[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1156 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1156

  To provide for greater equity in the allocation by the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs of amounts appropriated for medical care programs of 
 the Department of Veterans Affairs for the next two fiscal years and 
   for other purposes related to the needs of veterans medical care.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 20, 1997

Mr. Frelinghuysen (for himself, Mr. Paxon, Ms. Molinari, Mr. Franks of 
    New Jersey, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. English of 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Houghton, Mrs. Kelly, Mr. Solomon, Mr. 
 Quinn, Mrs. Roukema, and Mr. Menendez) introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide for greater equity in the allocation by the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs of amounts appropriated for medical care programs of 
 the Department of Veterans Affairs for the next two fiscal years and 
   for other purposes related to the needs of veterans medical care.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EQUITABLE ALLOCATION OF MEDICAL CARE APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE 
              DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Allocation Specification.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
shall allocate amounts appropriated to the Secretary for fiscal years 
1998 and 1999 for medical care so that the amount allocated for medical 
care to each of the administrative elements of the Department of 
Veterans Affairs specified in subsection (b) is not less than the 
amount allocated to that element for medical care from amounts 
appropriated for fiscal year 1996.
    (b) Affected Entities.--Subsection (a) applies with respect to each 
administrative element of the Department of Veterans Affairs designated 
as Veterans Integrated Service Network to which there would be 
allocated an amount for medical care for fiscal year 1998 or fiscal 
year 1999 that is less that the amount allocated for that element for 
fiscal year 1996 under the funding distribution methodology for the 
Department of Veterans Affairs health care budget known as the Veterans 
Equitable Resource Allocation system, developed by the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs pursuant to the requirements of section 429 of Public 
Law 104-204 (110 Stat. 2929) and submitted to Congress in March 1997.
    (c) Exception for Actual Cut in Funding.--If the amount 
appropriated for a fiscal year covered by subsection (a) for the 
Department of Veterans Affairs for medical care is less than the amount 
appropriated for that purpose for fiscal year 1996, the amount of the 
limitation under subsection (a) for that fiscal year for each 
administrative element specified in subsection (b) may be reduced by 
the percentage by which the amount appropriated for that fiscal year is 
less than the amount appropriated for fiscal year 1996.
    (d) Revised Funding Schedule.--(1) Chapter 73 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 7306 the following 
new section:
``Sec. 7307. Allocation of medical care appropriations
    ``The Secretary shall ensure that, effective with fiscal year 2000, 
each administrative element of the Department of Veterans Affairs 
designated as Veterans Integrated Service Network shall be allocated an 
amount for medical care for any fiscal year from the total amount 
appropriated to the Secretary for that fiscal year for medical care 
that is not less than 90 percent of the product of (1) the number of 
veterans residing in the geographic area of that service network, and 
(2) the national medical services and administrative cost per veteran 
(determined by dividing the total amount appropriated for the Secretary 
for medical services and administrative costs for that fiscal year by 
the total number of veterans residing in the United States).''.
    (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7306 the 
following new item:

``7307. Allocation of medical care appropriations.''.
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