[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1016 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1016
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide advance
appropriations authority for certain medical care accounts of the
Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2009
Mr. Filner (for himself, Mr. Michaud, Ms. Herseth Sandlin, Mr.
Mitchell, Mr. Hall of New York, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Walz, Mr. Hare, Mrs.
Tauscher, Mr. Hodes, and Mr. Sestak) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide advance
appropriations 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Health Care Budget Reform
and Transparency Act of 2009''.
SEC. 2. 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 only to the extent that
appropriated resources and facilities are available for such
purposes.
(2) For 19 out of the past 22 fiscal years, appropriated
funds for medical care were not provided to the Department of
Veterans Affairs before the commencement of its new fiscal
year, causing the Department great challenges in planning and
managing care for enrolled veterans, to the detriment of
veterans.
(3) The cumulative effect of insufficient, late, and
unpredictable funding endangers the viability of the system and
the specialized health care resources of the Department to
maintain and improve the health of the Nation's sick and
disabled veterans.
(4) 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 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 have ready access to timely and high quality care.
(6) Providing sufficient, timely, and predictable funding
would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to properly plan
for and meet the needs of veterans.
SEC. 3. ADVANCE APPROPRIATIONS FOR CERTAIN MEDICAL CARE ACCOUNTS OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.
(a) Advance Appropriations for Certain Medical Care Accounts.--
(1) In general.--Chapter 1 of title 38, United States Code,
is amended by inserting after section 113 the following new
section:
``Sec. 113A. Advance appropriations for certain medical care accounts
``(a) In General.--For each fiscal year, beginning with fiscal year
2011, discretionary new budget authority provided in an appropriations
Act for the appropriations accounts of the Department specified in
subsection (b) shall--
``(1) be made available for that fiscal year; and
``(2) include, for each such appropriations account,
advance discretionary new budget authority that first becomes
available for the first fiscal year after the budget year.
``(b) Medical Care Accounts Affected.--The appropriations accounts
subject to subsection (a) of this section are the following medical
care accounts of the `Veterans Health Administration, Department of
Veterans Affairs' account:
``(1) Medical Services.
``(2) Medical Support and Compliance.
``(3) Medical Facilities.''.
(2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections at the
beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the
item relating to section 113 the following new line:
``113A. Advance appropriations for certain medical care accounts.''.
SEC. 4. COMPTROLLER GENERAL 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 Base Line Model
Projections.--The Comptroller General shall conduct a study of the
adequacy and accuracy of the budget projections made by the Enrollee
Health Care Projection Model (in this section referred to as the
``Model''), its equivalent, or other methodologies utilized for the
purpose of estimating and projecting health care expenditures of the
Department of Veterans Affairs 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
2011, 2012, and 2013, 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 of
Veterans Affairs a report.
(2) Elements.--Each report under this paragraph shall
include, for the fiscal year concerning the year for which the
budget is submitted, the following:
(A) A statement whether the amount requested in the
budget of the 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 be made available to the public by
the Comptroller General.
(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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