Veterans Cemetery Benefit Correction Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 2372, the VA Mission Act. When our brave men and women take an oath to serve in the United States Armed Forces, we make them a solemn promise. Upon completion of their service, we assure them and their families of clearly defined benefits that are guaranteed. Legislation that impacts those benefits must be held to a critical and fundamental test. It must never jeopardize the future of those benefits that our men and women in uniform and their families sacrificed for. While S. 2372 has a number of outstanding provisions that I support, I am disappointed and troubled to say that it fails that fundamental test. The changes this legislation makes to the Veterans Choice Program jeopardizes the necessary future funding to support our veterans and guarantee their healthcare benefits. For that reason I cannot support S. 2372.

S. 2372 combines the VA community care programs by merging the current Veterans Choice Program with other VA community care initiatives. While this consolidation may make it easier for veterans to receive private sector care through the VA, S. 2372 creates a significant future funding problem for the Veterans Choice Program and the VA as we know it today. Currently, Veterans Choice is designated as mandatory spending-guaranteed. S. 2372 shifts funding for Veterans Choice to discretionary spending, meaning that spending on Veterans Choice will compete for funds directly within the VA against other programs for healthcare, benefits, homelessness, infrastructure, and electronic health record technology modernization. It also means that this funding will compete against spending in other appropriations bills including education, law enforcement, the environment, and infrastructure.

Additionally, the current budget caps do not support the level of VA spending that would be required to absorb Veterans Choice as a discretionary program. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that S. 2372 will cost the VA nearly $47 billion over the next five years. This means that in the short-term, S. 2372 could subject the VA to automatic sequestration cuts that would jeopardize every VA program. This goes beyond simple bad budgeting. By failing to ensure future funding for veterans' benefits programs, S. 2372 fails to uphold that most solemn promise we make to our women and men in uniform when they serve this nation.

Mr. Speaker, passing this legislation and subjecting the VA and our veterans to the threat of future budget cuts is plain wrong. Ensuring the highest quality care for our veterans is the right thing to do and is not a partisan issue. In the coming weeks it is my hope that Democrats and Republicans will come together to ensure that this legislation is fixed and that the guaranteed benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs are robustly funded for the future.

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