[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 28, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H6216-H6249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS AND RELATED AGENCIES
APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 5822.
{time} 1618
In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill
(H.R. 5822) making appropriations for military construction, the
Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes, with Ms.
Edwards of Maryland in the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the
first time.
The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and the gentleman from Florida
(Mr. Crenshaw) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Chair, it's a privilege for me to present the fiscal year 2011
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. I
believe this bill and the work we have done since January of 2007 is a
work all of us can be very proud of.
In this time of war, we have continued our tradition of a bipartisan
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriation bill. It has
honored in a meaningful way the service and sacrifice of our servicemen
and -women, our veterans and their families.
With passage of this fiscal year 2011 bill, the Congress will have
increased veterans health care and benefits funding by 70 percent in
the last 3\1/2\ years. In addition, we have funded a new 21st century
GI education bill that 510,000 servicemen and -women, veterans, and
military children have used to further their education. This is an
unprecedented increase in Congress' commitment to veterans.
In our book, our veterans have earned every dime of this funding. We
have, among other things, increased by 10,200 the number of permanent
claims processors in the VA to reduce VA case backlogs, provided an
additional 145 community-based outpatient clinics, built 92 new vet
centers. This bill will add 30 mobile vet centers to serve rural
communities. It allowed the Veterans Health Administration to hire an
additional 18,000 new doctors and nurses.
These resources mean that our veterans have better access to the
health care they need and deserve, including improved access in rural
areas, increased access for VA health care for low- and middle-income
vets. Additionally, these resources ensure that our veterans receive,
on a more timely basis, the services and benefits that they have
earned.
We have also worked hard to make sure that our military knows that
the Congress respects the sacrifices that they and their families have
made each and every day to keep our great Nation safe. We have heard
time and time again in testimony that the best support we can give our
military when
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they are deployed is the knowledge that their families are cared for
here at home.
We have listened and funded initiatives, such as:
$2.8 billion for new military hospitals so servicemen and -women know
that their families will get the best possible health care in high
quality facilities;
New child care centers to serve 20,000 military children;
Over $500 million in additional funding for barracks, because
Congress needs to show our volunteer forces from day one that we
respect and honor their decision to serve.
The Subcommittee for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs did
not accomplish this alone. There are several key leaders that have
worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support our efforts.
Speaker Pelosi promised our veterans that they would be a top
priority for her, and the fact is she has more than honored that
promise. Her fingerprints are on every bill that has provided for our
military and veterans in the past 3\1/2\ years through our
subcommittee, and I thank her for her leadership in these efforts.
Also, we would not have seen the historic funding increases that I
have just highlighted were it not for the dedicated support of Chairman
Dave Obey, who, in my book, is the unsung hero of America's veterans.
I must also salute, and want to salute, the VA Committee chairman,
Bob Filner, for his strong leadership every day on behalf of America's
veterans. He has truly made a difference.
Lastly, but definitely not least, our ranking member, Mr. Wamp of
Tennessee, has been a vital partner in putting together this bill, and
last year's bill as well. Mr. Wamp has a genuine heart for America's
servicemen and -women and our veterans, and he has championed their
cause. It has been a privilege to work with him, and also with Ander
Crenshaw, who has filled in when Mr. Wamp could not be with us in some
of our deliberations this year. Mr. Crenshaw has truly been a partner
every step of the way in putting together this bipartisan bill, and I
thank him for that.
I also thank Mr. Farr on the Democratic side, the vice chairman of
our subcommittee, who has done an outstanding job for our veterans and
our military.
Madam Chair, I would like to highlight several key initiatives in
this bill.
First, this bill continues an initiative begun last year to provide
advance appropriation for VA medical care. This will allow the VA to
invest taxpayer dollars more effectively and efficiently, and it is a
top priority of America's veterans' service organizations.
Second, we provide $190 million to new troop housing for Army
trainees, over 60,000 of whom are presently living in barracks that
don't even meet minimum DOD standards. Our 18- and 19-year-old military
recruits don't have many lobbyists running around the halls of Capitol
Hill, but they deserve our Nation's respect and support for their
decision to serve in our military during a time of war.
