Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Missouri very much.

Our Nation's veterans were promised access to healthcare for their service and their sacrifice. This week we continue our work to uphold that pledge.

The bill before us, the VA MISSION Act, aims to transform the Department of Veterans Affairs delivery of community healthcare. That is a welcome job.

Specifically, the VA MISSION Act consolidates and improves VA community care programs so veterans have access to healthcare and services in their own communities. This is important because veterans should have access to the best healthcare and services in a timely manner, regardless of where they live.

Under this legislation, a veteran and his or her doctor will decide where that veteran will receive care, taking into consideration the veteran's healthcare needs and the availability and the quality of both VA and community care.

For largely rural States, like Arkansas, this makes all the sense in the world. We have two VA medical centers in the Natural State, in Little Rock and in Fayetteville, as well as facilities in neighboring States that often serve Arkansas veterans. The healthcare providers and staff at those facilities that are community-based outpatient clinics in Arkansas truly do an excellent job in caring for our veterans.

But the VA medical centers are in populated areas, which, in cases where veterans need more advanced care than the CBOC can provide, it means a full-day trip for many veterans. It is unnecessary when a veteran could receive similar quality care outside the VA system in their communities. The service options provided in this bill will give veterans who live far from the VA facility and need frequent followup care easier access to local providers and walk-in clinics.

As noted in a letter signed by over 30 VSOs supporting the VA MISSION Act, the legislation is an effort to ``supplement, not supplant, VA healthcare.'' That is very important to note. Much like the Choice Program that preceded it, the new system that will be established by the VA MISSION Act is not meant to replace VA healthcare. Rather, it builds on the foundation laid out by the Choice Program, which addressed many shortcomings within the VA system that led to the wait- time process.

Last year, I launched a listening tour to hear from Arkansas veterans about their experiences within the Choice Program, so we can better meet their needs. I heard from Arkansas veterans who have been able to get quality care from private providers in their own community when the VA system could not meet their needs. That is a good thing, but as the veterans with whom I met noted, the Choice Program had its share of problems, its share of troubles. I heard repeated stories of difficulties navigating the complex and confusing bureaucratic process. This legislation aims to alleviate those problems. While VA implements the new system, we cannot afford to let care slip for our veterans. That is why we made sure the VA MISSION Act authorizes funding to continue the current Choice Program for more than a year.

In addition to the improvements to healthcare delivery, the bill will enable us to conduct better and more consistent oversight into how the VA spends money on veterans' healthcare. This is a priority for me as the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. We must ensure that the VA is efficiently and effectively providing veterans with quality healthcare, whether at a VA facility or a private facility in the community. The VA MISSION Act will also improve the VA's ability to hire quality healthcare professionals, strengthen opioid prescription guidelines for non-VA providers, and create a process to evaluate and reform VA facilities so they can best serve veterans.

I wish to quickly highlight two other important provisions of the bill. One is the expansion of the VA caregiver benefits to veterans of all generations. This is a long-overdue reform that will correct an injustice that left family caregivers and veterans injured before September 11, 2001, without critical care. Caregivers and veterans of World War II, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, and the Gulf war will now have access to the same benefits as the post-9/11 veterans.

The second revision is based off a bill I cosponsored that would authorize VA healthcare professionals to provide treatment to patients via telemedicine regardless of where the covered healthcare professional or patient is located. The Arkansas VA medical centers are leaders in telehealth, which holds great promise, especially for largely rural States like Arkansas. It is important that the VA continue to encourage its growth without unnecessary bureaucratic redtape.

This bill is a great example of what we can accomplish through bipartisan, bicameral compromise, working together for our veterans.

I thank the majority leader for swiftly bringing up this bill for consideration after the House overwhelmingly passed it. I commend Chairman Isakson's hard work and leadership. I appreciate the great job he has done and also Ranking Member Tester, who took the advice of all VA Committee members into consideration while working on this major piece of legislation.

I look forward to supporting the VA MISSION Act on the Senate floor so our veterans have access to the quality care they deserve.

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