[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 89 (Wednesday, June 29, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7546-S7547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION SHORTFALL

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise this morning to again talk about 
the situation facing our veterans. I thank my colleague from Illinois 
for his dedication to this issue and his tremendous work and support as 
we have tried to raise this issue for a number of months.
  So all of my colleagues know, I came to the floor of the Senate early 
this year to talk about the situation facing those soldiers who have 
worked so honorably for this country in past wars and for those who are 
returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan today and the need to keep the 
promise that we gave to all of them that when they return we will 
provide them with the health care they need.
  When I was in my State earlier this year, in January, I met with a 
number of the service organizations and the military to talk about 
reintegration, to talk about what happens to our soldiers when they 
return home, to make sure they have the services available to them, and 
to make sure they are taken care of. Many in those meetings were deeply 
concerned that we would not have the facilities available for them. 
They told me of already long waiting lines at our veterans clinics and 
our VA hospitals. They told me of soldiers who could not get 
appointments for as many as 6 months or 3 years. They told me of a 
looming budget crisis.
  When I heard that, I talked to other organizations across the country 
and realized that we were, indeed, facing a tremendous shortfall at the 
VA. That is why in the Committee on the Budget I offered an amendment 
to increase the funding for VA. It was rejected by those on the 
majority side by an almost party-line vote. That is why, throughout the 
appropriations process and then on the emergency supplemental, I 
continued to come to the Senate to say that this is a looming crisis 
that we need to deal with.
  In the Senate, I offered an amendment for $1.98 billion for an 
emergency supplemental, saying this is critical. Our soldiers are not 
getting the care they need. I was defeated on that amendment on an 
almost party-line vote because of the letter sent by the Secretary of 
VA to Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Senator who is the chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Military Construction, saying they do not indicate a 
dire emergency. He said:

       I can assure you that the VA does not need emergency 
     supplemental funds in fiscal year 2005 to continue to provide 
     the timely quality service that is always our goal.
  Based on that letter, many on the other side voted against my 
amendment because they believed the Secretary was being honest with 
them. Well, I continue to raise this specter saying we are going to 
face a crisis. Even several weeks ago, in a Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs hearing, the Secretary of the VA came before our committee and 
once again said there is no budget crisis.
  Well, last Thursday, finally the truth came out. The VA told us they 
were well over $1 billion short in funding for this year. What was 
their solution? Their solution was to go back into this year's 
appropriations that have already been approved by this body, for which 
we already have the money flowing to construction and maintenance 
projects throughout the country--these are projects for seismic 
upgrades in our VA facilities, for asbestos abatement, for hazardous 
waste cleanup, for clinics that are being built where contracts are 
already let--and the VA is saying: We are going to take money away from 
those projects.
  We cannot allow that to happen. These contracts are already being 
let. These facilities already need the maintenance. It has already been 
deferred for 2 years. We cannot go back to our States and tell these 
clinics: Gee, sorry. There was a mistake made at the VA. They didn't do 
the calculations correctly. You are not going to get the services.
  That is not the promise we made to our men and women when we sent 
them overseas. We said we will be there. We said we will be there. That 
is a promise we need to keep now, as we face this budget crisis.
  We looked at the VA and said, ``How could you make such a mistake?'' 
particularly when I was raising the specter of this for the past 6 
months and knew from the ground, knew from looking at the VA's own 
numbers, that they were going to be facing this crisis.
  Yesterday, Secretary Nicholson came before the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs and said they had assumed that only 25,000 veterans from Iraq 
and Afghanistan would seek care at the VA in this fiscal year. Instead, 
what they have seen is 103,000 veterans already--already. And, as we 
know, many are still there, many more are to go, many more to be 
returning.
  So the Committee on Veterans' Affairs was basing their calculations 
on 2002 numbers rather than saying, as we all know, that we are at war, 
that over a million men and women have been sent to Iraq and 
Afghanistan. They are in what the generals call a 360-degree war, 
meaning there are intense times for each one of those soldiers, 24/7, 
knowing, when they return, they will need help for mental health care 
and post-traumatic stress disorder. The VA never took that into 
account. They never looked at the world of what was happening and said: 
We are going to have increased costs for Veterans Affairs because we 
have more veterans returning.
  So I find it appalling that the VA, the VA Secretary, and those who 
are required to be giving us honest numbers failed to look past their 
own desks and recognize what all of us throughout the country know; 
that is, we have a high number of veterans returning who need both 
physical care and mental health care. It is our job to appropriate the 
money to take care of them.
  So where are we today? Senator Byrd and I and others on this side are 
offering an amendment on the Interior appropriations bill that we will 
be debating later this afternoon to add, again, $1.42 billion as an 
emergency supplemental to provide the funding for this year. I am very 
proud of the Members of this Senate who have stood time and again to 
say we need to be there for our soldiers who are returning from war, 
and we need to do it responsibly.
  Senator Craig, the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 
told me, when we were on the floor debating this during the 
supplemental, when he used Secretary Nicholson's letter to justify 
voting no against my amendment, that if he was proved wrong, he would 
be out here to work with me to provide the funds.
  I commend Senator Craig and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for coming 
to the plate now and saying we need to

