[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 90 (Thursday, June 30, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7797-S7799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--VETERANS APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate
receives from the House the emergency supplemental bill for veterans
health care, the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that if
the bill is less than $1.5 billion, all after the enacting clause be
stricken and the text of the amendment as authorized earlier today by
the Appropriations Committee to include the full $1.5 billion as passed
by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 96 to 0 be agreed to; that the
bill as amended be read a third time and passed and motion to
reconsider be laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
[[Page S7798]]
The majority leader.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me take
a moment to review where we are. On Wednesday afternoon, on a
bipartisan unanimous basis, we passed the Santorum amendment to address
the funding shortfall, the surprise funding shortfall, of the
Department of Veterans Affairs. Based on the very best information we
had 48 hours ago, the amendment was passed at an appropriated $1.5
billion to address the critical health care needs at the Department
that had been underfunded as a result of some erroneous calculations of
the use and need by our veterans. This money is available to be spent
in this fiscal year as well as the next.
In the interim, the administration, working aggressively, refined
that estimate for the Department in this fiscal year, fiscal year 2005,
and this morning or about 12 hours ago, Thursday morning, informed the
House of Representatives that it would be best to appropriate $975
million for these veterans' health care needs for this fiscal year now
on an emergency basis.
Tonight, not too long ago, the House passed that request, which was
one of the quickest actions on a spending need since the Budget Act
became law now 30 years ago. However, and this is important, the
administration has not yet been able to adequately define and hone the
specific estimate of the extra need for the year 2006.
I have been informed that this work for ensuring an accurate report
for Congress for money in fiscal year 2006 is ongoing right now by the
Department and by OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. Therefore,
it is my expectation that within the next few weeks the administration
will give us, will transmit a budget amendment to Congress, which will
accurately detail the precise amount of money that the administration
needs, or believes that they need, for funding these veterans' health
care needs for fiscal year 2006. That request, I understand, is likely
to be large and could be even larger than what we approved now on
Wednesday.
Once we have that information in hand and know that it is accurate,
we can call up the House bill which contains funding for this fiscal
year and then add that necessary funding for the next fiscal year and
then send it back to the House. That would be a very quick course of
action. Or we could take that accurate number, once determined, and in
conference with the House, adjust the amendment that we passed
yesterday. Finally, we could take that accurate number, incorporate it
into the appropriate subcommittee fiscal year 2006 legislation.
I mention these options--and there may be even other options as
well--to cure the problem. I look forward to working with the
distinguished chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee to ensure
that the administration gives us accurate information for next year, as
well as the appropriations subcommittee chairman, as well as the
leadership of the House and the administration.
So before the Chair asks again if there are any objections to the
unanimous consent, let me just turn to the chairman of the Veterans'
Affairs Committee to see if there is a comment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, first let me say that I am surprised that
the distinguished majority leader is surprised at what the Veterans'
Administration and the administration has talked about today of what
they need. We have been, for months, talking about the shortfall with
the Veterans' Administration, months--not weeks, not days but months.
We have had three votes, two in committee and two on the Senate floor,
where we, the minority, have begged for more money for our veterans.
It seems somewhat unusual to me that approximately 24 hours ago, the
Senate unanimously passed a $1.5 billion supplemental for veterans for
health care. We just did it. The House Republicans have again
shortchanged our veterans by reducing this number by over $500 million.
We will insist on a right to amend the bill to bring it to the full
$1.5 billion mark. This is the same amendment which the Senate
Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan basis, unanimously authorized
the chairman and ranking member to offer to the House supplemental,
should it arrive here below the $1.5 billion mark. This is the real
world we are in.
Now, I also say this: We are depending on the Office of Management
and Budget and the Veterans' Administration at this late hour? Would it
not be terrible, would it not be awful, if the veterans got a little
too much money? What is this, some game that we are playing? We are
playing with the lives of people.
In Las Vegas, we have people waiting as long as 11 months to get into
a hospital to have some of the radiology work done. We learned
yesterday that they are literally borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,
they are robbing the capital accounts with the Veterans'
Administration.
As we speak, we have about 140,000 troops in Iraq. They are being
worked back all the time, and these people who come home need help, in
addition to World War II veterans who need help.
Why don't we have the House Republicans meet their responsibilities?
And why at this late hour are we trying to protect the White House when
this body voted by a unanimous vote, everybody in the Senate voted for
this? Yet we had a unanimous vote in the Appropriations Committee
authorizing the chairman and ranking member to do the exact thing that
I have asked to do.
Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I am happy to yield for a question.
Mr. DURBIN. Through the Chair, I would like to ask the Senator from
Nevada a question.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will suspend. The unanimous
consent request is pending. Is there objection?
Mr. CRAIG. Reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, at this late hour it is interesting to me
that, having had the House and the Senate speak in two different voices
on the same issue in less than 24 hours, we would stand here and
determine exactly the right thing to do.
