[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 130 (Wednesday, September 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11092-S11095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of H.R. 2642, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 2642) making appropriations for military
construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and
for other purposes.
The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am pleased to resume consideration of the
fiscal year 2008 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and related
agencies appropriations bill.
To recap the essentials which I discussed yesterday, the bill
provides $109.2 billion in funding, including $44.5 billion in
mandatory spending and $43 billion in discretionary funding for the
Department of Veterans Affairs. Overall discretionary funding in the
bill totals $64.7 billion. That is a $4 billion increase over the
President's budget request. Most of the increased funding is targeted
at expanding and improving veterans health care, which is an essential
requirement for our obligation to the veterans, and also it recognizes
that as generations of veterans are aging, those veterans from Korea
and World War II and the Vietnam conflict, we also have a new era of
veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq, and this money is essential.
This bill represents a landmark commitment to our troops and their
families and our Nation's veterans by investing in urgently needed
military construction projects and in expanding health care services to
our veterans.
For the Department of Veterans Affairs, the bill includes $29 billion
for direct medical services for veterans. This level of funding is
equal to the amount requested by the veterans service organizations in
the independent budget. Each year, our veterans service organizations
prepare an independent budget, not based upon what the administration
thinks they can afford but what veterans need. This is one of the few
times we have been able to meet that objective of the veterans service
organizations within their independent budget. It will allow the
Department to increase its resources for both physical and mental
health care for veterans, and it will give the Department the resources
it needs to expand research and treatment of traumatic brain injury and
post-traumatic stress disorders. At a time when scores of veterans are
returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with these often
invisible wounds, this increased funding in this regard is urgently
needed. It has been estimated that perhaps 30 percent of those who have
served in Iraq or Afghanistan have received either traumatic brain
injuries or have post-traumatic stress or both, and we have to be able
to respond to those concerns.
The bill also includes needed funding for military construction of
facilities
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and housing for our troops and their families. We are a nation at war,
and our military forces need the best possible facilities to work,
train, and to hone their skills, and their families need the best
possible housing and quality-of-life facilities, such as chapels and
childcare centers, to see them through the strain and hardship of
repeated and lengthy deployments.
As I have said before, this bill is supported by the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the veterans service organizations. The President,
in his Statement of Administration Policy released yesterday, signaled
his intention to sign the bill as reported out of the committee, and I
hope that intention is carried through.
There is no reason the Senate cannot complete work on this bill at a
reasonable hour today. In fact, I have spoken with the majority leader,
and he has indicated to me that it is his desire to move this bill
today, to complete work on it today, and to be able to have a vote on
final passage we hope sometime today. I urge my colleagues, if they
have amendments they wish to offer, to bring them to the floor as soon
as possible. It takes a long time to deal with some of these issues, to
vet them, to clear the amendments, and the slower the amendments are
presented to us, the longer it will take to complete action on this
bill. But the majority leader is committed to finishing this bill
today, and I share that commitment. The Senate cannot afford to drag
its feet on this bill. Our men and women in uniform, our Nation's
veterans are depending on us to provide the resources they so urgently
need. I urge my colleagues to move quickly to pass this bill.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and 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. MURRAY. 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. MURRAY. Mr. President, in Iraq and Afghanistan, like so many
conflicts before, our servicemembers have done absolutely everything
that has been asked of them. They have answered the President's call to
war with honor and a sense of duty we have come to expect from our
Nation's bravest men and women. They have performed under enormous
pressure in the middle of a civil war, they have left behind loved ones
who count on them, and they have continued to put their lives on the
line every day.
Unfortunately, at home, their commitment to service has not been met
yet by an administration that is committed to care for them. From poor
conditions at VA facilities around the country, lack of PTSD
counselors, benefits claims backlogs that keep our veterans waiting for
months and months and months and sometimes years, it is very clear that
so far this administration has failed to account for our Nation's
veterans and to count them as a cost of this war. It is unacceptable
that servicemembers who fought overseas are returning home and being
forced to fight their own Government for the care and services they
need.
Today, with the bill that is in front of us, the VA bill, we take a
major step toward reversing that trend and the Bush administration's
failure to care for our heroes. The funding for our veterans included
in the VA bill is more than $3.6 billion over the President's request.
After years of cutting corners on caring for our heroes, we are finally
putting forth an honest assessment of what these men and women need.
This bill takes into account the additional strains on the VA system
that simultaneous wars and new battlefield realities present. It is an
investment that represents nearly all of the independent budget, which
is the recommendation of the funds needed to care for our veterans and
is compiled by our veterans service organization.
This bill invests in improving health care, expanding mental health
services, and constructing new facilities that are really needed. It is
going to mean, when this bill is passed and signed by the President,
more qualified health care workers, better prosthetics that our
servicemembers are asking for, and more accessible veterans facilities.
