Nick Rahall

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the distinguished ranking member on our Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional minute to the gentlewoman.

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, it is my honor to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), a former member of our powerful House Transportation Committee, who decided to go to the esteemed Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), a valued member of our Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, 2 weeks ago, I stood in this exact spot and urged passage of a highway trust fund patch as soon as possible to keep our surface transportation programs up and running. Now we stand at the edge of an enormous cliff with days--not weeks-- to go before the trust fund goes belly up and the Transportation Department starts rationing payments to States. We do not have the luxury of time to deliberate or trade further ideas. Congress needs to act now to enact a bill and avert an unnecessary crisis. That is why I support the motion before us today, but not because I think the House bill is a better approach. The Senate extended programs through December to keep the pressure on Congress to enact a long-term highway bill as soon as possible. I fully support this approach. Unfortunately, the Senate amendment contains a technical error. It does not fully offset the transfer to the highway trust fund, and the House Republican leadership has made clear that the House will not consider a highway bill that is not fully offset. With a single legislative day left to address this looming crisis, we need to ensure continued funding of roads, bridges, transit systems, and the safety of our travelers and passengers. Two weeks ago, House Democrats supported a shorter extension as an alternative to H.R. 5021. This approach was rejected by House Republicans. Today, the House Republican leadership will not even allow us to vote on a fix to the technical error in the Senate amendment. The House bill and the Senate amendment both help States get through the remainder of this construction season, and they both provide the opportunity for Congress to come together on a bipartisan basis, which the chairman and I have done so well under his tenure and for which I commend him, and pass a long-term surface transportation law in a lameduck session. There is absolutely no reason that Congress cannot come together and complete a long-term highway bill this fall. I repeat the point I just made, that this legislation that we are acting on today does not preclude us from coming together in a lameduck session of Congress and doing what is necessary for the American people, and that is passing a long-term, robustly funded transportation bill that puts our people to work and repairs our decaying infrastructure. While I will vote for this motion today, it is not because the House approach is a better solution, but because it does provide the only path forward available to us to avert an immediate crisis and still allow the opportunity for Congress to do the right thing. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 1010, the minimum wage increase, in order to jump-start the middle class, instead of this partisan lawsuit.

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I commend Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud for bringing this Veterans' Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act to us today. In medically-underserved communities, where health care staffing shortages have caused delays in appointments, this conference agreement will help provide critical investments so that the VA can begin hiring the doctors it needs to serve our veterans. It will help to reduce the backlog in VA construction and maintenance projects. It will help to ensure that veterans unable to get a medical appointment at a VA facility will be able to get the care they need from a non-VA provider. This legislation can do a lot of good, but it is only a first step. The bill must be implemented, regulations issued, and scarce moneys allocated to ensure that veterans get the care that this legislation promises. We must not lose sight of the rural, underserved areas in our Nation like in southern West Virginia, where veterans are elderly and travel is costly and burdensome. We must not lose sight of the need for medical facilities and health providers in those areas. I urge the VA to remember rural veterans as it implements this bill, and I certainly aim to help to ensure that it does so. Again, I commend the chairman and ranking member for bringing this legislation to us today.

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The House has just finished its rollcall votes for this week. With the conference committee at an impasse on H.R. 3230, the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act, hope is fading that any legislation will be enacted this summer to address the urgent needs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is truly shameful, and as an American, I think this is shameful. It is beyond me to understand why our legislative branch of government cannot get this done. It is true that this body has taken some modest steps toward improvements, like allowing veterans to seek care at non-VA providers when they cannot get medical appointments. I have supported that effort. That is fine where private sector health providers are available, but for elderly veterans in rural areas, where travel is difficult and costly, where physician shortages and medically underserved areas are abundant, like in southern West Virginia, that doesn't help much. My State's VA facilities need funding to hire doctors--lots of them. We need primary and specialty care providers and mental health specialists. We need the resources to train and recruit health professionals and to pay them competitive salaries. Our VA health providers, many of them veterans themselves, have a unique understanding of our veterans' needs. That expertise cannot be duplicated in the private sector. The VA health system is designed to take care of elderly veterans with special needs. It is designed to treat combat wounds, physical and psychological--something not commonly seen in the private sector. The VA health system is designed so that doctors can build long-term relationships with their patients and can build expertise in illnesses unique to veterans. Clearly, a Vietnam veteran who is suffering from exposure to a toxic substance like Agent Orange could expect to find a greater depth of knowledge and experience with the particular infirmities from the VA than from a private sector facility. My State needs VA doctors. We need VA specialty care providers. We need VA facilities. The veterans bill in conference can provide relief to our veterans in need of care, but it remains stuck in conference, frustratingly hung up in partisan politics. When it comes to the shortage of health providers in general, that is not a local problem affecting only my State. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates a nationwide doctor shortage of more than 91,500 physicians by the year 2020. The shortage will grow to more than 130,000 by 2025. The impact is most severe in rural States, so any notion of private sector medical care serving as a backstop to the VA is completely wrongheaded. This is not a new problem either. We all know it has been projected going back years, before this administration, before the Affordable Care Act, to the Bush administration and beyond. Baby boomers are getting older. Doctors are retiring. More patients require specialized and extended care. We, this Congress, must address this crisis, and it is a crisis. But the House stands immobilized, ``frozen in the ice of its own indifference,'' as a great American President, Franklin Roosevelt once said. So today, I am calling upon this House, I am imploring this House to put politics aside, advance the work of the ongoing conference, and get this bill done. This motion calls for the House to recede from disagreement with section 203 of the Senate amendment relating to the use of unobligated amounts to hire additional health care providers for the Veterans Health Administration; and recede from the House amendment and concur in the Senate amendment in all instances. I urge the House to support this motion to instruct conferees. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick), a true leader on veterans issues and a member of the VA conference committee.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gallego).

