[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4228-H4229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          H.R. 2116, THE VETERANS' MILLENNIUM HEALTH CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, good morning. Today I want to talk about a 
bill that I have sponsored, the bill is H.R. 2116, the Veterans' 
Millennium Health Care Act. I am pleased this is a bipartisan bill. The 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) on the Republican side and the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans) on the Democrat side, as well as 
the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez), the ranking member on the 
subcommittee, have all cosponsored this legislation.
  Last week, on June 9, we held a hearing and marked up the 
legislation, and it was favorably reported out of the full committee.
  What this legislation does is offer a blueprint to help position VA 
for the future, and I think it is appropriately entitled the Veterans' 
Millennium Health Care Act. Foremost among the VA's challenges are the 
long-term care of our aging veterans population. For many among the 
World War II population, long-term care has become just as important as 
acute care. However the long-term care challenge has gone unanswered 
for too long.
  It is important, therefore, that just last month the VA committee 
held a hearing on long-term care. The bill I have introduced would 
precisely address this issue and would adopt some of the key 
recommendations of the blue ribbon advisory committee. But my bill goes 
further than that in providing VA important new tools for access to 
long-term care.
  The bill also tackles another challenging issue. Mr. Speaker, the GAO 
findings showed that the VA spends billions of dollars in the next 5 
years to operate unneeded buildings. They testified that one out of 
every four VA medical care dollars is spent in maintaining buildings 
rather than caring for patients. A lot of these buildings are over 40 
years old. Now, this is just not an abstract concern. This could be a 
savings of almost $10 billion a year.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is no secret that the VA administration is 
talking about closing old, obsolete hospitals. In some locations, that 
may be appropriate. The point is that the VA has closure authority and 
has already used it. In fact, we could expect closures of needed 
facilities under the disastrous budget submitted by the President last 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, my bill instead calls for a process, establishing a new 
process so that decisions on closing hospitals can only be made on a 
comprehensive planning basis with veterans' participation. And this is 
very important and very appropriate. The bill sets numerous safeguards 
in place and would specifically provide that VA cannot simply stop 
operating a hospital and walk away from its responsibilities to 
veterans. No, it must reinvest the savings in a new, brand new, 
improved treatment facility or improved services in the area.
  The bill responds to pressing veterans' needs. It opens the door to 
expansion of long-term care, to greater access to outpatient care, and 
to improve benefits including emergency care coverage. In turn, it 
provides for reforms that would help advance these goals.
  As I mentioned earlier, it is bipartisan, and we have the support of 
both Democrats and Republicans. I also would like to commend the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for introducing H.R. 1762. This 
is legislation that expands the scope of VA respite care. The language 
in his bill has been incorporated into our bill.
  My legislation also requires that the VA provide needed long-term 
care for 50 percent service-connected veterans and veterans needing 
care for service-related conditions.
  H.R. 2116 would also expand access to care to two very deserving 
groups. It would specifically authorize priority care for veterans 
injured in combat and awarded the Purple Heart and provide specific 
authority for VA care of TRICARE-eligible military retirees not 
otherwise eligible for priority VA care. In such cases, DOD would 
reimburse the VA at the same rate payable to the TRICARE contractor.
  The measure would also authorize VA to recover reasonable costs of 
emergency care in community hospitals for VA patients who have no 
health care.
  In other words, this is needed. There is no other more important 
component in this than this long-term care I have mentioned earlier. 
But I think there is another segment that we are forgetting about, and 
that is the homeless veterans. This bill addresses that by awarding 
grants for building and remodeling State veterans' homes and providing 
grants for the homeless veterans.

[[Page H4229]]

  To summarize, Mr. Speaker, this bill, H.R. 2116, provides new 
direction to address veterans' long-term care needs; expands veterans' 
access to care; closes gaps in eligibility laws; and establishes needed 
reform to improve the VA health care system. Our veterans population is 
in need of this reform.

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