[[Page S7547]]

deal with this, this year. They will be offering a second-degree 
amendment to my amendment this afternoon to add $80 million so we can 
provide the funds for this year. I am happy to join with them in making 
sure this body adopts that amendment, as well as the underlying Murray 
amendment, to the Interior bill so we can deal with this crisis today.
  That is the responsible thing to do. The irresponsible thing to do is 
to say we can take care of this by moving the budget numbers; we can 
take care of this with budget gimmicks; we can ignore this; we can 
paper this over.
  We have done that already for far too long. I commend my colleagues 
on the other side for now joining with us to say we need an emergency 
supplemental to provide the dollars for our veterans when they return 
home to make sure the facilities are there. No gimmicks, no just 
talking about it; we are going to do the right thing in the Senate 
body.
  We now have to follow that through. We will have to make sure the 
House of Representatives comes to the table in negotiations and works 
with us to get this done. And I call on the President and the White 
House now to recognize this crisis, as well, and to not gloss over it, 
not to paper it over but to work with us to pass an emergency 
supplemental.
  Every one of us is going to go home for the Fourth of July recess. 
Every one of us is either going to be in parades or talk to veterans or 
be out there making sure the country knows we are so proud of the men 
and women who are serving us regardless of how we voted on the war. 
Every Member of this body and every citizen in this country is proud of 
our soldiers and the work they have done for us.
  We can show them that we keep our promises, today on the floor of the 
Senate, by passing the Murray amendment and the second-degree amendment 
that is going to be offered by the Senators from the other side to keep 
that commitment. We then have the responsibility to make sure the House 
of Representatives works with us to pass this as well and that the 
White House takes it on as a priority.
  I listened to the President of the United States, last night, address 
this country. I listened to his impassioned plea to stay the course. 
What I did not hear was the President calling on the American public to 
make the sacrifice that is necessary in war. That sacrifice includes 
making sure we keep the promise to the men and women we are asking to 
serve in the war overseas, by being there to provide the health care 
services they will need when they come home and not in facilities that 
are falling down or crumbling, not with equipment that is failing, not 
with shortages and lines, but with real care and not just for the 
veterans who are returning home today but for the veterans who served 
us in prior conflicts.
  Today, we are seeing an increase in the number of veterans in our VA 
facilities because--no surprise--the veterans from the Vietnam war are 
now reaching the age where they need additional health care dollars. 
Those figures have to be taken into account at the VA. They cannot bury 
their heads in the sand and look at reports from 10 years ago. They 
need to be real about what the costs are today. When we pass this 
amendment, we will hopefully get the President to work with us on an 
emergency supplemental to provide those funds. I will work with any 
Senator on this floor to make sure our Committee on Veterans' Affairs 
looks at the real numbers we need so we can project into the future the 
real costs and make sure we are doing the right thing on this end of 
Pennsylvania Avenue, to make sure we are providing the funds that our 
service men and women need.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator does have a minute remaining.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last night, when I listened to the 
President of the United States, he called on the American public--he 
called on all of us--asking our young men and women to consider service 
to our country overseas. Part of that commitment is not just asking 
them to serve but being there for them.
  He also called on all of us to put our flags up on the Fourth of July 
and to be proud as Americans and to honor those who are serving us and 
to tell them we are proud of them by raising our flags.
  The other thing we can do is adopt this amendment on the supplemental 
and get the White House to agree with us to make it an emergency to 
provide the services that are necessary. We will raise our flags, we 
will honor our veterans, we will be proud of our soldiers, but we will 
also be there to take care of them when they come home.
  That is what the Murray amendment will do today. I am proud to join 
with Senator Craig, Senator Hutchison, and others from the other side 
to do what is right. I call on the other Members of Congress, as well 
as the White House, to join us in this effort.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I want to start this morning by 
finishing something that Senator Murray just talked about and say that 
today the Veterans' Administration is going to step to the plate, along 
with Members of the Senate.
  Senator Murray has been so helpful in working out some agreements 
that will allow us to pour another $1.5 billion into the veterans 
programs. We will talk more about that later today. But Senator 
Santorum, Senator Kyl, Senator Craig, myself, Senator Murray, Senator 
Byrd, and Senator Rockefeller have come together as a united front to 
assure that veterans who are coming back from this war in Iraq and 
Afghanistan are not shortchanged. This is the way we should work with 
the administration and the Senate.

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