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Bera), a doctor.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am honored to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), a distinguished member of the Military Construction-VA Appropriations Committee.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California, Mrs. Lois Capps, and commend her for her leadership on this issue as well.

Mr. RAHALL. May I have a time check, please, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. RAHALL. Reserving my right to close, I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, America's veterans deserve the very best care our Nation can muster. The gentleman from North Carolina said it well. Many Americans have said it well. Every one of our soldiers knows it is their motto to leave no soldier behind. Therefore, we, as Americans, should have as our creed and our basic principle guiding us that we leave no veteran behind. That prescription begins with the very best corps of physicians that we can assemble. Time alone will not heal the wounds of war that our veterans have suffered. They are our true American heroes. We have, time and time again, mustered the budgetary resources to deploy and support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and lands beyond, and we salute those of our Armed Forces serving as we speak for defending this great Nation of ours. America's sons and daughters, those who have volunteered to defend our national causes, did not hesitate for an instant to go. They went. They served. They suffered. They sacrificed their good health. They gave their all. We are proud in West Virginia, as a strong, patriotic State, to serve up there at the top of the 50 States, on a per capita basis, of our number of young men and women that answer the call of duty for all wars. Now, the bill for war has come due; but, alas, where has all of this body's patriotic fervor gone? It appears to be buried beneath a mound of budgetary spreadsheets and handwringing about deficits, about the need to trim back, about the need to cut back on deficits. I say this House ought to take a different course, one in which we can stand united with those who fought with meritorious service on behalf of a grateful Nation. Let us pay the medical bills of America's sons and daughters. Let us do so with dispatch. Let us hire the doctors that America's sons and daughters deserve. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a great deal about this issue over the last several months. We know it is not a new issue. We have heard that it has been going on through several different administrations, but that should not hinder us from stepping up to the plate and doing what is necessary today, not after we come back from our so-called vacation in August, but we should address it today before we go home. So I urge that this motion to instruct conferees be accepted by this body, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 7(c) of rule XXII, I hereby give notice of my intention to offer a motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 3230, the conference report on Veterans Access and Accountability. The form of the motion is as follows: Mr. Rahall moves that the managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 3230 (an Act to improve the access of veterans to medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes) be instructed to-- (1) recede from disagreement with section 203 of the Senate amendment (relating to the use of unobligated amounts to hire additional health care providers for the Veterans Health Administration); and (2) recede from the House amendment and concur in the Senate amendment in all other instances.

Mr. RAHALL

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, passage of this bill today is absolutely necessary to keep our surface transportation programs up and running. In less than a month, the highway trust fund will go belly up and force-feed our States rationed payments for their transportation and infrastructure investments. This would starve our national economy, put States in a desperate situation, and cost jobs. Congress must act now to avert this unnecessary crisis. The bill under consideration today will help States get through the remainder of the construction season. It will also provide time for Congress to come together and pass a longer-term surface transportation law so that we don't find ourselves in this crisis mode again. But this needs to happen sooner rather than later because this bill leaves our highway, transit, and safety programs on autopilot. While the driverless car may be the wave of the future, it is no way to run our transportation programs, and I know the chairman has driven those cars on autopilot. Passing extension after extension only brings us more of the same, and our States have already said that the status quo isn't meeting their needs. A long-term, robust surface transportation bill is the only way we are going to address our greatest infrastructure challenges. It is the only way we will be able to build on what works and reform what isn't. It is one of the few sure-fire ways to boost our economy, create jobs, and help us compete with our global rivals. ``Starving the beast'' simply doesn't work when it comes to transportation and infrastructure policy. We need greater investment in our roads and bridges. We need an increased focus on moving freight across our borders and overseas. We should grow regional collaborations to build significant projects, and we must bring every possible transportation job back to the U.S. to be done by American workers. It is worth noting that this debate is about far more than accounting, dollar signs, and trust funds. It is about the men and women who work in these industries and have to face needless uncertainty about their futures. It is about those that rely on public transit systems. And it is about the driving public who must endure aging infrastructure and the car repair bills and safety concerns that come with it. I am going to vote for this bill today not because it is the best solution, but because it does avert an immediate crisis and keeps the ball rolling forward. I thank the members of the Ways and Means Committee for their work on this bill, and I look forward to working with our chairman, Mr. Shuster, to bring forward a robust, long-term surface transportation bill to vote on in the near future. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).