[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6939 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6939

   To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide two-fiscal year 
budget authority for certain medical care accounts of the Department of 
               Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2008

Mr. Filner (for himself, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Michaud, Mr. 
 Hare, and Mr. Walz of Minnesota) introduced the following bill; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide two-fiscal year 
budget authority for certain medical care accounts of the Department of 
               Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Title 38, United States Code, authorizes the Secretary 
        of Veterans Affairs to furnish hospital and domiciliary care, 
        medical services, nursing home care, and related services to 
        eligible and enrolled veterans, but such services can only be 
        provided to the extent that appropriated resources and 
        facilities are available for such purposes.
            (2) For 19 out of the past 21 fiscal years, Congress has 
        not appropriated funds for medical care provided by the 
        Department of Veterans Affairs before the commencement of the 
        new fiscal year, causing the Department great challenges in 
        planning and managing health care for enrolled veterans, to the 
        detriment of those veterans.
            (3) The cumulative effects of insufficient, late and 
        unpredictable health care funding endanger the viability of the 
        system and the specialized health care resources the Department 
        has developed to maintain and improve the health of the 
        Nation's sick and disabled veterans.
            (4) Approved appropriation levels for the health care 
        programs of the Department have too often proven insufficient 
        over the past decade, requiring the Secretary of Veterans 
        Affairs to ration health care services and Congress to approve 
        supplemental appropriations.
            (5) Providing sufficient, timely, and predictable funding 
        would ensure the government meets its obligation to provide 
        health care to sick and disabled veterans and ensure that all 
        veterans enrolled for care in the Department of Veterans 
        Affairs health care system have ready access to timely, quality 
        services.
            (6) Providing sufficient, timely, and predictable funding 
        to the veterans health care system would eliminate year-to-year 
        uncertainty on funding levels that has prevented the Department 
        of Veterans Affairs from being able to adequately plan for and 
        meet the needs of veterans who are enrolled in the Department 
        health care system.

SEC. 2. TWO-FISCAL YEAR BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR CERTAIN MEDICAL CARE 
              ACCOUNTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Two-Fiscal Year Budget Authority.--
            (1) In general.--Chapter 1 of title 38, United States Code, 
        is amended by inserting after section 113 the following new 
        section:
``Sec. 113A. Two-fiscal year budget authority for certain medical care 
              accounts
    ``(a) In General.--Beginning with fiscal year 2010, new 
discretionary budget authority provided in an appropriations Act for 
the appropriations accounts of the Department specified in subsection 
(b) shall be made available for the fiscal year involved and shall 
include new discretionary budget authority first available after the 
end of such fiscal year for the subsequent fiscal year.
    ``(b) Medical Care Accounts.--The medical care accounts of the 
Department specified in this subsection are the medical care accounts 
of the Veterans Health Administration as follows:
            ``(1) Medical Services.
            ``(2) Medical Administration.
            ``(3) Medical Facilities.''.
            (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections at the 
        beginning of chapter 1 of such title is amended by inserting 
        after the item relating to section 113 the following new item:

``113A. Two-fiscal year budget authority for certain medical care 
                            accounts.''.

SEC. 3. COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES STUDY ON ADEQUACY AND 
              ACCURACY OF BASELINE MODEL PROJECTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT 
              OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FOR HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES.

    (a) Study of Adequacy and Accuracy of Baseline Model Projections.--
The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study of 
the adequacy and accuracy of the budget projections made by the 
Enrollee Health Care Projection Model, or its equivalent, as utilized 
for the purpose of estimating and projecting health care expenditures 
of the Department of Veterans Affairs (in this section referred to as 
the ``Model'') with respect to the fiscal year involved and the 
subsequent four fiscal years.
    (b) Reports.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than the date of each year in 
        2010, 2011, and 2012, on which the President submits the budget 
        request for the next fiscal year under section 1105 of title 
        31, United States Code, the Comptroller General shall submit to 
        the appropriate committees of Congress and to the Secretary a 
        report.
            (2) Elements.--Each report under this paragraph shall 
        include, for the fiscal year beginning in the year in which 
        such report is submitted, the following:
                    (A) A statement whether the amount requested in the 
                budget of President for expenditures of the Department 
                for health care in such fiscal year is consistent with 
                anticipated expenditures of the Department for health 
                care in such fiscal year as determined utilizing the 
                Model.
                    (B) The basis for such statement.
                    (C) Such additional information as the Comptroller 
                General determines appropriate.
            (3) Availability to the public.--Each report submitted 
        under this subsection shall also be made available to the 
        public.
            (4) Appropriate committees of congress defined.--In this 
        subsection, the term ``appropriate committees of Congress'' 
        means--
                    (A) the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, 
                Appropriations, and the Budget of the Senate; and
                    (B) the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, 
                Appropriations, and the Budget of the House of 
                Representatives.
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