Phil Roe

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

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. 4635, as amended. This bill would ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs existing volunteer peer support counseling program includes peer counselors for women veterans. As the number of veterans who are enrolled in the VA healthcare system continues to grow, it is critical that the VA programs are prepared to meet their needs. The peer support counseling program recruits veterans to serve on a volunteer basis to assist their fellow veterans who are struggling with mental health or readjustment issues and to conduct outreach to inform veterans and their families of the benefits and services that are available to them through the VA healthcare system. Peer support counselors are trained and overseen by VA and, as peers, are often able to communicate on a more personal and effective basis than nonveteran clinicians, particularly to veterans who may be hesitant to seek VA care due to stigma or other barriers. This bill is sponsored by Congressman Mike Coffman of Colorado. I am grateful to Mike for his leadership on the committee and for sponsoring this bill to ensure that VA recruits a sufficient number of women veteran volunteers to support the need through the peer support counseling program. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4635, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2772) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for requirements relating to the reassignment of Department of Veterans Affairs senior executive employees, with the Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 4687) to designate the health care center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Sergeant Ernest I. ``Boots'' Thomas VA Clinic, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Yes.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans Affairs be discharged from further consideration of the bill (S. 2246) to designate the health care center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Sergeant Ernest I. ``Boots'' Thomas VA Clinic, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I thank Dr. Burgess. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 204, the Right to Try Act. I am a physician and scientist with almost 40 years of experience in treating patients, and far too many of them, Mr. Speaker, have been diagnosed with cancer. A little over 3 years ago, my beloved wife, Pam Roe, who was a nurse, died of stage IV colon cancer, 5 weeks to the day after she was operated on. Pam would have liked the right to try. Less than 2 months after that, one of the best friends I will ever have in my life, Phil Street, a Vietnam veteran, Air Force veteran, died of cancer related to Agent Orange. Phil would have liked to have had the right to try. My senior partner in medical practice, a year later, good friend, Dr. Bill Bone, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Bill died. He would have liked to have had the right to try. Shortly after that, Linda Baines, a scrub nurse that I operated with hundreds of times in my medical practice, was diagnosed with brain cancer and died shortly after that. Linda would have liked to have had the right to try. Currently, I have three friends at this moment who are being treated with stage IV cancer. If those treatments don't work, they would like to have the right to try. Mr. Speaker, my first pediatric rotation in medical school was at St. Jude Children's Hospital, where, at that time, 80 percent of children died of their disease. I can still see many of those children's faces today, and that was almost 50 years ago. Those children, today, have an 80 percent chance of living, but, as was stated, 16,000 parents have to face that this year. I have had the misfortune of having to look patients in the eye and say: Your life is not in my hands anymore; it is in God's hands. In that moment, I will tell you this: all that these patients want and deserve is a right to try. Please support this legislation.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this piece of legislation. When I came to Congress in 2009, there were over 100,0000 homeless veterans in the United States. General Shinseki, our Secretary at that time, set out to eliminate veteran homelessness in the next 6 or 7 years. It was a very ambitious task. Great progress has been made. I have visited the West L.A. campus and seen what they are doing in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. As my good friend, Tim Walz, said, one homeless veteran is one too many. For people who may be watching this today, we as a country are providing HUD-VASH vouchers for veterans who can use these, along with a case manager. But that is only part of it. Many of these veterans have many other issues and there are other programs that need to be available for these men and women who find themselves in this situation. This is one of them where you can access job training so you can get a meaningful job and take care of yourself. Actually, I think this program and the other one end up paying for themselves over time. Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage my colleagues to support this, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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 insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 4451, as amended.

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. 4451, as amended. This bill would reauthorize the Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program, known as HVRP, and Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Reintegration Grant Program, through fiscal year 2022. These are grant programs managed by the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service. Grants are made generally to nonprofit, community-based organizations to fund efforts to train and place homeless veterans in jobs. This has been a highly successful program that puts homeless veterans back on the path to self-reliance and sustainability and is worthy of Congress' continued support and funding. This bill would also clarify that homeless veterans who are eligible for other federally funded homeless veteran programs are also eligible to receive training and employment services provided by grantees through HVRP and HVRP-W. I believe that expanding eligibility for HVRP and HVRP-W will provide participants in these programs better access to job training programs that can help homeless veterans on their path to sustainable employment and positive outcomes. This expansion would also occur without impacting current authorization levels for this program. I want to thank Congressman Wenstrup and Congresswoman Brownley for introducing this must-pass bill, which has my full support. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4451, as amended, and 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. 4451) to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a five-year extension to the homeless veterans reintegration programs and to provide clarification regarding eligibility for services under such programs, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), who is my Health Subcommittee chair.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5215, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5215, the Veterans Affairs Purchase Card Misuse Mitigation Act. This legislation is sponsored by my Veterans' Affairs Committee colleagues Jack Bergman, Kathleen Rice, Mike Bost, Dr. Neal Dunn, and Mike Coffman. H.R. 5215 would implement an additional safeguard in VA's multibillion-dollar government purchase card program, which has too often lacked adequate controls and has periodically been abused. The legislation directs the Secretary to revoke the purchase card from any employee who is found to have intentionally misused it. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5215, and 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. 5215) to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to prohibit employees found to have knowingly misused Department of Veterans Affairs purchase cards from serving as purchase card holders or approving officials.

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 insert extraneous material into the record on H.R. 5215.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4334) to provide for certain reporting requirements relating to medical care for women veterans provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs and through contracts entered into by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs with non-Department medical providers, and for other purposes, as amended.

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 insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 4334, as amended.

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. 4334, as amended, Improving Oversight of Women Veterans' Care Act of 2018. While VA has vastly improved its capacity to care for gender-specific needs of women veterans, many are still referred to the community when VA cannot provide the appropriate services. Mr. Speaker, last week, the House overwhelmingly approved the VA MISSION Act by a vote of 347-70. The MISSION Act will, among other things, improve the ability for eligible veterans to seek care from community providers when VA cannot meet strict access standards. With more veterans becoming eligible to seek care in the community, it is incumbent upon us as members of the House VA Committee to provide oversight over the care delivered within the community as well. This bill, offered by my friend and fellow committee member from California (Mr. Correa), would help us do just that. H.R. 4334 would require VA medical centers to report to the Secretary on the compliance of contracted community providers with standards of care for women veterans, as established by VA. The Secretary would also be required to report to Congress on the accessibility of gender-specific medical care for women with community providers, as well as to develop a plan to strengthen standards of care within the facilities. Mr. Speaker, as we await Senate passage of the VA MISSION Act, I urge my colleagues to support this complementary piece of legislation, H.R. 4334, as amended, Improving Oversight of Women Veterans' Care Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5418) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out the Medical Surgical Prime Vendor program using multiple prime vendors, as amended.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4958.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4958, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2018. This bill was introduced by the subcommittee chairman, Mike Bost of Illinois, and I appreciate his leadership on this issue. VA provides compensation to help fulfill our obligation to take care of the brave men and women who have been injured during their service to our Nation. This money can be a lifeline for veterans who have service-connected disabilities that may affect their earning ability. These veterans often have families to support, and they should not be worried about how they are going to pay their bills when prices go up. This bill will help ensure that the value of veterans' benefits are not eroded by inflation by giving veterans a cost-of-living increase if Social Security recipients receive one this year. The amount of the increase will be determined by the consumer price index, which establishes the COLA for Social Security beneficiaries. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support H.R. 5044, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Once again, Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes.'' What I say to Woody is: thank you, thank you, thank you. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.