[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 155 (Thursday, October 30, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2158-E2159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 3387

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 29, 2003

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 3387, the 
Veterans Health Programs Improvement Act of 2003. Mr. Speaker,

[[Page E2159]]

many of the provisions in the bill I am introducing with my colleague, 
the ranking member of the Health Subcommittee of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, Mr. Rodriguez, are supported by the administration 
and have been offered to us previously in its request for draft 
legislation. Specifically, sections 2 through 6 of this bill are found 
in the draft bill, Omnibus Veterans Health Care and Benefits Act of 
2003 requested by Secretary Principi on August 15, 2003.
  Other provisions of this bill extend authorities or reports which 
already exist in law, but which are expiring. I believe it is critical 
that some of these activities continue to be mandated and carefully 
overseen by Congress.
  VA has asked for the authority to provide up to 14 days of care to 
the newborn infants of women veterans. This allows VA to provide a more 
complete spectrum of care to women--particularly the younger women who 
are now serving in the military in record numbers. VA may, under 
current law, offer all maternity care, including labor, delivery and 
recovery, but once the infant is born, VA is forced to find other 
payers--often Medicaid if the mother has no other health care 
benefits--to finance the care of the child. The cost of providing this 
benefit to the newborn infants of women veterans is negligible.
  VA has also asked for authority to provide certain rehabilitative 
services under its medical care authority. A vital part of therapy for 
many of VA's homeless, psychiatric, and substance use disorder recovery 
programs is the vocational activity. Successfully engaging in 
productive activity is viewed as a critical part of therapy and 
integral to complete rehabilitation. Although VA does offer a range of 
training programs, often VA must shuttle veterans between programs to 
meet all the veterans' needs. This makes case management difficult. 
Instead of allowing one person to work through job training, placement 
and support, veterans could be forced to work through several agencies 
and multiple points-of-contact adding complexity and confusion when 
veterans are already at a vulnerable turning point in their 
rehabilitation. This provision allows VA medical personnel to provide 
continuous care throughout vocational training.

  Last year the clock ran out on special health care eligibility for 
herbicide-exposed veterans of the Vietnam-era and also for our Persian 
Gulf veterans. I spent much of my early tenure here fighting for 
compensation for veterans who believed their illnesses were associated 
with exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides. Learning from that 
experience, Congress gave veterans who served in the first Gulf war 
more of the benefit of the doubt by allowing them to be compensated for 
vaguely defined conditions and illnesses that are not generally related 
to military service, but for which they seem to be at high risk. There 
seems to be a pretty serious schism between what we are doing to 
compensate veterans and the provision of care for conditions which they 
believe may be associated to their service. Without this special 
priority, some veterans who have not previously sought VA health care, 
may never be able to receive it. VA wants to continue to offer priority 
specialized treatment to veterans in these special priorities, and I 
fully support them in this effort.
  VA would also like to require veterans to provide information from 
their health insurers. Too often these private-sector payers are raking 
in the cost-sharing from veterans or their spouses without paying 
toward their VA treatment. Veterans should be willing to share this 
information if they are receiving care at VA facilities and their 
health plans should be willing to reimburse VA as the veterans' 
provider-of-choice. It is only fair to ask veterans to offer this 
information as VA continues to mull tough choices of limiting services 
and those it will serve.
  Finally, VA also requested permission to extend its authority to 
provide acquired properties to homeless service providers. These 
partners can purchase VA-acquired properties at discounts ranging from 
20 to 50 percent. Through fiscal year 2002, 188 properties have been 
sold to homeless providers under the program, including two that were 
sold to a VA medical center for the compensated work therapy program. 
The shelters established in these properties have provided 
approximately 372,000 nights of shelter to homeless veterans. The VA 
has also entered into 52 leases with homeless providers. Most of these 
were subsequently converted into sales to homeless providers. I hope 
that we can support VA's efforts to continue to offer these properties 
to homeless providers.

  In addition to the VA-requested provisions, I am proposing several 
extensions of reports and additional authorities that I strongly 
believe we must continue. Congress created two advisory committees--one 
that advises the Under Secretary on Health exclusively about Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder and one that makes recommendations for a 
variety of programs serving Severely Mentally Ill veterans. We have 
relied on the reports of these Committees to ensure Congress that these 
mental health programs are receiving adequate attention as VA continues 
to reform its health care delivery. It has become clear that since 
1996, and likely before, VA has continued to pare back the resources it 
commits to its mental health programs. Congress is still awaiting the 
report due last Spring that demonstrates VA's maintenance of these 
programs' capacity in fiscal year 2002. These Committees serve as much 
needed internal spokespeople and advocates for their programs and are 
particularly vital in more fiscally constrained times. I am hopeful 
that my colleagues will agree that we continue to require the oversight 
of these internal watchdogs.
  In addition to extending these reporting requirements, I would like 
to see Congress committed to allowing Vietnam-era veterans to continue 
to seek readjustment counseling at Vet Centers. As a Vietnam-era 
veteran myself, I have seen too many of my peers have significantly 
delayed reactions to the traumatic events of long ago. Many World War 
II veterans continue to struggle with the past we might have suspected 
they left long ago--look at how many veterans from that war had strong 
emotional reactions to Saving Private Ryan. As we all recall, there 
were unique challenges to returning home from service during the 
Vietnam War--a war that did not enjoy public support. While we've 
learned from this experience to ``love the warrior, if not the war'' I 
would like to ensure that Vet Centers remain accessible to Vietnam-era 
veterans who had unique adjustment challenges upon their return to 
service.
  Finally, my bill would eliminate the sunset of authority for VA's 
sexual trauma counseling program currently set to expire December 31, 
2004. Surveys from a few years ago continued to demonstrate that women 
in the Armed Services are at a high risk for sexual harassment and, 
even sexual assault. Sadly, it is apparent that sexual trauma will 
continue occurring in military service and elsewhere. VA has served as 
a valuable outlet to women who have believed the military and the 
government had otherwise abandoned them. We must ensure that VA's 
programs continue to exist to serve for the indefinite future.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill supports proven programs that are already 
offering invaluable assistance to the veterans that are able to avail 
themselves of them. I want veterans to continue to be able to rely upon 
them.

                          ____________________