Department of Energy Veterans' Health Initiative Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairwoman Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas for their support of this all-important bill.

I rise in support of H.R. 617, the Department of Energy Veterans' Health Initiative Act.

This legislation authorizes a partnership between the Department of Energy--the DOE--and the Department of Veterans Affairs--the VA--to conduct collaborative research in computing, artificial intelligence, and big data science in order to improve healthcare for all of our veterans.

The VA hosts one of the largest and most valuable health datasets. Through its voluntary data collection program, entitled the Million Veterans Program, MVP, the VA has collected detailed health information and genomic data volunteered by over 600,000 veterans.

But the VA simply doesn't have the computing power or expertise to analyze all of this complex data. In order to learn from their data and provide better healthcare for veterans, the VA needs access to more advanced computing capabilities, expertise, and infrastructure than is currently available at the agency.

As a world leader in high-performance computing, the DOE is an ideal partner to help the VA meet this need. In its national laboratory system, DOE hosts 5 of the world's top 10 fastest supercomputers, including the fastest supercomputer in the world, Summit, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The DOE also funds research and computational sciences and data analytics, which can be used to solve a range of complex big data challenges in the physical sciences. The interagency partnership between DOE and the VA authorized by my bill is necessary to analyze this data and ultimately provide better care for our Nation's veterans.

DOE has the capability to securely store, using supercomputers at the national labs, and analyze the VA's health data to look for patterns. Learning from these patterns can help us improve the medical treatments for heart disease, traumatic brain injury, and cancer.

I think we can all agree that we should be taking any steps possible to improve the medical care of our men and women who have answered the call to serve. Not only does this bill take that step, but it has benefit in giving our scientists the ability to analyze complex data that will help America remain the world's leader in advanced computing.

The bill also requires the DOE to establish data storage facilities to securely transmit and store data that the VA provides. This will make certain that privacy and security are maintained for veterans who volunteer for the programs.

I am grateful that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been able to come together and move this bill forward. Providing better care for our veterans is a place where we can find common ground, especially since America's veterans fought to keep us all safe, regardless of our political party.

In closing, I would like to thank my fellow Committee on Science, Space, and Technology members who cosponsored this legislation and the many veterans serving in the House who supported my bill. I also want to thank Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who has been a strong advocate of this partnership.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' in favor of improving healthcare for veterans.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source