Third, we provide $200 million for a Guard and Reserve construction
initiative, recognizing the vital role these troops are playing in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Fourth, the bill provides $1.3 billion in emergency appropriations
for military construction of facilities in support of our military
operations in Afghanistan.
Fifth, recognizing the mental wounds of war can sometimes be more
painful and long lasting than the physical wounds of combat, we provide
$5.2 billion for the VA to continue its improvements in PTSD and mental
health care for America's veterans.
Sixth, this bill includes funding for 4,048 new permanent VA claims
processors in order to help veterans receive their earned benefits on a
more timely basis.
The seventh initiative I would highlight, this bill also continues to
open up VA medical care to more middle-and low-income veterans by
292,000, the number of veterans receiving health care since reopening
enrollment in 2009.
Finally, we want to ensure that historic increases in funding for the
VA are spent wisely. To increase oversight of the taxpayers' dollars,
we provide an additional $6 million to VA's Office of Inspector
General.
Madam Chair, I am going to skip over some of the numbers that we have
in this bill, but I would be remiss if I did not thank the committee
staff, very professional committee staff, a very dedicated committee
staff, for their hard work and long hours during this process: the
minority staff, led by Martin Delgado, Liz Dawson and Kelly Shea; and
Erin Fogleman and Gilbert DMeza from Mr. Wamp's staff; and the majority
staff led by Subcommittee Clerk Tim Peterson, Mary Arnold, Walter
Hearne, Sue Quantius and Todd Friedman and Michelle Dominguez on my
staff. They don't get public credit for the work, but the work of this
bill would not have been done had it not been for their
professionalism, and I thank each of them personally.
In conclusion, this bill keeps our promise to our veterans. That is
what the Paralyzed Veterans of America, AMVETS, Disabled American
Veterans, and Veterans of Foreign Wars have said. In fact, they state,
``We offer our strong support for the FY 2011 Military Construction and
Veterans Affairs appropriations bill and we hope that the House will
quickly pass this critical legislation.''
This bill sends a clear message to America's servicemen and -women,
their families, and our veterans. We appreciate and respect their
service and sacrifice.
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Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1630
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First let me just say that I rise in support of this appropriations
bill. It's the first appropriations bill that we will bring to the
floor today, and I think it's an excellent bill.
I would like to start by thanking Chairman Edwards, not only for his
leadership, but for the example that he sets to make every member of
the subcommittee feel like they are valued. He has treated everyone
with a sense of fairness. It has been an open process, bipartisan
process, and we appreciate that very much. I think because of that
atmosphere that everything we do in this subcommittee is really geared
to make sure that we put the best interests of the men and women in
uniform first, and put their families first, the veterans, and those
fallen heroes.
I want to say a word about Ranking Member Zach Wamp. I am here in his
stead. He is back home in Tennessee trying to represent the people of
Tennessee in a different way, as the Governor of that State. But I can
tell you that even though he is not here, as Mr. Edwards mentioned, he
has been very much a part of this process. I think this bill is a
reflection of his dedication, his commitment to the men and women in
uniform. And I know that I've heard Mr. Wamp say on occasion that
serving as the ranking member of this subcommittee has been the highest
achievement of his career here in the House of Representatives, and so
we wish him well as he leaves.
I want to also say a word about Mr. Young. He's not here today, but
he has been a long-time member of this subcommittee. I think Chairman
Edwards agrees that he has been a great champion of the men and women
in uniform. He and his wife, Beverly, are often visitors at our
military hospitals to see the folks that have come back, the wounded
warriors. If he were here, I'm sure he would stand up and say that he
believes this is a very good bipartisan bill. He is recovering from
some surgery himself, so I know we all wish him well in this committee.
Mr. Edwards has done a great job of talking about kind of an overview
of what goes on here, and so I don't want to repeat that. I certainly
want to echo his words of congratulations to the staff; we thank
everyone for their hard work. But I want to mention a couple of items
that were brought up that were concerns that, because of the open
process, because of the bipartisan nature in our subcommittee markup,
members had a chance to talk about some issues of concern.