The $1.5 billion that we voted on yesterday is a figure I and my
staff came up with. I happen to be the Republican chairman of the
Veterans' Affairs Committee. But, having said that, the ranking
Democrat Member, Danny Akaka, agreed with that. Senator Patty Murray
had been out front on it early on. I told her at the time I didn't know
if our figures were right, and if we were wrong we would correct them.
We can point a lot of fingers, but here are some realities. We have
increased the veterans budget nearly 10 percent every year for the last
4. I said on the floor yesterday and I will say it again tonight,
because it cannot be disputed, whether it was a Democratic President or
whether it was a Republican President, the fact is they almost always
underfunded veterans. It was the Congress in a bipartisan vote that
funded it accurately and adequately. For those percentages of increase
over the last several years, Democrats and Republicans alike stood
together to do it and we produced a high-quality health care system.
No veteran who is qualified today is being denied. No veteran
tonight, with the now shortfall, is being denied. The reason they are
not being denied is quite simple. We are borrowing interagency accounts
to address the immediate shortfalls. And as we do that at the
administration level, the Congress, the Senate, the House, are seeking
to replenish those funds.
There is a difference of opinion here, not between Democrats and
Republicans, but between the Congress and the administration. We are
working that out.
I hope, and many of my colleagues on the other side agree, that when
we return from the July 4 break, with a request of OMB to have those
figures accurate, we can address this in an accurate way. I believe we
are right. I believe the $1.5 billion is an accurate figure. But we
agreed in a bipartisan way to say that those moneys shall be spent in
2005 and 2006, that there would be carryover money passing through in a
seamless way from those two fiscal years.
If we do what the minority leader, the Democratic leader asks that we
do
[[Page S7799]]
tonight, it is a political expression. It is not something that will
become a functional, operative bill.
The House is out. We are about to go out. There will be no
conference. We will be back to visit this again a week from now. The
reason we will be back a week from now with or without action on the
floor of the Senate tonight is we do not have answers to this problem.
We are asking for those answers because this time I have told the
Secretary, I have told OMB, and as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs
Committee--Senator Hutchison is chairman of the Appropriations
Committee and made it very clear, and my colleagues on the other side
of the aisle are backing us on this--we will get the right figures and
we will do it right.
Now, with the new progressions, now with the growth rates understood,
now with the incoming out of Iraq and Afghanistan and those numbers
clearly understandable, we will serve them as we have been serving them
and no veteran so qualified will be denied.
That is what this Congress has done responsibly year after year and
that is what this Congress will do. The Senate has acted. But in this
hour there is nothing we can do, nor in this instance should do. In
that time, no veteran will be denied service.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. It is interesting to hear the description given by the
Senator who is the chairman of the veterans' committee. It is also
interesting to put it in the context of where we have come over the
last few days.
The amendment on the floor just a few days ago when the shortfall was
noted on a bipartisan basis from Senator Murray was an amendment less
than the one adopted. It was $1.4 billion. The Senator, the chairman of
the committee, as well as others, came together on a bipartisan basis
and said, That is not enough. That is not enough, $1.4 billion will not
meet the shortfall. By our best estimate, they said 24 hours ago or
whenever we debated it, we need more, we need $1.5 billion. And we
acceded to your knowledge of the agency and your knowledge of its need
and came together on a bipartisan basis--I believe the vote was 96 to
nothing--and said that is exactly what we will do, $1.5 billion.
Then while we barely finished this work, the House came back and said
no, the figure is $975 million or whatever number they came up with,
dramatically less than what we had approved.
It strikes me as interesting that we are going to back off of our
best estimate and say let's err on the side of less money for the
Veterans' Administration. Why wouldn't the Senate be holding fast to
its position? Why wouldn't the Senate be holding fast to its position
and say we believe $1.5 billion is the right number still, as we
believed 24 hours ago when we voted on it? Why do we want to back off
at this point and say it must be that much less?
It strikes me, unless there has been a dramatic infusion of new
information and knowledge, that we are acceding to the House of
Representatives because they have decided to go home.
Mr. REID. Regular order, Mr. President.
Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Regular order has been called for. Is there
objection?
The majority leader.
Mr. FRIST. Reserving the right to object, and I will be brief, just
listening to the conversation, I ask the minority leader's unanimous
consent agreement be modified to simply clear the House legislation for
975, and that the House bill be considered read three times, passed,
and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator so modify his request?
Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, with all due respect to the distinguished
majority leader, my friend, I will not agree to the modification. I am
standing on the unanimous consent request I offered a few minutes ago.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. FRIST. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the original request by the
minority leader for the unanimous consent.
Mr. FRIST. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, for the short term, we have a problem that
we will resolve when we return a week from now. By then I hope we have
accurate figures, so that we can do as I think the Senate wants to do,
and as the unanimous consent of the Senate expressed the other evening.
At this late hour, all we could do is make a political expression. We
could not resolve an issue. I think we are all intent on resolving a
very important issue for the sake of our veterans. We hope to have
those numbers, and I think we will. Those requests have gone to OMB, to
see what their figures are, as I work with the Veterans'
Administration, as appropriators do to make sure we have those accurate
figures. I think all of us this time want to get it right. I know this
Senator does.
I yield the floor.
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