Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I would yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5892) to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modernize the disability benefits claims processing system of the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure the accurate and timely delivery of compensation to veterans and their families and survivors, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. I would ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5892, as amended.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This bill comes to us from our colleague from Chicago, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and this would repeal the law that requires the termination of the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans on December 31 of 2009. We cannot let this important committee vanish. Today, Mr. Speaker, over 14 percent of veterans are from racial or ethnic minority groups. African Americans comprise about 10 percent. The rest are Hispanic, Asian, or Native American. However, the Census Bureau projects that the number of minority Americans will shift significantly in the future and will grow to about 35 percent of the total population by 2050. Undoubtedly, that will be reflected in the percentage of people of color in the military, which is already steadily on the rise. This trend has been true for black women who are joining the military at a greater rate than they are represented in the overall population and in a greater ratio than their male counterparts. In fact, black women comprise almost 35 percent of female servicemembers. This pattern will affect the VA's mission and scope, and it must be prepared to respond to properly deliver benefits. Congress developed the Center for Minority Veterans and the Advisory Committee in 1994 to advise VA and Congress on providing health care and delivering benefits to minority veterans because there were disparities in such service. We had hoped to improve VA practices for future generations of minority veterans. This center has issued an annual report since 1994, and it's mandated to focus specific attention on African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and Pacific Islanders, which it has done by conducting town hall meetings and site visits to such places as inner city Los Angeles and Native American tribes in Alaska. The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has explored these disparities and has been greatly assisted by the Committee on Minority Veterans. Its recommendations regarding outreach, research, education, staff diversity, translation services, and housing have been extremely enlightening and have resulted in many improvements. At the present time, the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans is due to sunset in 2009. This bill would prevent this from occurring and would serve to bring permanent awareness to cultural, racial, and ethnic issues among veterans to Congress and VA leadership. I urge this Congress to support the bill and allow the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans to continue its work uninterrupted and fully supported. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would again ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 674.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I yield myself such time as I may consume. We have a number of bills on the floor today, all of which will go to improving both the health and the benefits of our veterans, to whom we owe so much. The bill on the floor now comes to us from Mr. Cazayoux of Louisiana, one of our newest Members, but who has already taken an active role on the Veterans' Committee. In addition, the bill includes elements of bills from Mr. Doyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Walz from Minnesota, Mr. Buyer from Indiana, and Mr. Hare from Illinois, and addresses a number of policies in the VA which directly affect our Nation's veterans. Within the care the VA gives, there is a small population of veterans who suffer from nonservice-connected but catastrophically disabling injuries. These veterans are stuck in an extreme paradox. They have injuries so severe that it prevents them from maintaining employment and causes them to utilize many more health services than other veterans. Yet, because of the nonservice-connected nature of their injuries, they are forced to bare the burden of copayments, which many of them are ill-equipped to pay. This bill will eliminate the injustice by prohibiting the VA from collecting copayments from this particularly vulnerable population of veterans. The bill also addresses VA's ability to provide counseling, training, or mental health services to family members of veterans who are seeking treatment for nonservice-connected disabilities. Currently, VA is unable to provide these essential family support services unless the veteran is an inpatient and these services are needed for his or her discharge. The policy is out of date and is a remnant from the days when the VA was primarily an inpatient system. This bill removes those restrictive requirements and will allow the VA to provide those services to families in need. This is particularly important for our newest generation of veterans, many of whom are struggling with PTSD and depression. Section 4 of this bill addresses an issue that many veterans face on a daily basis. It is a battle against chronic and acute pain. The pain lingers long after the physical wounds of war have healed and affects the quality of life of many veterans. Although the VA has worked on a national pain management strategy, its implementation remains uneven across our system. This bill will require the VA to develop and implement a systemwide policy on pain management. We thank Mr. Walz from Minnesota for bringing this to us. The VA is also currently authorized to collect third-party payments from veterans' insurance companies, but due to ineffective procedures, over a billion dollars go uncollected annually. This is money the VA can reuse for providing medical services to veterans. To address this issue, the VA began a demonstration project of a Consolidated Patient Accounting Center in 2005, and has some success in improving revenue collections. In Section 5 of this bill, we require the VA to establish no more than seven other CPACs, (Consolidated Pain Accounting Centers) to enable it to improve its billing performance. This service, Mr. Speaker, has been outsourced for the last 5 or 6 years on a sole-source contract. I would urge the VA right now, on the floor, I am urging them in letters and, if necessary, legislation, to open that bidding process to a wider variety of contractors, many of whom have systems to save almost a billion and a half dollars per year, that is not collected for the VA. That money would go directly back to the services of our veterans. The VA is also the largest provider of HIV/AIDS care in the United States, but its policies regarding HIV testing are based on best practices that date back to the 1980s. The CDC revised their HIV testing guidance in 2006. It now recommends that HIV testing be a part of routine clinical care and that separate written consent for HIV screening should no longer be required. Section 6 of the bill brings the VA care in this area up to current standards of practice and provides VA the flexibility to update their screening standards in the future without congressional intervention. Every provision of this bill, we believe, will improve the quality of health care of our veterans. It comes to us on a unanimous basis from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. I urge my colleagues to support it. I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would yield 3 minutes to a new Member from Illinois, but has been very aggressive, coming from the district which give us Lane Evans, former ranking member of the Veterans' Committee, and has been a leader in the search for better mental health care for our veterans.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I thank Mr. Boozman for participating in this debate and for his leadership on the committee. General Leave