One was, and Mr. Edwards mentioned that, we found that while we were
adding dollars to most of the programs in the VA, the Inspector General
was kind of held to last year's level. We all felt like--it was a
bipartisan agreement--that the Inspector General has so much to offer
in terms of oversight, in terms of accountability, by doing audits,
that they ought to have additional resources, and so we added $6
million there.
Another concern that was raised at the subcommittee level was the VA
had decided that they wanted to reduce the number of claims processors
they had in the new GI bill as part of the veterans affairs. You all
remember when we passed that updated version of the GI bill and added
benefits that are so important to our veterans as they come back, and
yet we found out that last year there had been quite a bit of problems
just because of the increased demand on those claims processors. We
thought it would be a bad idea to reduce the number of folks that were
processing those claims when last year this chaos was created--and my
office got calls, I know other Members got calls because the tuition
payments weren't being made in a timely fashion, the claims weren't
being processed; in fact, sometimes the checks were written by hand and
delivered without much accountability.
And so while we applaud the VA for saying we want to try to do more
with less, we thought right now that would be penny wise and pound
foolish. And so we added back those claims processors. We want to make
sure that we get everything done on time. Next year, they're actually
estimating the increase will be 31 percent. There will be over 2.2
million claims made under those new GI benefits, and we want to make
sure that they are paid on time. So we added back those individuals.
And, finally, there was a concern about Arlington National Cemetery.
I think a lot of people read about some of the horror stories that went
on there. We found out that the management was really a little bit
behind in terms of modern day. So the Secretary of the Army, John
McHugh, acted very quickly and very forcefully. He set up some
guidelines to improve what's going on at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. Young offered some report language to make sure that the members of
this subcommittee will have a chance to exercise appropriate oversight.
So those were areas of concern that I think were addressed because of
this open process, and those amendments were adopted unanimously on a
bipartisan basis.
I would say from the big-picture standpoint, as Mr. Edwards has
talked about, I came to Congress primarily because I believed that the
number one responsibility of the Federal Government is to protect
American lives, and I still believe that today. But what I found when I
was assigned to this subcommittee was that we also have a sacred
responsibility to make sure that the men and women who wear the uniform
are treated with respect, that they have adequate housing, and that
they have the quality of life they so richly deserve.
This bill continues the commitment that we've made there. Sometimes
when you think about military construction projects, you think about a
new hangar or a new dock or a ship or a landing strip or a wharf; but
as Mr. Edwards pointed out, housing is so very vital. We've done a
great job, and we continue that commitment. Whether it's a barracks or
whether it's married housing, we want to have the housing we would want
our sons and daughters to live in, and we're making great progress in
that area.
I think we all agree we've got the best trained and the most equipped
military in the world, and we've worked hard to do that. But we are
also beginning to make sure that when people come back that have been
under some stress, under unique situations, that they have adequate
counseling, that they have those kinds of programs that are so very
important; and I think this bill continues that commitment.
And just finally I would say there are a couple of important projects
that are funded this year as part of the administration's budget deal
with my district in northeast Florida. There is a naval station,
Mayport, that the Navy has decided to make that home port for a nuclear
carrier; and so last year there was money to begin dredging, to begin
wharf upgrades. This year, there is $2 million for planning and design
to continue that process. I worked with the chief of naval operations--
in fact, spoke with him just about a month ago--and the Navy is still
very committed, because of national security, to make sure that we have
the ability to disperse our assets, to make sure we have a backup
nuclear maintenance facility, and I thank the subcommittee and the
members for their support.
Also in northeast Florida, the Marines have a project called Blount
Island, where a great deal of the materiel goes back and forth through
that port to the Middle East. There is money to upgrade and make that
more of a world-class facility.
