Elizabeth Dole Home- and Community-Based Services for Veterans and Caregivers Act of 2023
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 542, as amended, the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act of 2023.
This bill, introduced by Representative Brownley and Representative Bergman and reported out of committee with unanimous support in July, is truly landmark legislation.
It would require VA to provide access to all home-and community-based services, such as home health aides, home-based primary care, and respite care to all veterans and caregivers who need them.
Currently, elderly and disabled veterans only have access to important home- and community-based services if their VA medical centers have chosen to offer these services.
This bill is named for a person, who in her personal life and in public service, has dedicated herself to caring for others: Senator Elizabeth Dole. Tomorrow will mark the second anniversary of the passing of Senator Bob Dole, an Army veteran who had a dedicated caregiver in the other Senator Dole.
This legislation will enable veterans to remain at home, safely age in place, and avoid or delay admission to nursing homes and other costly institutional settings of care. It will also help connect veterans' caregivers to respite care and other supportive services that help them care for veterans at home and improve VA's coordination with other Federal long-term care programs that promote aging at home.
Finally, the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act of 2023 will require VA to create a website where veterans and their families can more easily obtain information about VA's home- and community-based services programs and assess whether any of these programs may be right for them. The research is clear: veterans prefer to remain at home and their health outcomes are better when they do. Home care is by far the cheaper alternative to institutional settings.
Nearly every veteran will at some point face the need for additional care at home, or if they can't get it, spend their last years in a nursing home setting. This legislation is an investment in care for millions of veterans and current servicemembers who need this help now or in the future.
The Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act of 2023 has the support of every major veteran service organization, including Paralyzed Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Wounded Warrior Project, and the Military Officers Association of America.
It is also supported by AARP, the National Association of Counties, the National PACE Association, and the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.
It has been these groups' number one policy priority. Shouldn't it be ours?
These groups, and dozens of others, have advocated tirelessly for passage since its introduction 2 years ago.
Despite the great need for this bill, it has been an uphill battle to get it to the floor. We have worked to get support and get the cost down. That showed when it was voted unanimously out of committee in July.
It seems the battle is not over yet because this bill cannot be taken up by the Senate as is. Since the bill was reported, we have worked with our counterparts in the Senate to ensure the bill was as near to perfect as possible. There were a few changes that were agreed upon by all four corners of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Unfortunately, instead of advancing text with full sign-off, the majority has gone back to text they know has problems in the Senate, so we will have to either await amendment by the Senate or some other legislative action before this legislation can move to President Biden's desk for signature.
The programs and services in this bill are life-changing. In the next 16 years, VA will have doubled its spending on long-term care services, nearing $15 billion, to meet these needs. While enrolled veterans have a right to institutional care, there are not enough beds or staff in institutional settings in the country to meet the projected need.
Good sense tells us that VA must move quickly to expand home- and community-based services to keep veterans safely in their homes. Providing home- and community-based services would also ensure that VA has the space and staff to care for those who truly do need institutional care.
It is disappointing that we have not gotten this bill on the fast track to signing and that disabled and elderly veterans and their caregivers will have to wait even longer for the care they deserve. This holiday season, we could have given these veterans a gift with lasting impact. The House majority instead tells us we must content ourselves to wait for the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act to be included in a larger package.
The majority has committed to moving this legislative package out of the House and the Senate with delivery to the President by the end of January. I remind everyone that there are some other big items that we have to get done in January, and I am worried about whether or not that other big item might impede our ability to get this item done.
The intention is that the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act and the HOME Act be included as key pillars of the package.
The majority has also committed in the last week to not abuse these bipartisan bills as leverage to include partisan poison pills in that package. I intend to hold my Republican colleagues to that agreement, and the stakeholders and the VSOs will, as well.
This agreement includes the fallback that if this package cannot be completed in time, then these bills should be advanced as standalone. We received a letter on Friday from a broad coalition of national organizations representing service-disabled veterans and their caregivers memorializing this agreement that said it best: ``Disabled veterans and their families cannot wait any longer.''
It was the same exact letter that was already included in the Record by my colleague from Michigan, so I don't have to include it again now.
Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 542, as amended, and I ask my colleagues to do the same.
Brownley), who is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health and the author of this amazing piece of legislation.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in support of this very important, transformational piece of legislation, H.R. 542, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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