It is also going to mean, importantly, thousands of new VA case workers
who will help us reduce that unacceptable delay that we have heard
about from so many of our veterans when they come home and try to
access their benefits.
It will improve conditions at our VA facilities. It will add an
increased investment in polytrauma and mental health care facilities
that will drastically improve treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain
injury and catastrophic injuries as well. Most of all, this bill means
after years of neglect our Government is again going to honor our
veterans' sacrifices.
This bill and all it provides could not come at a more crucial time.
As a member myself of both the appropriations subcommittee that is
responsible for this bill and the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I
have heard numerous times firsthand about the VA's shortcomings in
caring for our veterans. In fact, last month on the August break I held
a Senate Veterans' Affairs field hearing in Takoma, WA, to specifically
examine the challenges that men and women are facing when they come
home. At that hearing I spoke with Brandon Jacobs. He is a veteran of
the Army and National Guard, and he served in Iraq. He said a lot more
has to be done to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress syndrome and
combat-related stresses. He talked about how we needed to not only
increase access for him and his fellow servicemembers, but also for the
families that struggle when a loved one returns home with an invisible
wound.
I also heard from a young man, Dan Purcell. He is an Iraq veteran who
said he didn't ``want to be treated as a tool that could be casually
discarded when broken or found to be no longer useful.'' What a tragic
statement from someone who served us overseas, that when he comes home
he feels like a discarded tool because he has been broken. That is not
how we should be treating our veterans, and that is not how this VA/HUD
bill treats our veterans.
This bill that is before us finally takes the important steps that
are necessary to recognize Brandon and Dan and so many others who are
part of the costs of this war. We also have to make sure our troops are
ready and that they receive the training they need before we send them
overseas. I am very pleased that within this bill, the military
construction investments that are made will help our country do a
better job in training the men and women we asked to serve us in our
military. In my home State of Washington, our military facilities play
a very important role in our Nation's security. We have Fort Lewis in
Tacoma, where we are training the Stryker Brigades at the center of the
fighting in Iraq, we have Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane that
plays a major role in our air defense, and we have the Naval Air
Station Whidbey Island that helps patrol the Pacific shores. It is
extremely critical that these bases, which serve such vital roles,
receive the funding they need.
The bill that is in front of us today does just that and provides
more than $635 million in improvements for Washington State military
installations. I thank Senators Reed and Hutchison for their special
attention and recognition of the needs of our bases in my home State of
Washington and across the country. Their leadership on this bill has
been outstanding.
I know the chair and ranking member will be on the Senate floor
throughout today. The leader has told us that he wants this bill
finished by this evening. I urge all Members who have any amendments to
come this afternoon to get their amendments offered because we do have
to wrap up this bill. We are very aware of the timelines that are
approaching, the very short amount of time that is left to get our
numerous appropriations bills through. We intend to move them through.
In order to do that we ask Members to come to the floor today, offer
their amendments, let's work through them and get this bill passed so
we can get it sent to the President.
It is important to pass this bill because this bill recognizes that
any time we invest in building our military and improving training for
our troops we invest in their care. I remind my colleagues what George
Washington famously observed one time:
The willingness with which our young people are likely to
serve in any way war, no
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matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how
they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and
appreciated by their country.
The bill in front of us reverses President Bush's failures and
carries through on the commitment that our very first President
discussed. It keeps our military strong by honoring the sacrifices of
our heroes with the funding that meets their needs.
I note this bill has been endorsed by the Disabled Americans,
Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of
America, AMVETS, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,
among many other veterans service organizations that take so much time
out of their own lives to fight for our veterans and recognize the
critical funding for this bill.
I note an AP article from this morning that says the Secretary of the
VA, Secretary Nickolson, has said in a letter to key lawmakers they do
not need additional funding, they just need this bill passed. I note we
have heard that song before, and that song was wrong.
We have to do the right thing. This bill is critical. The additional
funding in this bill, I think every Member knows is needed. Every one
of us has been out there and talked to the men and women who have come
home from Iraq, to their families, and heard from PTSD counselors on
down the line who have visited facilities or Walter Reed or seen
facilities in their own States. They know this funding is needed. I
encourage my colleagues to come to the Senate floor, offer their
amendments, get this bill expeditiously to conference and sent to the
President. I encourage the President and Secretary not to challenge us
on the need for funding but to do the right thing; recognize the care
of our service men and women is part of the cost of war. It is an
obligation we have to meet.
We are meeting it with this bill, and I hope we can get it done
quickly so our veterans, many men and women who have served us, will
know this country is doing right by them.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
H.R. 327
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I wanted to spend a few minutes noting
some things in the press about H.R. 327 and my hold on that bill. This
is a bill which is very well intended. It is to help prevent suicide
among our veterans.