So this is a great bill that I think we can all be proud of. And it
really is the result of the leadership of Mr. Edwards and his hard
work, the leadership of Mr. Wamp and his hard work and, actually, the
hard work of every member of this subcommittee. And I think because of
that, we have a bill that truly honors our American heroes. It speaks
to the people that defend us today, it speaks to those who have
returned as veterans, and also to those who have paid the ultimate
sacrifice. And so for those reasons, Madam Chair, I urge everyone to
support this bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, before introducing Chairman Obey,
I would like to join with my friend and colleague, Mr. Crenshaw, in
saluting Mr. Young of Florida. While he is not here because of an
illness today, he has spent a lifetime of service and commitment to our
servicemen
[[Page H6223]]
and women, our veterans and their families.
I also see Mr. Lewis on the floor, the ranking member of the full
committee, the former chairman of the full committee, the former
chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee. I thank Mr. Lewis
also for working on this bill and for his leadership throughout his
long career here in Congress in support of our servicemen and -women.
Madam Chair, it is one of two honors of my lifetime to recognize and
introduce Chairman Dave Obey. I must say that in the last 3\1/2\ years,
this Congress has increased veterans funding by more than any 3\1/2\-
year period in history. That would not have happened had it not been
for the allocations and the personal leadership of Chairman Dave Obey.
And while others of us at the subcommittee level or the VA authorizing
subcommittee level have been the ones sometimes recognized by veterans
groups for our work over these past 3\1/2\ years, it has been Chairman
Obey's leadership and partnership with Speaker Pelosi behind the scenes
that have made all of these new programs, including the funding of the
GI bill, that has helped over 500,000 servicemen and -women and
veterans and their families.
It's been Mr. Obey's leadership that has truly made a difference in
this process. Of his many great legacies of his service to this country
and Congress, I hope he will always be remembered as a true champion of
America's veterans.
Madam Chair, I yield 5 minutes to Chairman Obey.
{time} 1640
Mr. OBEY. I thank the gentleman for the time. I thank him for his
overblown words.
I do want to extend my best wishes to Bill Young, who is one of the
most loved Members of this House and one of the most respected.
I also want to congratulate the gentleman from Texas for the superb
job he has done in putting this bill together. It is a well-balanced
bill, and everyone understands the gentleman's convictions and his
passionate desire to defend the interests of American veterans.
Madam Chair, there are more than 6 million veterans and their
families who depend on the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical
care, for disability payments, and education benefits, and this bill
represents our obligation to them. It builds on our actions of the last
2 years, which have provided the most significant enlargement of
education benefits for veterans since the passage of the original GI
Bill of Rights.
One of the bill's highest priorities is to help cut through the
bureaucracy that disabled veterans face over their claims. They
shouldn't have to wait months and months for their paperwork to be
processed before receiving the benefits owed to them. The bill provides
for an additional 4,000 permanent claims processors--a 25 percent
increase to work through more than 1 million disability claims.
These resources are especially needed now that the Vietnam veterans
will be eligible to file claims for disabilities caused by Agent
Orange. Veterans' medical care is the largest component of the bill.
According to the VA, more than 6.1 million patients will be treated in
2011, including nearly 440,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Now, many people think of veterans' health care as being solely
focused on physical injuries. We understand now, better than ever, how
combat threatens soldiers' mental health as well. We owe it to every
one of them to address not only their physical wounds but also the
mental and emotional consequences of war. This bill includes added
resources for services to veterans suffering from traumatic brain
injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental
conditions. Full access to this care remains a problem for some
veterans, for seeing the right specialist can mean expensive trips and
hours and hours in the car.
In Northern Wisconsin, for instance, there are tens of thousands of
veterans who cannot regularly see counselors because there aren't vet
centers anywhere near their homes. This bill makes critical investments
to meet our obligations to them.
This bill also addresses the high rate of veterans' homelessness. On
any given night last year, 107,000 veterans were homeless. That is
shameful. With the goal of ending veterans' homelessness in 5 years,
this bill matches the budget request for VA homeless assistance grants
and supportive services for veterans and their families who need them.
At the end of the day, it is important to remember that this bill is
not just about dollars and programs. It is about our duty to American
veterans--to respect their service and sacrifice, not only with flowery
words on the Fourth of July, but also with actions like this, on days
like this, that are less noticed but every bit as important.
