Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1717) to authorize major medical facility leases for the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2010, and for other purposes.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. I rise in support of S. 1717, a bill to authorize 15 major medical facility leases for the Department of Veterans Affairs' fiscal year 2010 budget. The bill would also authorize $196 million to allow the VA to carry out these leases in a timely manner. Mr. Speaker, the VA operates the largest direct health care delivery system in America. Providing timely access to high-quality health care to veterans is the work of the VA. It provides these services through their sizable inventory of buildings and properties that include 153 medical centers, 755 outpatient clinics, and 230 vet centers. This bill provides the VA the ability to move forward without delay on the execution of important leases. Veterans who have been anticipating new clinics opening up in their communities will not be disappointed if we act on time. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to thank the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for taking the lead and moving this bill so quickly. I urge support of the legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important bill. It's a whole new approach to the funding of Veterans Administration health care programs, one that will allow our Nation's veterans to receive timely, high quality and well-funded care regardless of political considerations that go into the budget process every year. I'm glad I was able to work with my colleagues in the Committee on Veterans' Affairs in both the House and the Senate to get this bill to the House floor today. This is a bipartisan response to years of chronic underfunding of VA medical care and happens to be the highest legislative priority of veterans' groups in this Nation. In an unprecedented step, Mr. Speaker, 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 all formed together to advocate for a VA health care budget that is sufficient, timely and predictable. In fact, the leadership of one of the prime organizations that took the leadership in this fight, the Disabled American Veterans, are watching this debate from the gallery. Their national commander, Bobby Barrera; their executive director, Dave Gorman; and their legislative director, Joe Violante, are watching this, and we thank them for their leadership in this fight. These groups put together the idea that resources for VA health care should be provided through advance appropriations, so that when the fiscal year starts on October 1, the VA will already have its budget figure regardless of what occurred in the year's budget that was funding other agencies. The result of their advocacy is H.R. 1016, which will pass as we pass the resolution before us on the floor. The VA budget, in fact, has been in place at the start of the fiscal year only four times in the last two decades. We all felt that this delay in providing vital funding, for whatever reasons that were going on in the House and the Senate, put the provision of health care to veterans at risk and hampered the VA's ability to plan its health care expenditures and hire needed health care professionals. This was a concern that was shared by current and former VA officials. Again this year the VA was forced to rely on funding from a continuing resolution, even though the House acted in a timely fashion and passed the FY 2010 VA spending bill in July. The House passed its version of the forward funding bill by a vote of 409-1 this June. Our other colleagues in the Senate acted in August, and the version of the legislation before us represents a compromise agreement between us and our colleagues on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The bill will ensure that VA can best plan and utilize taxpayer dollars to provide veterans with the health care they have earned and deserve. It provides a framework with which we can realize advance 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.'' For example, as part of the administration's fiscal year 2011 budget, the President will include budget estimates for VA medical care accounts for fiscal year 2012. The VA will be required to detail 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 in the upcoming fiscal year in order for Congress to address any funding imbalances. This will help to safeguard against the VA facing budget shortfalls such as it faced several years ago. Finally, the Government Accountability Office will report, within 120 days of the annual budget submission, whether VA's advance appropriations requests are in line with workload and cost estimates and the VA's budget model. It sounds a little complicated. It was worked out by, as I said, this really hardworking coalition of veterans' organizations and, in fact, bottom line and simple, it will make sure that a year in advance, the VA will be funded appropriately. I want to thank both the Appropriations and the Budget Committees for their assistance in moving this measure forward. The Budget Committee, for example, in the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution provided explicit language exempting the three medical care accounts of the VA, the accounts covered by the compromise agreement on H.R. 1016, from many points of order against advance appropriations. The Appropriations Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Obey and Chairman Edwards, provided for advance appropriations for the three medical care accounts representing an 8 percent increase above the historic levels provided for fiscal year 2010. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert a copy of the letter from the veterans' groups comprising the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform expressing their full support of this measure and an explanatory statement on the bill in the Congressional Record. By working together, Congress and the administration have provided veterans with their top legislative priority. They spoke, we listened, and today we are acting. I ask the rest of the House to join once again in unanimous support of this bipartisan bill and ask for swift action by the Senate before the end of this session. The Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, Washington, DC, September 29, 2009. Hon. Bob Filner, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Filner: On behalf of the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, we write to fully endorse the substitute amendment that you intend to offer to H.R. 1016, the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act. We understand that this amendment has been developed in cooperation with Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Akaka and Ranking Member Burr, who join you in support of this new language. We agree with