and for the execution of collaborative research plans developed by consortiums of scientists funded in prior years. As you know, our nation owes a sacred debt to the men and women who willingly serve and sacrifice while wearing our country's uniform. At this critical time in researching and understanding Gulf War illness, it is vital that bipartisan leadership points out the accomplishments of this small program to our colleagues, to ensure that it survives the current legislative session and its benefits are not lost to veterans of the Gulf War and future wars. I urge my colleagues to support this important amendment to ensure the continuation of the Gulf War Illness Research Program.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to say first that I appreciate the chairman's cooperation in bringing these bills to the floor. We're a day after Memorial Day, but these are important to honor our veterans. I thank him and also urge that his manager's amendment, which took care of a funding issue, be approved. So I am in strong support of this bill, and I thank the members of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs who have worked very hard in moving this bill forward. It's been quite a long time coming to fruition, and I know that many of our stakeholders look forward to its passage today. In the last Congress and this one, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs held a multitude of hearings on the language that is in the bill today. It was developed as a result of vigorous oversight hearings and meetings conducted in the past two Congresses. We received expert input from many of our stakeholders on the myriad systemic and vexing issues surrounding the whole process of claims appeals. As such, section 2 of the bill would allow the Board of Veterans Appeals to review evidence submitted directly to it by the veteran or a survivor without issuing often unnecessary supplemental statements of the case that serve only to delay and to deny. I know that many stakeholders are anxious to see this provision enacted, including the VA itself. Section 3 of the bill would have established a judicial review commission that would have been made up of 11 expert members to tackle other longstanding appellate review issues facing our veterans and survivors. These issues have included whether to continue Federal Circuit Court review of the decisions of the Court of Appeals of Veterans Claims, whether to grant class action and associational standing to the Veterans Court, and whether to require decision on all issues raised on appeal, just to name a few. The commission would have been required at that time to report on its findings and recommendations to Congress, and it would not sunset until 2 years after that time. However, we were not able to move this section forward because of certain de minimus costs associated with operating the commission, and I know that we all have a bit of ``commission fatigue'' anyway. But at some point, this is an unexamined area with divergent and broad concepts that are in dire need of concentrated and expert attention. So I hope, Mr. Speaker, that we find a way to fund this commission in the near future, and I look forward to working with Mr. Miller in a bipartisan manner to make this a reality. I ask all my colleagues to support the bill in its amended form. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out to the chair of the subcommittee--and I guess the chair of the committee also--we're taking an important step today, but it is a small step. And the chair, the gentleman from New Jersey, mentioned other small steps. We aren't going to clean up this backlog, which approaches 1 million cases, without a major step, a major blowing up of the whole way we do this stuff. We just hired 10,000 new people, and the number of claims doubled. So we're not getting anywhere with this brute force kind of thing. I have suggested many times to just cut out the red tape completely, at least in the short term, to clean up the backlog, to say to those who have submitted claims that are backed up both by the medical evidence and with help from veteran service officers--of which we have thousands certified across the Nation--that we ought to accept those claims and honor the service of our veterans. Until we get to a mindset that says blow up the bureaucracy in this thing, we're not going to solve the problem. So all these small steps will be taking forever. Let's pass this small step today, but let us take on a much bigger honoring of our veterans as we just talked about on Memorial Day by saying, you know, some of you have died while waiting for this process to continue, some of you have lost your homes because you didn't get a disability check. Let's really honor our veterans this Memorial Day and say let's change the whole system that we have and stop trying to fool around with these small steps. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Again, I want to thank the chair of our VA Committee for the incredible cooperative effort we have devoted so far in this Congress. He mentioned on the last bill that we are united to try to find a way to cut through these intolerable and inexcusable delays in the disability claims process. And we are working together as a top priority to make sure that those who have served this Nation have a job when they get back because that, of course, leads to everything else good in our society. A good job is what is needed, and we are united in saying to our veterans this is going to be our top priority. What we have done here in H.R. 802 is again a small step which will highlight efforts and create an incentive for businesses to hire veterans by directing the VA to develop a very low-cost annual award program to recognize businesses who contribute to veterans' employment, the award to be displayed by business owners as a recognition of the business owner's commitment to the veteran community. I think the First Lady and the Second Lady of this country are doing much to promote what our Nation is doing for families of veterans. The White House might convene a summit of those who are both helping and will pledge to help hire veterans and highlight this issue more for all Americans. This bill would authorize the VA to advertise the program in the national media and allow the public to be educated on those businesses that support the employment of veterans. Again, I thank the chairman for scheduling the bill. It's part of our Memorial Day tribute to our veterans. I ask that our colleagues support the legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. I would again urge support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 367, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 63 Offered by Mr. Ellison

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 368, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 64 Offered by Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 375, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 371, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 152 Offered by Mr. Cravaack

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 374, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rolcall 369, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 111 Offered by Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 370, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 148 Offered by Mr. Turner

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 372, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 55 Offered by Mr. McGovern

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 360, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 50 Offered by Mr. Amash

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 373, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Stated against:

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 362, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 54 Offered by Mr. Campbell

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 363, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 56 Offered by Mr. Chaffetz

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 359, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 49 Offered by Mr. Langevin

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 364, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment No. 60 Offered by Mr. Polis

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chair, on rollcall 357, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 47 Offered by Mrs. Maloney

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 376, I was away from the Capital region attending the Civil Rights Freedom Riders' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''