[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 154 (Friday, November 18, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H10912-H10913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2528,
MILITARY QUALITY OF LIFE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 564 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 564
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be
in order to consider the conference report to accompany the
bill (H.R. 2528) making appropriations for military quality
of life functions of the Department of Defense, military
construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and
for other purposes. All points of order against the
conference report and against its consideration are waived.
The conference report shall be considered as read.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) is
recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the
purpose of debate only.
House Resolution 564 waives all points of order against the
conference report and against its consideration, and it provides that
the conference report shall be considered as read.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 564 and the
underlying conference report for H.R. 2528, the Military Construction
and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal
year 2006.
Today, this House has the opportunity to pass a conference report
that will provide $45.4 billion to fund the very important needs of our
servicemen and women, our veterans, and our military infrastructure.
This conference report provides an all-inclusive look at the programs
that are related to the quality of life of those who currently serve
America in the armed forces, their families, and those men and women
who have sacrificed so much for our freedom in the past.
Mr. Speaker, by providing $45.4 billion, this conference report
actually marks an increase of $3.1 billion from fiscal year 2005, and
it is an increase of $300,000 from the President's request.
The bill funds the Department of Veterans Affairs at $22.5 billion,
$1.7 billion above the fiscal year 2005 enacted level, and $575 million
above the 2006 budget request by the President. Particularly important
is the funding for veterans' medical services that includes for the
very first time $2.2 billion strictly allocated for specialty mental
health care on top of a doubling for funding of mental health research.
[[Page H10913]]
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Mr. Speaker, I should note that over the past 2 years, funding for
veterans medical care has increased by 18 percent. Let me repeat:
Funding for veterans medical care has increased over the past 2 years
by 18 percent. The conference provides a particular victory for
veterans back home in northwest Georgia, my district, and across the
Nation. This bill does not, and I repeat, does not, contain any new
fees for veterans medical services or prescription drugs. This
conference report provides $6.2 billion for military construction, $5.1
billion for Active Duty construction, and $1.1 billion for Reserve
components.
Mr. Speaker, I will conclude my statement by acknowledging
Subcommittee Chairman Walsh and Chairman Lewis for their overall vision
and dedication to completing this bill, both here in the House and in
the conference, for the sake of our servicemen and women, past and
present.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to this debate. I encourage my colleagues
to support the rule and the underlying conference report.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Gingrey) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, this is the first conference report that the House will
consider as a military quality of life-VA appropriations bill. As we
all know, as a result of the subcommittee realignment adopted earlier
this year by the Appropriations Committee, military construction,
Defense Department health programs and all veterans programs are now
contained in this one appropriations bill. I want to express my respect
and voice my praise for the work of Chairman Walsh and Ranking Member
Edwards for their work on this bipartisan-supported conference report.
This final conference report is a significant improvement over the
earlier House-passed bill, especially in the areas of medical care and
benefits for our veterans. Veterans medical services are funded at
$22.5 billion, which has long been the position on this side of the
aisle as the minimum amount of funding required to meet our veterans
health needs. This total is $575 million above the President's budget
request and $1.7 billion more than last year.
Mr. Speaker, over the last 2 years, the funding amount needed to meet
veterans medical care has increased by 18 percent, so while I welcome
this increase in veterans medical services, I remain concerned about
the total amount of funds that will actually be required over the
coming year. I predict that we will still need to find additional funds
next year to meet the fiscal year 2006 medical needs of our veterans.
Other important actions taken by the conferees are the specific
targeting of $2.2 billion for specialty mental health care for our
veterans and fully funding the requested amounts for posttraumatic
stress disorders. In addition, this bill creates three Centers of
Excellence for mental health and PTSD medical care.
Mr. Speaker, last week I was at a forum in western Massachusetts, and
I met a Massachusetts father whose son had served in Iraq. He told me
about the difficulty his son had attempting to reintegrate himself back
into civilian life following his tour of duty. One night during a
conversation, his son broke down in tears and laid his head in his
father's lap and cried. The father told me at that forum that the next
time he held his son's head in his lap was a couple of weeks later when
he cut the rope that his son had used to hang himself in their
basement.
Mr. Speaker, we need to recognize the vast need, the urgent and
increasing need, for counseling services for the men and women
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The New England Journal of
Medicine reported earlier this year that one in five of the soldiers
leaving the Iraq war are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder
and other mental health problems. We have to make their ability to
receive counseling and support simple and seamless. We have to make
sure that they do not run into bureaucratic walls or receive the
runaround just when they need help the most.
I know that this is something that the chairman and ranking member
think about a great deal, and I simply want to express my support for
their efforts to confront this growing crisis.
Mr. Speaker, this conference report also increases the amount of
funding for military construction and housing over the President's
request and over the amount in the House-passed bill. Even so, at this
level of funding, if will take nearly eight decades to meet the needs
currently identified by the Pentagon for military housing and modern
basing and training facilities.
Mr. Speaker, everyone in this Congress talks about how we support our
troops and how we honor their service and sacrifice, but year after
year we fail to meet the needs of our veterans, the old and the new,
and we fail to provide the funds to provide our uniformed men and women
the housing and training facilities that they need in order to prepare
for the deadly duties we demand of them.
This is a matter of priorities. This is a statement of values and
principles about whether and how we really do believe our troops and
our veterans merit the very best this Nation can provide. We just
cannot stand here year after year and praise the conferees for doing
the best they could within the budget allocation they were given. It is
the Congress that determines the amount of that budget allocation for
our veterans, for our military housing and construction, for our
military's quality of life. As my good friend and colleague from
Illinois Jesse Jackson, Jr., said yesterday on the floor of this House,
it's like a farmer saying the summer harvest is bad when he failed to
plant seeds in the spring.
Mr. Speaker, like all of my House colleagues, I will be supporting
this conference report, but we simply have to do better in the future.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to close this morning by
saluting those men and women who so proudly and bravely serve our
country. Their sacrifices and their families' sacrifices are beyond the
average American's comprehension. We must acknowledge that without
these individuals, the rest of us could not enjoy the freedoms we so
often discuss in this Chamber.
The appropriation conference report that will be passed today should
stand as a ``thank you'' to those who have worn the uniform of our
Nation. Some will say the bill does not provide enough for those who
are veterans of military service. Well, in a way, Mr. Speaker, I would
agree with that. I honestly do not believe we can ever do enough to
support our military men and women. They deserve so much more than we
will ever be able to afford to give. It is truly an unbalanced
relationship. They sacrifice everything for our liberties. We can only
repay a small portion of that debt.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will finish my remarks simply by saying thank you
to our troops, thank you to our veterans, and may God bless you and
keep you safe.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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