all of you that adoption and enactment of H.R. 1016, as amended by this substitute amendment, will lead to VA health care funding that is sufficient, timely and predictable. The Partnership, comprised of nine leading veterans service organizations, has long sought a solution to the recurring budget problems that have plagued the VA health care system for most of the past two decades. Last year we began advocating that Congress provide advance appropriations for VA medical care and we were grateful that you introduced legislation to authorize this funding reform. We supported your reintroduction of this legislation (H.R. 1016) in February and fully supported the substitute amendment you offered during the Committee's markup in June, that was subsequently approved by the full House with a vote of 409 to 1 on June 23rd. That amendment would add important new budget reporting provisions for VA medical care and would increase transparency of the advance appropriation process, strengthening the legislation. The compromise substitute amendment you plan to offer on the House floor retains these provisions and makes two other modifications. First, your new amendment provides the Government Accountability Office, GAO, with 120 days from the time the President submits his budget to Congress to review and report on whether the level of funding requested for VA's medical care accounts is consistent with the estimates generated by VA's Enrollee Health Care Projection Model. With this change, GAO would have ample time to complete the review and still report in a timeframe that allows Congress to consider this information before finalizing future appropriations levels for VA health care. Second, this compromise amendment limits VA's advance appropriations to the three medical care accounts, Medical Services, Medical Facilities, and Medical Support and Compliance, contained in our original proposal, removing the two additional ones, Medical and Prosthetic Research, and Information Technology, added during the Committee's markup. We understand the reasons for this modification and support your compromise position. However, we expect that the Committee will closely monitor implementation of this legislation and carefully consider whether VA health care would be enhanced if additional budget accounts, such as IT and research, were similarly appropriated in advance. Mr. Chairman, the Partnership has worked for over two decades to enact legislation that would assure sufficient, timely and predictable funding for VA health care. With your leadership, and that of Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Burr and others, as well as the crucial support of President Obama, we are closer than ever to achieving an historic legislative victory on behalf of all veterans. We thank you for all that you have done to support these efforts, and look forward to working with you on future matters of importance to the men and women who have served, are serving, and will serve in our nation's armed forces. Respectfully, Steve Robertson, Legislative Director, The American Legion; Thomas Zampieri, Director of Government Relations, Blinded Veterans Association; Herb Rosenbleeth, National Executive Director, Jewish War Veterans of the USA; Carl Blake, Legislative Director, Paralyzed Veterans of America; Rick Weidman, Director of Government Relations, Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.; Raymond C. Kelley, National Legislative Director, AMVETS (American Veterans); Joseph A. Violante, National Legislative Director, Disabled American Veterans; Hershel Gober, National Legislative Director, Military Order of the Purple Heart of the USA; Dennis Cullinan, Legislative Director, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 804) providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 1016, with amendment.

Mr. FILNER. As I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud), I would just remind the gentleman from Florida that when the Senate saw that the prime mover of the amendment that put those two extra accounts in the bill was the only one in the House that voted against the bill that was sent to the Senate, they didn't take that too seriously. I just would remind the gentleman.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Lynch, I thank you. I thank Chairman Towns and the Speaker for getting us this resolution so quickly. We celebrate today and congratulate the Chula Vista Park View Little League team for winning the 2009 Little League World Series. I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, for several weeks last month, our whole region, the San Diego region and the city of Chula Vista in particular, was enthralled by these 12 young men on the little league team who managed to win victory after victory, some with dramatic comebacks from behind. They hit home runs whether they were 5 foot 1 or 6 foot 2 and, in fact, set the little league world series record for number of home runs. Their defensive play was incredible, making some fantastic double plays that were worthy of the Major Leagues. Running the bases or just cheering on the team, every one of these 12 young men played a very important role, and our whole region was enthralled by them. So we want to thank Isaiah, Oscar, Nick, Kiko, Garcia, Bulla, Seth, Markus, Jensen, Daniel, Luke, Andy, and Bradley for their incredible play in this World Series. The manager, Oscar Castro; the coach, Ric Ramirez; and the little league president, Rod Roberto, were key figures, of course, in this incredible victory. These young men were dubbed the Blue Bombers. Their final victory was over Taipei in a 6-3 victory. They come from behind in that one, too. They displayed the success that solid coaching brings and the execution of the fundamentals that little league stresses. Again, the whole region was thrilled by their performance--playing with poise, with class, with sportsmanship. They even invited the Chinese Taipei team to join them on their victory lap around the field at Williamsport to show their own incredible team spirit and sportsmanship. Chula Vista is a city hard hit by foreclosures and the national recession. It often feels overshadowed by the bigger city of San Diego and affluent suburbs further north, so this victory was particularly sweet for the city of Chula Vista. It helped us all through some tough times. When our professional teams in the area were losing, the little league team was, in fact, victorious. So all of us here today commend the hard work, dedication and determination of the members, the parents who came out always to support them and were with them the whole way, their coaches, their managers, and the community itself for the outstanding loyalty and support that they displayed to the team throughout the whole season. The welcome home ceremony was attended by 12,000 people in the stadium. So I thank the House. I thank the Speaker. I thank Mr. Lynch and Chairman Towns for joining me in congratulating and honoring the Chula Vista Park View Little League team for winning the 2009 World Championship game of the Little League World Series. