[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 24, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 4020, STATE VETERANS HOME NURSE RECRUITMENT ACT OF 
                                  2004

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 24, 2004

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H.R. 
4020, the State Veterans Home Nurse Recruitment Act of 2004, a bill to 
assist state veterans' homes in hiring and retaining nurses. Mr. Evans, 
the gentleman from Illinois and Ranking Member of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, joins me as an original cosponsor of this important 
legislation.
  H.R. 4020 would allow states which already receive per diem payments 
and have an established employee incentive programs to apply to receive 
up to 50 percent of the annual cost of such incentive programs, but no 
more than 2 percent of the annual amount of per diem payments per 
fiscal year. These funds would be paid from VA's health care budget, 
just as the per diem payments are now being paid.
  State veterans' homes first began serving veterans in the wake of the 
Civil War. In 1888, Congress authorized the first Federal aid to states 
which maintained homes for disabled American soldiers and sailors in 
need of long term care. At the time, the payments amounted to about 30 
cents per resident per day. In the years since, Congress has made 
several major revisions to the program to expand the base of payments 
to include specialized hospital, nursing home, domiciliary, and adult 
day health care.
  Now the largest provider of long-term care to our nation's veterans, 
the state veterans' home system plays a vital role in caring for the 
growing number of aging veterans. The veteran population most in need 
of nursing home care, those veterans 85 years or older, grew from about 
387,000 in FY 1998 to 870,000 in FY 2003, more than a 100 percent 
increase over the past five years. This veteran population is expected 
to continue to rise to about 1.3 million by mid-decade.
  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2002 surveyed 
the 50 states and Puerto Rico to learn how states are responding to 
needs for health care workers. Ninety percent reported a shortage of 
nursing staff as a major concern in their responses. In efforts to 
respond to these nursing and other health work force shortages, 44 of 
50 states reported establishing task forces and commissions to study 
and seek solutions. The focus of the task forces or commissions in 25 
states was to study shortages in the long-term care work force.
  While the HHS study documented the extent of the problems nationally, 
I am aware of difficulties that the three New Jersey state veterans' 
homes in Vineland, Paramus and Menlo Park, have faced over the past 
several years in recruiting and retaining quality nursing staff. The 
nursing shortage in my state of New Jersey was reported by HHS to be 
among the three highest in the nation.
  Mr. Speaker, we have an obligation to ensure that our veterans 
receive the benefits that they have earned through their service, 
including long-term care of high quality. I urge my colleagues to 
cosponsor H.R. 4020.

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