Phil Roe

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2005, the VA Procurement Efficiency and Transparency Act. H.R. 2006 is commonsense contracting, transparency, and efficiency legislation sponsored by my friend, Representative Mike Coffman, an esteemed member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. This bill will make clear how much money the VA is saving by competing contracts and direct the VA to organize its contracting documents. Procurement difficulties seem to happen year after year, and I thank Representative Coffman and other Members with reform bills under consideration today for their work on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support H.R. 2006, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. 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.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2749) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the oversight of contracts awarded by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), a new member of our committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1690) to amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report regarding performance awards and bonuses awarded to certain high-level employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, sometimes we sing from the same song sheet, and sometimes we don't sing from the same song sheet. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 282) to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to authorize spouses of servicemembers to elect to use the same residences as the servicemembers.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. In closing, I would certainly urge everyone to support this actionable piece of legislation. During the last 6\1/2\ months, the Veterans' Affairs Committee has been a very active committee. When we realized that our Choice Program was running short of funds, the committee, in a bipartisan way, voted to extend that. We have also realized that there are 470,000 veterans whose claims are in appeals and have not been adjudicated. We realize that program is not functioning as it should. The House acted quickly, was bipartisan. That legislation has now been passed out of the Senate VA Committee and is awaiting action by the floor. We hope to have it passed and signed into law soon. We knew that the Secretary of the VA said he had problems, that he couldn't--most VA employees are terrific. Some of my best friends work at the VA. But there are some not good employees out of the 370,000 there, and the Secretary said, to do his job, to reform the VA, he needed a bill where he could terminate poor-performing employees, and this House and Senate gave him that. The President has signed that into law. The Secretary has also moved in speeding up the electronic health record transformation into a modern off-the-shelf system. We debated on this floor, today, the Post-9/11 GI Bill update, which is a tremendous benefit for veterans, and decades from now we will look back on this debate we had on the floor, I think, with some admiration as I do. It has been a true privilege and pleasure to be on this committee and to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to take care of these important issues this committee has produced. It will make this promise to our veterans of this country; it will continue to produce results for them. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost), the subcommittee chair on the committee and a marine veteran.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Dunn), a veteran and the author of the bill.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair and a marine who served with distinction.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2781, as amended, the Ensuring Veteran Enterprise Participation in Strategic Sourcing Act. H.R. 2781 is another piece of thoughtful contracting legislation sponsored by a hardworking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Dr. Neal Dunn. This bill will make sure that all small businesses owned by veterans and service-disabled veterans are never excluded from a particular group of contracts run by the General Services Administration, or GSA. Despite Congress' efforts to give our veterans maximum opportunity in VA contracting, the system does not always work as it should. This bill fixes a loophole that has cropped up recently and makes sure veteran businesses are not inadvertently ignored when VA uses these GSA contracts. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2781, as amended. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. 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.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2781) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to certify the sufficient participation of small business concerns owned and controlled and owned by veterans and small business concerns owned by veterans with service-connected disabilities in contracts under the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1058, as amended, the VA Provider Equity Act. This legislation would recognize the professional contribution of hardworking podiatrists within the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system. The VA standard for compensating podiatrists has not been updated in 41 years. In that time, education and training for podiatrists has been revolutionized. As a result of the VA's failure to recognize and respond to advancements in podiatry practice, it has created significant disparities in pay and advancement opportunities for podiatrists practicing at the VA in comparison to their peers in the private sector. Consequently, the VA struggles to recruit and retain experienced, qualified podiatrists--those we want caring for our veterans--at a time when veteran need for podiatry care is increasing. This legislation would solve that problem by allowing VA podiatrists the opportunity to seek leadership opportunities at VA medical facilities and making podiatry pay equal to physician and dentist pay within the VA healthcare system. I am grateful to my good friend, fellow veteran, and committee member, Dr. Brad Wenstrup, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, for his leadership in recognizing what an important issue this is and being thoughtful and tenacious in pursuit of a solution to it. I am proud to join Dr. Wenstrup in fully supporting this legislation and urge all of my colleagues to do the same. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1058) to amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify the role of podiatrists in the Department of Veterans Affairs, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup). Colonel Wenstrup is a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous remarks.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1848) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program on the use of medical scribes in Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1848, as amended, the Veterans Affairs Medical Scribe Pilot Act of 2017, which I am proud to sponsor. One of my priorities as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs is to increase access to care for veteran patients. One way to do that is help hardworking Department of Veterans Affairs clinicians to be more efficient in the practice of high-quality care. The Veterans Affairs Medical Scribe Pilot Act of 2017 would do just that by creating a 2-year pilot program to test the use of scribes in VA medical centers. Scribes are increasingly used in the private sector to help doctors navigate and document a patient's electronic health record. That allows doctors to place their focus not on a computer screen, but squarely on the patient. I jokingly say, Mr. Speaker, that it was electronic health records that made me a Congressman. Basically, it ran me out of the medical office. That is a slight exaggeration, but it is not too far off. Like many doctors I hear from today, I found the increasing amount of time that I was spending attending to electronic health record requirements, necessary as they may be, detracted from the quality of my patients' interactions and significantly slowed down how smoothly my clinic day would operate. I believe the same is true at VA. Many doctors now, Mr. Speaker, are spending over half their time entering information, just basically being data entry people. Onsite visits to VA medical facilities across the country, my staff and I always ask VA employees how we can help them provide safer, better care and see more patients. By far, one of the most common responses that we hear is a plea to ``give us scribes; give us some help.'' That is exactly what passage of H.R. 1848, as amended, will do. This bill also includes provisions of H.R. 1662, a bill sponsored by Dr. Brad Wenstrup, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, which would bring VA medical centers in line with every other major healthcare system by prohibiting smoking on VA medical facility properties. I thank Dr. Wenstrup for his leadership on this issue, and I am grateful to be working with him to make VA medical facilities healthy, smoke-free places for VA employees to serve veterans and for veterans to seek care. Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support me in supporting H.R. 1448, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Messer), my good friend. We have served on the Education and the Workforce Committee together since he has been here, and he is in his fourth term.