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a very dedicated, committed leader of the labor movement in America who deserves to be recognized for his tireless contributions to working men and women. Shannon Silva was born and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1974. After High School, Shannon followed the family tradition as a tuna fisherman, where he was stationed on one of the first exploratory boats to fish off both coasts of Africa. After fishing career concluded, he worked for the Pepsi Cola Bottling Group from April 5, 1976 to April 7, 1991. On April 8, 1991, Shannon went on to work for Interstate Brands Corporation (Weber's Bread) as a sales driver and union supervisor until February 28, 1999. While working for Weber's Bread, Shannon also served on the Executive Board of Teamster's Local 683. He was elected as a Trustee on January 1, 1989, and appointed Recording Secretary on October 1, 1991 and appointed the Local's President on February 1, 1993. On March 1, 1999 Shannon went to work for Local 683 full time as a Business Representative, until December 31, 2004. On January 1, 2005 he was appointed Secretary Treasurer of Local 683 and was re-elected January 1, 2007, in which he continues to serve in that capacity. Shannon is currently a member of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council Executive Board. He was also appointed to the National Bakery Drivers Policy Committee and serves as a Trustee on the San Diego County Teamsters-Employers Insurance Trust Fund, Teamsters Miscellaneous Security Trust Fund and the Southern California Bakery Drivers Security Fund. It gives me a great honor Madam Speaker, to join with so many colleagues, community leaders and well wishers in proclaiming Shannon Silva as the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council's 2009, Labor Leader of the Year.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam speaker, on rollcall 687, I was unable to vote, as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on rollcall 688, I was unable to vote, as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on rollcall 689, I was unable to vote as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 3365, the Medicare VA Reimbursement Act of 2009. This legislation authorizes the establishment of a Medicare VA reimbursement program where HHS reimburses the VA for the provision of health care to Medicare eligible veterans for the treatment of non-service-connected conditions at VA medical facilities. Today, there are veterans who have earned VA health care benefits with their service to our country, as well as Medicare benefits, by paying into the Social Security system during their working years. Even though these individuals have clearly earned both of these benefits, current law unfairly prohibits them from using their Medicare benefits at VA facilities even though they may feel more comfortable seeking care among their fellow veterans from VA providers who specialize in caring for veterans. This is also inconsistent with the authorities granted to other Federal entities such as the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Department of Defense's (DoD) TRICARE for Life that are allowed to bill Medicare. IHS and DoD are able to augment their resources with Medicare collections and reinvest the extra funding back into their programs and services. H.R. 3365 would provide equity in such billing practices among the Federal entities. In other words, the VA would be able to access an important new source of revenues from Medicare which may be reinvested to further strengthen the VA's health care system. In detail, this legislation requires the Secretaries of VA and HHS to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) no later than six months after the date of the enactment of the Act. The MOU must establish such program elements as the frequency of reimbursement, the billing system, the data sharing agreement, and the payment rate. H.R. 3365 also provides some guidelines on setting the payment rate so that the terms that contributed to the failure of the Medicare DoD Subvention Demonstration Project are not repeated again. For example, this legislation prohibits setting a reimbursement rate which is less than 100 percent of the amount that Medicare would pay a participating provider. It also prohibits annual caps on reimbursement and does not allow for a maintenance of effort requirement, which refers to the requirement that VA maintain a certain level of spending before they can be reimbursed from HHS. Finally, H.R. 3365 requires an annual report to Congress providing program data, as well as a triennial GAO report assessing the program impact. I urge the support of all Members for this important legislation.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member of our committee, Mr. Buyer of Indiana, for introducing this bill. In the past, many of our veterans have returned from combat with life-changing injuries and illnesses. Congress saw fit to provide special adaptive grants to help them improve their quality of life. Today, another generation of servicemembers is returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with even more egregious life-changing injuries and illnesses due to the development of better equipment and body armor that keeps them alive, albeit seriously injured. The bill provides for a long overdue increase in the amount payable to veterans for improvements and structural alterations to their homes. This amount, Mr. Speaker, has not been increased for 17 years. The bill would increase the grant amounts from $4,100 to $6,800 for veterans with a service-connected disability and from $1,200 to $2,000 for veterans with nonservice-connected disability. Importantly, Home Improvement and Structural Alteration grants, called HISA, are the only grants available to nonservice-connected veterans and those conditions. HISA grants can be used in conjunction with other adaptive housing grants offered through the Veterans Benefits Administration to help cover some of the additional costs a veteran may be facing when building or adapting a home to meet his or her unique needs. We owe it to our veterans to keep pace with the many different needs and challenges that they face on a daily basis. Seventeen years is a long time to wait. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1293. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1293) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for an increase in the amount payable by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to veterans for improvements and structural alterations furnished as part of home health services.

