Benefits for Certain Children of Vietnam Veterans and Certain Other Veterans

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise to express my support for S. 112, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Braun of Indiana.

This legislation aims to strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs' administration of an existing program that provides healthcare benefits and compensation to children of Vietnam war veterans who were born with spina bifida. This bill is endorsed by the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Spina bifida is a birth defect that can cause paralysis, nerve damage, and bowel and bladder problems. Children born with spina bifida may receive benefits from VA if one of their biological parents is a veteran presumed to have been exposed to herbicides such as Agent Orange during the Vietnam war.

The program is jointly administered by the Veterans Benefits Administration, or VBA, and the Veterans Health Administration, or VHA. It provides a monetary allowance, healthcare coverage, and vocational training and rehabilitation. As of 2022, fewer than 1,000 beneficiaries were enrolled in the program.

According to a 2021 VA Office of Inspector General report examining the VA's administration of this program, VBA and VHA were not adequately communicating or sharing data on spina bifida program beneficiaries. This contributed to delays in some new beneficiaries being enrolled in healthcare and improper payments being sent to some beneficiaries after their deaths.

The inspector general also found the VA did not consistently conduct outreach to eligible and enrolled beneficiaries and did not provide effective case management services for the most seriously disabled beneficiaries. In some cases, VA's call center agents provided inaccurate information about the spina bifida program or could not direct callers to reliable sources of information.

S. 112 directs VA to establish an advisory council for the spina bifida program, which would be responsible for soliciting feedback from covered children and veterans about the program's effectiveness. This legislation also requires VA to establish care coordination teams, which will contact beneficiaries at least once every 180 days to ensure they are accessing needed care. Finally, S. 112 would require VA to report to Congress every 2 years on the number of covered children receiving benefits, the number of children receiving care coordination, and the outcome of the outreach conducted to these populations.

Madam Speaker, I support this important piece of legislation, and I ask all of my colleagues to join me in passing S. 112 to strengthen VA's benefits for children of Vietnam veterans born with spina bifida.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source