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of democracy in Iran and stability in Iraq. We in the United States Congress must work together for a stable and democratic Iraq. Today, there is undisputable evidence that Iran is the main contributor to the violence in Iraq which causes American and Iraqi casualties. On July 4, Iran fired yet another GRAD missile at Ashraf City, the residence compound of the Iranian resistance--the People's Mujahadeen Organization of Iran. Iran's mercenaries in Iraq have also been busy calling for arrest, trial, and expulsion of these ``protected persons'' living in Ashraf. Our soldiers are protecting Ashraf in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention. Iranian action has therefore endangered them as well. I have said many times that the mullahs in Tehran do not hold all the cards. The Iranian regime's aggressive policies are rooted in the weakness of their regime. The unrelenting assault on the civil and human rights of the Iranian people is a direct response to the illegitimacy of the extremist theocratic government. A military attack on Iran would be a tragic mistake. Yet, it is an error almost as grave to think that continued appeasement of the Iranian regime is the only alternative to war. Reasonably, Western democracies, with the support of the peace activist community, should use all peaceful means possible to isolate the Iranian regime and to avoid war. However, the desire for a peaceful resolution of this crisis has led into policy choices which provide Iran with the legitimacy it craves and a strengthened diplomatic hand. The most notable remnant of the West's unsuccessful attempt at ``engagement'' with Iran is the designation of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the MEK, as a foreign terrorist organization. The MEK provided significant intelligence that helped blow the whistle on Iran's clandestine nuclear weapon and missile development programs. The MEK has already been removed from the United Kingdom list of terrorist organizations. Late last month, the British parliament approved the order put before it by that country's home secretary and removed the MEK from the UK blacklist. In light of the recent developments, the United States must seriously consider the court's findings as well as the present political environment and also remove the limitations it has placed on the MEK. We must stop appeasing Iran and shift our support to the Iranian people. They are our best allies against Iran's aggression. Iranian people have an unwavering longing for freedom and democracy. We must work together to acknowledge their resounding rejection of extremism and move to support their efforts for democracy in Iran.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Speaker and Chairman Conyers for bringing H. Res. 1182 to the floor today. This important resolution expresses the sense of the Congress that all American flags flown over Federal Government buildings and on Federal property should be made in the United States. The U.S. Census bureau estimates that $5.3 million worth of American flags were imported from other countries in 2006, mostly from China. Even though U.S. law requires every flag be labeled with its ``country of origin,'' the figure of foreign-made American flags has steadily grown over the past few years. This is an absolute shame! I am glad that the office of the Architect of the Capitol has reassured me that flags that we fly everyday over this very Capitol are proudly made in the United States. As we celebrated Independence Day last week, we were reminded that the American flag is much more than our national symbol. It embodies our courage, liberty, and justice. The flag reminds us each and every day of the blood that was shed so that we may enjoy our freedoms. So as we proudly fly the Stars and Stripes, we must ensure that they are homespun in the United States. I urge my colleagues to vote for H. Res. 1182.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge support for a bill I have just introduced, H.R. 6457, the ``Encourage Initiative and Promote Self-Esteem Act''. There are many people in our country who receive Social Security Disability benefits (SSD) because they have a ``waxing and waning'' disease--Behcet's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Parkinson's, Cancer, AIDS and Arthritis are examples of ``waxing and waning'' diseases. This process of seeking SSD and keeping it is often times an adversarial one. The climate of suspicion that applicants and recipients say they feel leaves many to view the Social Security Administration (SSA) with a jaundice eye. Everyone who actually gains disability benefits remembers the hoops of fire they had to jump through during the application process. As a result, many people often do not consider a try at working, fearing that the SSA will use that against them to deny future benefits. With concerns over fraudulent claims, I can understand how this environment came to be. But that doesn't make it right. For people with ``waxing and waning'' diseases and conditions, they know that they will have good days and bad. They know that, barring a cure, they will always be sick, but that does not diminish their spirit. There needs to be a program that encourages people in this situation to secure temporary employment when they feel they can work without placing their SSD at risk for the times they cannot work. H.R. 6457 would install a system based on a sliding scale. The more money one earns, the fewer benefits he or she receives. But there will be a built-in incentive to stay the course because the total monthly income when working will be more than either the work income or SSD. Imagine a situation where those on SSD who have diseases that ``wax and wane'' could work, without fear, when able. That would be a lot of money put back into the Treasury in payroll withholdings and taxes--and more money put into the economy in increased purchasing, not to mention the contribution to society and elevated self-esteem of the workers. Think about the faith these people would have in a system of government that treats its people with dignity and respect instead of suspicion and contempt. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6457 to improve the lives of thousands of Americans.

Mr. FILNER

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

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1291) expressing gratitude for the contributions of the American GI Forum on its 60th anniversary.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. I would urge my colleagues to support unanimously H.R. 4918 and 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. 4289) to name the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Ponce, Puerto Rico, as the ``Euripides Rubio Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic''.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1098) supporting the goals and ideals of the Year of the American Veteran.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2818) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the establishment of Epilepsy Centers of Excellence in the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as amended.

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

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I would 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. 2818, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask to withdraw my point of order.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, if I may say one more thing in support of my point of order. Before I withdraw my point of order, I would like to point out that the definition of ``filling the time'' has just been shown by the ranking member.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, in this Congress the new Members have taken a great leadership role on many matters, and especially those in the area of veterans affairs. One of those great new Members is Mr. Perlmutter of Colorado, and I yield to him as much time as he might consume to explain his bill which is on the floor today and will do so much for so many veterans.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1231) supporting the goals and ideals of Vietnam Veterans Day and calling on the American people to recognize such a day.