[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11369-S11370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AMENDMENTS SUBMITTED

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 DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND 
             INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2000

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                      ASHCROFT AMENDMENT NO. 1787

  (Ordered to lie on the table.)
  Mr. ASHCROFT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to 
the bill (H.R. 2684) making appropriations for the Departments of 
Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry 
independent agencies, boards, commissions, corporations, and offices 
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, and for other purposes; 
as follows:

       On page 17, between lines 14 and 15, insert the following:
       Sec. 108. (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following 
     findings:
       (1) The Veterans Benefits Administration of the Department 
     of Veterans Affairs is responsible for the timely and 
     accurate processing of claims for veterans compensation and 
     pension.
       (2) The accuracy of claims processing within the Veterans 
     Benefits Administration has been a subject of concern to 
     Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
       (3) While the Veterans Benefits Administration has reported 
     in the past a 95 percent accuracy rate in processing claims, 
     a new accuracy measurement system known as the

[[Page S11370]]

     Systematic Technical Accuracy Review found that, in 1998, 
     initial review of veterans claims was accurate only 64 
     percent of the time.
       (4) The Veterans Benefits Administration could lose up to 
     30 percent of its workforce to retirement by 2003, making 
     adequate training for claims adjudicators even more necessary 
     to ensure veterans claims are processed efficiently.
       (5) The Veterans Benefits Administration needs to take more 
     aggressive steps to ensure that veterans claims are processed 
     in an accurate and timely fashion to avoid unnecessary delays 
     in providing veterans with compensation and pension benefits.
       (b) Plan Required.--Not later than 90 days after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans 
     Affairs shall submit to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs 
     of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Majority 
     Leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives a comprehensive plan for the improvement of 
     the processing of claims for veterans compensation and 
     pension.
       (c) Elements.--The plan under subsection (b) shall include 
     the following:
       (1) Mechanisms for the improvement of training of claims 
     adjudicators and for the enhancement of employee 
     accountability standards in order to ensure that initial 
     reviews of claims are accurate and that unnecessary appeals 
     of benefit decisions and delays in benefit payments are 
     avoided.
       (2) Mechanisms for strengthening the ability of the 
     Veterans Benefits Administration of the Department of 
     Veterans Affairs to identify recurring errors in claims 
     adjudications by improving data collection and management 
     relating to--
       (A) the human body and the impairments common in disability 
     and pension claims; and
       (B) recurring deficiencies in medical evidence and 
     examinations.
       (3) Mechanisms for implementing a system for reviewing 
     claims-processing accuracy that meets the Government's 
     internal control standard on separation of duties and the 
     program performance audit standard on organizational 
     independence.
       (4) Quantifiable goals for each of the mechanisms developed 
     under paragraphs (1) through (3).
       (d) Consultation.--In developing the plan under subsection 
     (b), the Secretary shall consult with and obtain the views of 
     veterans organizations and other interested parties.
       (e) Implementation.--The Secretary shall implement the plan 
     under subsection (b) commencing 60 days after the date of the 
     submittal of the plan under that subsection.
       (f) Modification.--(1) The Secretary may modify the plan 
     submitted under subsection (b).
       (2) Any modification under paragraph (1) shall not take 
     effect until 30 days after the date on which the Secretary 
     submits to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate 
     and the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the 
     Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a 
     notice regarding such modification.
       (g) Reports.--Not later than January 1, 2000, and every 6 
     months thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the 
     Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and the House 
     of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and 
     the Speaker of the House of Representatives a report 
     assessing implementation of the plan under subsection (b) 
     during the preceding 6 months, including an assessment of 
     whether the goals set forth under subsection (c)(4) are being 
     achieved.
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                       CLELAND AMENDMENT NO. 1788

  (Ordered to lie on the table.)
  Mr. CLELAND submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to 
the bill, H.R. 2684, supra; as follows:

       On page 11, line 11, strike ``$97,256,000'' and insert 
     ``$99,756,000, of which $500,000 shall be available for 
     development of national cemeteries in each of the areas of 
     Atlanta, Georgia, southwestern Pennsylvania, Miami, Florida, 
     Detroit, Michigan, and Sacramento, California''.
       On page 11, line 19, strike ``$43,200,000'' and insert 
     ``$40,700,000''.
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                      WELLSTONE AMENDMENT NO. 1789

  Mr. WELLSTONE proposed an amendment to the bill, H.R. 2684, supra; as 
follows:

       On page 17, between lines 14 and 15, insert the following:
       Sec. 108. (a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following 
     findings:
       (1) One of the most outrageous examples of the failure of 
     the Federal Government to honor its obligations to veterans 
     involves the so-called ``atomic veterans'', patriotic 
     Americans who were exposed to radiation at Hiroshima and 
     Nagasaki and at nuclear test sites.
       (2) For more than 50 years, many atomic veterans have been 
     denied veterans compensation for diseases, known as 
     radiogenic diseases, that the Department of Veterans Affairs 
     recognizes as being linked to exposure to radiation. Many of 
     these diseases are lethal forms of cancer.
       (3) The Department of Veterans Affairs almost invariably 
     denies the claims for compensation of atomic veterans on the 
     grounds that the radiation doses received by such veterans 
     were too low to result in radiogenic disease, even though 
     many scientists and former Under Secretary for Health Kenneth 
     Kizer agree that the dose reconstruction analyses conducted 
     by the Department of Defense are unreliable.
       (4) Although the Department of Veterans Affairs already has 
     a list of radiogenic diseases that are presumed to be 
     service-connected, the Department omits three diseases--lung 
     cancer, colon cancer, and central nervous system cancer--from 
     that list, notwithstanding the agreement of scientists that 
     the evidence of a link between the three diseases and low-
     level exposure to radiation is very convincing and, in many 
     cases, is stronger than the evidence of a link between such 
     exposure and other radiogenic diseases currently on that 
     list.
       (b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that 
     lung cancer, colon cancer, and brain and central nervous 
     system cancer should be added to the list of radiogenic 
     diseases that are presumed by the Department of Veterans 
     Affairs to be service-connected disabilities.

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