[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 107 (Wednesday, July 31, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S7733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      VETERANS HEALTH CARE NETWORK

  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I regret to come to the floor today with 
a concern that I find absolutely extraordinary--even shocking.
  This is a memorandum which represents an extraordinary broken promise 
to the veterans of our country. I want to share it with my colleagues 
who I think would share with me a sense of outrage over what is 
contained in this memorandum.
  This is a memorandum from Laura Miller, Under Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs for Health for Operations and Management, which she circulated 
on July 18. It orders the directors of the Veterans Health Care Network 
in the country to end their veterans outreach activities.
  Let me read from the memorandum. It says specifically:
  In this environment, marketing the VA services with such activities 
as health fairs, and veteran open houses to invite new veterans to the 
facilities, or enrollment displays at VSO meetings are inappropriate. 
Therefore, I am directing each network director to ensure that no 
marketing activities to enroll new veterans occur within your networks.
  In other words, the promise made to veterans and their families that 
these services will be available to them--and many of them don't know 
exactly what all the services are--that is why we put into place the 
outreach efforts in order to guarantee that people aren't denied those 
services which they might have forthcoming. Those services are not now 
going to be provided. They are not going to be reaching out to veterans 
to make them aware of them. I find that absolutely extraordinary.
  There are approximately 70 million people who are potentially 
eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans and 
family members or survivors of veterans. They stand to lose those 
benefits because the VA is simply going to hide or retreat from 
reaching out in the way that all of us here in Congress specifically 
codified and put into law that they do.
  I know the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is a Vietnam veteran and is 
a distinguished, decorated veteran. I absolutely can't believe that he 
knows this went out. I can't believe that it went out under his order, 
particularly when you compare it to his own statement on the VA Web 
site. There is a statement by the Secretary that says:
  Our goal is to provide excellence in patient care, veterans' benefits 
and customer satisfaction. We have reformed our department internally 
and are striving for high-quality, prompt and seamless service to 
veterans.
  With respect to ``prompt,'' in this memo the Deputy Under Secretary 
says:
  The most recent enrollment shows a 13.5 percent increase in users 
this year compared to the same time last year, and a 15 percent 
increase in enrollment while expenditures rose 7.8 percent. Against the 
outcome of this situation is a waiting list for patients to be seen in 
many clinics across the country and general waiting times that exceed 
VHA's standard of 30 days. Moreover, actuarial projections indicate a 
widening gap in the demand versus resource availability.
  ``Demand versus resource availability''--those of us from New England 
sat with the Secretary several months ago and made it clear to the 
Secretary that there is an increasing crisis in our VA system because 
of the lack of resources.
  The ``greatest generation'' veterans--those of World War II--are now 
demanding services of the VA in greater numbers than before. Our 
military efforts these days are increasing the awareness and the need 
of many people who served for those services. Yet here we are being 
told we have demand that is exceeding the resources.
  The resources don't have to be exceeded. That is a matter of 
budgeting priority of this administration. There are many areas where 
it is obvious that the administration has decided it is more important 
to put money, rather than for the veterans, and in order to keep the 
promise to the veterans of the country.
  In today's Greenfield Recorder in Massachusetts, a VA spokesperson 
said the reason the VA has cut these services is ``because right now we 
can't give them the kind of care that they deserve.''
  That is an extraordinary statement in the face of the current 
situation with troops in Afghanistan and other parts of the world, with 
the increasing demand of our military and with potential operations in 
Iraq that are the subject of hearings before the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee today.
  Under Secretary Miller's memorandum notes that enrollment has 
increased by some 15 percent. So the budget ought to reflect that. The 
budget ought to reflect that we need to keep the promise to our 
veterans. The fact is, almost every single budgeting effort in the last 
few years has been inadequate for the VA. The VA has consistently 
received less funding than necessary facing this growing demand.
  In the fiscal year 2002 budget, there was initially an $80 million 
shortfall for veterans medical care in New England alone. And although 
this region has confronted the most severe shortages, the situation 
throughout the country has been similarly bleak.
  This year, and in previous years, colleagues in the Senate have 
fought to try to up that amount of money. Last week, Congress passed a 
supplemental with some additional $417 million, but the fact is, the 
increase in this year's spending is not adequate to meet the demand. It 
is critical that we provide veterans services to nearly 5 million 
veterans in 2003.
  It is almost so obvious that it should go without saying, but I hope 
this is going to be reversed immediately. I hope the administration is 
going to keep America's promise to our veterans. And I hope they will 
plus up that budget sufficiently to meet the demand and to keep faith 
with the promise made already to the past several generations of 
veterans and the promise that is today being made to the next 
generation of veterans.
  I yield the floor.

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