Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014 - Motion to Proceed - Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, it has been 2 weeks since the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees held our first conference meeting to fix the VA health care system. It is a disservice to our veterans that we have not met again. My fellow conferees and I should be at the table actively negotiating a path forward.

Chairman Sanders is right when he says the situation at the VA is an emergency. I had the opportunity to meet with veterans last week in Hilo, HI. My discussion with them underscored the urgency of addressing the longstanding issues at the VA.

For those who have not visited Hawaii, Hilo is on the Big Island of Hawaii, and it is home to volcanoes, rain forests, and just about every other climate. It is also twice as big as the rest of Hawaii's islands combined. In fact, it is roughly the size of Connecticut but with only a fraction of the population. It can take hours to drive from Hilo to the second largest town, Kailua-Kona. Of the roughly 143,000 people living on the island, 15,000 are veterans.

I am raising these facts because I want my colleagues to understand that veterans in communities like those who live on Hawaii Island need our help and they need it now.

The veterans I met in Hilo expressed to me that they cannot get care anywhere other than the VA on the Big Island, as private physicians are few and far between. In fact, while 90 percent of Hawaii Island residents have health insurance, there is a serious physician shortage. This results in long wait times for non-VA health care. Given these long wait times for private physicians, Big Island veterans rely on VA for their primary care. Those Hawaii Island veterans who have private insurance have, out of their own pockets, paid for flights to the island of Oahu to get the care they need. This means over $300 out-of-pocket just to get to their medical appointments. The $300 does not include any costs associated with the care itself.

This is another reason that expanding access to non-VA providers is needed to immediately address the VA health care emergency. With this expansion, we must ensure that every veteran in our country, whether rural or urban, can more easily get the care they need if the VA is unable to accommodate them. Rural and urban veterans in Hawaii and across our Nation deserve better.

A recent audit of the VA in Hawaii found that veterans were waiting over 140 days to receive care. A more recent update found that while progress is being made, the wait is still over 100 days. Nationwide, nearly 60,000 veterans are waiting simply to get an appointment, and of course that is unacceptable. This is why I stand eager and ready to work with my Senate and House colleagues to ensure that the veterans of this country get the care they need and the benefits they have earned.

This conference committee must reconvene as soon as possible to move forward on the important task to finalize legislation that does three important things: No. 1, directly addresses the emergency circumstances that have been uncovered at the Veterans' Administration; No. 2, ensures that all of our veterans receive access to the care they deserve; and No. 3, begins the long-term work of restoring veterans' trust not only in the VA but in Congress's ability to effectively oversee the VA and provide the resources necessary to care for our veterans.

Nearly the entire Senate agrees that the current VA situation is an emergency

and that Congress must act. I am hopeful we can all agree on that point, but my fellow conferees need to be at the table now, face to face, to work out solutions to make the VA work for our veterans.

I hope we will include provisions in the Senate-passed legislation that will provide for 26 major medical facility leases and provide for the resources and authority to expedite hiring of VA doctors and nurses.

In addition, while I agree that accountability of executives is needed, we should avoid politicizing the nonappointed civil service process and allow some due process for VA employees.

Furthermore, our veterans rely on the services of qualified, committed professionals at the VA. In fact, the veterans I met with last week indicated that they really liked VA care; however, they were concerned that VA doctors were already overstretched in terms of patients. I don't believe that simply telling VA doctors to see more patients is the only or best answer, nor is it enough to allow veterans to seek care from private providers. We should be doing more to attract more health professionals to VA, especially primary care providers. We have to recognize the long-term benefits of attracting a high-quality workforce to VA and that we can improve accountability in a carefully balanced way.

Investing in the VA is an essential step toward building back the trust of our veterans.

I understand my colleagues' concerns with the cost of the proposals before us, but inaction will not overcome those concerns. Those of us serving as conferees need to sit down and discuss how to get our veterans what they need quickly. The time for action is now. Veterans in Hawaii and across the country are counting on us and deserve no less.

I yield the remainder of my time and note the absence of a quorum.

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