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. 1293.

Mr. FILNER

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. 2770, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to unanimously support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3155) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide certain caregivers of veterans with training, support, and medical care, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would urge my colleagues' total support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3155, as amended.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back 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 H.R. 3219, as amended, and urge my colleagues to unanimously support the bill.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to one of our dynamic new members of our committee, Mrs. Halvorson of Illinois.

Mr. FILNER. I thank the Speaker, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of passage of this bill, the Veterans' Insurance Health Care Improvement Act of 2009, H.R. 3219. This important legislation was assembled with the help of many members of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, without whose efforts this bill would not have been possible. I'm surprised to see my friend, Mr. Stearns, managing the bill, having just railed against nationalization of health care, which is not what the Obama plan has, but then he's a great supporter of the veterans' health system, which I think may come under his definition. So I'm pleased that he supports so strongly the Veterans Administration health care system, which is nationalized care, but I wish he would support Mr. Obama's health care plan, which has nothing to do with nationalization. But I want to recognize and applaud the outstanding effort of especially two dynamic members on the committee who sponsored major insurance provisions of the bill under consideration. Mrs. Halvorson of Illinois sponsored the Families of Veterans Financial Security Act, H.R. 2774, which has become section 101 of this bill. And Mrs. Kirkpatrick of Arizona sponsored the Veterans and Service Members Accelerated Benefit Option Equity Act of 2009, H.R. 2988, which is now section 103 of this bill. These measures represent commonsense yet critical insurance provisions intended to ensure that our veterans, servicemembers and their families who have insurance-related needs receive the full measure of the benefit offered and that the survivors have ample replacement income to meet their needs. All of the provisions would give veterans and servicemembers greater flexibility in their insurance choices, and, consequently, greater peace of mind. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office reports that none of the bills would increase Federal direct spending for veterans' insurance programs. And I want to applaud, also, the chairman of our Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee on these measures, Mr. Hall of New York, for his leadership on these measures. The legislation further provides for a wide variety of health care improvements in recognition of veterans who have sacrificed so much for the safety and freedom of the Nation. It enhances the lives of the Nation's veterans, from World War II to the current conflicts. Other members also contributed to the health care provisions of this, and I want to thank them for their efforts. For example, Mr. Mitchell of Arizona, who wrote H.R. 1197, the Medal of Honor Health Care Equity Act of 2009, which assigns a higher priority status for VA hospital care and medical services for veterans who are recipients of the Medal of Honor. Another provision by Mr. Hare of Illinois, H.R. 1302, would establish a position of director of physician assistant services within the Office of the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health. And Mrs. Halvorson from Illinois also sponsored H.R. 1335, which would prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from collecting certain copayments from veterans who are catastrophically disabled from non-service- connected causes and have income above the means tested level. Mr. McNerney from California sponsored H.R. 1546, the Caring for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury Act, and that has been incorporated to establish a committee on the care of veterans with traumatic brain injury to assess the VA's ability to treat and rehabilitate veterans with TBI--that is traumatic brain injury--and to provide recommendations on how to more effectively treat these veterans. Mr. Nye of Virginia introduced H.R. 2926, which was incorporated into the bill to provide hospital care, medical services, and nursing home care for certain Vietnam-era veterans exposed to herbicides and also veterans of the Persian Gulf War. Mr. Buyer's bill, H.R. 2270, would establish a compensation fund for all civilian groups who are given veteran status under the G.I. Bill Improvement Act of 1977, and that is also in the bill. And finally, we have a bill introduced by Mr. Teague of New Mexico to waive the housing loan fee for certain veterans with service-connected disabilities called to active service. So I want to thank all of the members of our committee who've worked so hard to put together the important legislation we are considering today, and I hope my colleagues will support H.R. 3219 as amended Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3219) to amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements in the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs relating to insurance and health care, and for other purposes, as amended.