I have been in the medical field since 1978--1979, that is.
Approximately 6 to 10 percent of my practice has been associated with
depression, treating clinical depression, suicidal ideation, post-
traumatic stress disorder, and other issues.
We need to offer our veterans whatever we can offer them in terms of
helping them deal with what they have been through and also helping our
veterans who have no connection with their war experience in terms of
treatment of depression.
Our veterans have the right to expect the legislation we craft to
deliver on good intentions. H.R. 327, frankly, does not do that. One of
the serious flaws with H.R. 327 is that every veteran is preconditioned
with a mental status exam. So if you are a World War II vet and you
have a sore throat and you go to the VA clinic in Muskogee, under 327
you have to undergo a thorough mental status exam before you can have
your sore throat treated. That is Congress hitting a gnat with a cinder
block. It is wasteful of our dollars. It portends to have Congress
practicing medicine, when, in fact, we do not know how to practice
medicine, and you cannot.
What this bill sets up is that Congress is going to mandate the
doctor-patient relationship or the patient-PA or the patient-nurse
practitioner or the patient-social service or licensed medical social
service masters. What we have decided is to interject, because of the
tragedies that we have seen in the last couple of years, a mandated
form of treating suicide, depression, and risk of harm.
I have reached out to Senator Harkin on this bill. I offered to make
some simple changes. We were rebuffed. Then what we saw in the press is
that I wanted to hold this only because of how somebody might not be
able to have their second amendment rights guaranteed. That is hardly
the situation at all. What I really am holding this bill for is
because, first of all, it is bad medicine. No. 2, it duplicates and
mandates things we should not be doing. It takes away from the
professions within the VA who know what they are doing. It steps on and
it interrupts what the VA is already implementing to a good extent and
to a great degree.
There is another very serious concern with this, which is that it
mandates the tracking of veterans who have mental health issues. The
vast majority of our veterans do not have mental health issues, but the
assumption under this bill is they all have to be screened for it. That
would be like me, with every patient that I ever see in my practice,
the first thing I have to do is make sure, because they were in the
military, that they do not have some type of mental health disturbance
coming back. It is insulting to our military men and women who have
given their lives, given their blood, given their time, given their
honor, and given their sacrifice to assume they cannot do that without
having some disruption in their capability to function in this society.
So it is highly insulting to the vast majority of our veterans.
Now, the question is, How do we solve the problem of depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder that leads to suicidal thought,
ideation, and behavior? That is what we ought to be doing. And what we
are doing is creating a set of circumstances that may have an impact
probably not any greater than what the VA is doing now but will, in
fact, take away great resources from other mental health issues as well
as other health issues within the VA.
Let me give you some statistics, if I may. The VA is 3 years into a
mental health strategic plan that has been markedly successful in
improving the quality of care and ensuring that high-risk factors such
as suicidal ideation are considered when veterans are assessed or
impact or enter the VA system. The VA has suicide prevention
coordinators in every VA facility in this country. They have a hotline
24/7. They have hired over 3,000 mental health staffers just since the
end of 2005. So they have recognized what was the problem. They are
responding to it. They have two suicide prevention centers of
excellence that are geared up and working on the very specific issues
associated with our military and post-traumatic stress disorder from
combat.
Between 2002 and 2007, the VA spent 2\1/2\ times the percentage of
their budget as we spend in all other health care on mental health. So
they are already addressing the issue.
The other thing that is disturbing is this tracking of what they will
do. They are not going to be tracking the data, they are going to be
tracking individual veterans under this bill. That violates their own
civil liberties. If, in fact, you have encountered the VA and because
you were screened, not of your choice and not because you had signs or
symptoms, because of that, that becomes a part of your record. You
automatically are limited in lots of things that you cannot do in this
country because you served your country. Now you have a mental health
screening, an indication on your VA chart that would forbid you from
becoming a police officer, an airline pilot, or an EMS, many other
professions within this country. The idea that we are going to track
individual veterans and their mental health status rather than the
data--this bill specifically states that we are going to track the
veterans, not the data--is wrong.
Finally, this bill sets out a peer counseling provision that has
already been proven in the literature to not be effective. Yet it is
mandated in this bill. So what this bill is about is the Senate
practicing medicine and mandating ways to do things that the VA itself
has already started. It is 3 years into a program of which they are
using experts in the field to guide them, and we are using emotion and
response.
I am going to continue to hold this bill until we work on the issues
to guarantee freedom of veterans in terms of tracking of their data and
them individually, in terms of securing the data
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about them--the VA has had two serious leaks on veterans health care
data in the last 7 years--and also working to make sure we use a mental
status exam when it is indicated and not create a system that is an
affront to all the people who have served the country.
With that, I yield the floor.
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