Providing For Concurrence By House With Amendment In Senate Amendment To H.R. 1016, Veterans Health Care Budget Reform And Transparency Act Of 2009
Floor Speech
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, this compromise agreement will finally provide advance appropriations beginning for the fiscal year 2011 for three VA medical accounts. Although I prefer the House version of the bill, I think this is a great advancement, and I will congratulate the chairman and members of the VA Committee for a great job.
I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 1016, as amended.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
I rise in support of House Resolution 804, a resolution providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 1016, with amendments.
I want to thank my committee chair, Mr. Filner. With this important legislation, he responded to the needs of our veterans who depend on the Veterans Health Administration.
This resolution represents an agreement between the Chambers and provides for advance appropriations authority for certain medical care accounts for the Department of Veterans Affairs. An advance appropriations means that Congress would approve funding for VA health care accounts 1 year in advance of the actual fiscal year in which the funding would become available.
The impetus for this legislation is clearly evident as last week we began a new fiscal year with a continuing resolution, because once again Congress failed to pass the annual funding for veterans health care on time. In fact, VA has received a timely budget on only four occasions during the last 21 years.
It is a disservice to our veterans and wounded warriors when legislative budgetary impasses delay funding and prevent VA from effectively planning for the day-to-day operations of its health care system.
It is disappointing, however, that the compromise agreement would provide for advance appropriations for just three VA accounts, Medical Services, Medical Support and Compliance, and Medical Facilities. It should also include advance appropriations for the information technology account and medical and prosthetic research accounts.
The former Chair and current ranking member of the VA Committee, Steve Buyer, made a strong argument that the IT and research accounts should be included in any advance appropriations because they are closely related to the previously mentioned accounts, and having separate funding mechanisms could lead to unintended consequences.
The members of the VA Committee, including the chairman, recognized the importance of keeping the accounts together and included them in the House-passed bill.
Adding the IT accounts was also a recommendation of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki. Likewise the Congressional Research Service analysis of advance appropriations gave support to including both accounts. It is unfortunate that the House position did not prevail in the compromise agreement. Inclusion of these accounts would have greatly improved the bill by providing a more comprehensive funding method for veterans' medical care needs.
Nonetheless, the legislation is a very positive development for the VA budgeting process. It will provide a procedure that could allow more predictable funding. It would not guarantee the VA or Congress that we will get the amount of the veterans health care budget exactly right.
We must continue to work hard for the benefit of our veterans to get the VA budget as close as possible to the intended results. Implementation of this legislation will require strong congressional oversight to ensure we meet our objectives.
Mr. Speaker, this resolution is a new approach in trying to remove the uncertainty from veterans' health care and its funding, and is strongly supported, as the chairman said, by the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, a coalition of nine veterans service organizations.
I want to congratulate the chairman, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, this compromise agreement will finally provide advance appropriations beginning for the fiscal year 2011 for three VA medical accounts. Although I prefer the House version of the bill, I think this is a great advancement, and I will congratulate the chairman and members of the VA Committee for a great job.
I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 1016, as amended.
I yield back the balance of my time
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