[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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