Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 - Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, yesterday the House voted 420 to 5 for this conference report. They understood that taking care of veterans, as Senator McCain just indicated--the men and women who have put their lives on the line to defend us, who have sacrificed so much--is a cost of war, and in fact what we are talking about is an emergency. That is what the House said overwhelmingly yesterday.

On June 11, 2014, 6 or so weeks ago, by a vote of 93 to 3, the Senate supported the Sanders-McCain bill and it was emergency funded as a cost of war.

This bill, as Senator Coburn indicated, is about one-third of the cost of what we voted on in the original Sanders-McCain bill.

Let us defeat this point of order. Let us stand with the veterans of this country, let us reform the VA, and let us go forward.

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, Senator Coburn forgot to mention one point when talking about the increase in VA funding. He forgot to mention that we were in two wars.

He forgot to mention that 500,000 men and women came back from Iraq and Afghanistan with posttraumatic stress disorder and TBI, not to mention the loss of legs, the loss of arms, eyesight and hearing.

He forgot to mention that many of the veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam are getting older and need more detailed care.

So I think it is important that we put $5 billion into the VA to provide the doctors, the nurses, the personnel they need, so that the veterans can get into the VA and have quality and timely care. That is what this legislation is about.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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