I congratulate the subcommittee for the bill that they have produced.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the vice
chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction
and Veterans Affairs, the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), who has
been a champion on this committee for veterans, our troops, their
families, and for all of the many issues involved in this
subcommittee's affairs.
Mr. FARR. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
To our current acting ranking member, Mr. Crenshaw, thank you very
much for giving me this moment to speak on this very important bill.
Madam Chair, yesterday, the House of Representatives had a very
important vote, a very controversial vote here. The vote was on funding
the war effort in Afghanistan. Those votes ought to be controversial--
whether we go to war, where we go to war, and how long the mission is
going to take. Those ought to be votes that you can cast for and
against. Yet there is one bill you can't vote against, and that is the
bill that supports the troops in their residence, in their training and
back here at home--the quality of life that we provide defense
personnel, military personnel.
This is the bill that funds the child care centers. This is the bill
that creates the housing for men and women in uniform, who voluntarily
join the service. This is the bill that creates the clinics and the
hospitals, the support systems--any kind of community of support--and a
special one for military personnel needs. So one can vote against the
war, but one cannot vote against the support here at home.
This bill has bipartisan support because it is interested in
improving the quality of life of military personnel, who voluntarily
come into the military. Everybody who passes through the Department of
Defense ends up becoming a veteran. You cannot be a veteran without
having served in active duty.
This committee also supports the continuum of care. We ought not to
have a silo of Defense Department quality of care and a separate silo
for veterans. We are making it seamless. We are making it so that, when
you enroll in the Department of Defense, you also automatically enroll
in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans
Affairs takes care of you for the rest of your life. We owe it to any
man or woman who has ever served in the military to provide them the
promises that were made. These promises were made, but the quality of
care until now has not been that great. It has changed.
Please support this appropriations bill as the real ``support our
troops'' bill.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to a very
important member of our Appropriations subcommittee, the gentleman from
Colorado (Mr. Salazar), who has been a real champion for our vets and
our troops.
Mr. SALAZAR. Madam Chair, I want to take a moment to recognize my
colleagues.
Chairman Edwards has been a great champion of our veterans since his
tenure here in Congress began. Also, I thank Ranking Member Wamp and
Mr. Crenshaw for their valiant efforts in putting this bill together.
I don't think that I have had a greater honor than to serve on a
committee of this type where we all work together in a bipartisan
manner. Chairman Edwards, Ranking Member Wamp, Mr.
[[Page H6224]]
Crenshaw--all of us--have worked very hard for veterans and their
families. All 17.5 million living veterans in the United States should
applaud you for your diligent work as you fight for those who provide
us freedom.
Madam Chair, as the chairman mentioned, it is important to recognize
the bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility of this bill. In
completing BRAC 2005, the subcommittee was able to reduce the overall
spending of this bill by three-quarters of a billion dollars. The bill
includes a total of $57 billion, which is an increase of nearly $4
billion for veterans' medical care, disability, and educational
benefits. Veterans in Colorado are a major winner in this bill again.
Thanks to the President and to the subcommittee for their continued
support of a new VA medical center in Denver, Colorado.
I want to thank all of those Members who continue to fight the good
fight for our veterans and military personnel.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I yield myself 1 minute.
I would ask Chairman Edwards if he would engage in a brief colloquy.
Mr. Edwards, it is my understanding that the committee authorized a
study in March to review various portions of the Veterans Health
Administration. As I understand it, the committee has just received the
report. Once the report has been analyzed by the committee staff, I
believe it would be important, as we move this veterans' appropriations
bill forward, that we use the recommendations in the report, if
feasible, to provide better oversight and better transparency to the
health care spending at the VA.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I want to thank the gentleman both for the
points he is making now and also for his focus on oversight.
As we have provided these historic increases in veterans' funding
over the last several years, and as we have been working together on a
bipartisan basis, I think it is also very important that we see that
those tax dollars are spent wisely, efficiently, and effectively.
I have been concerned for some time that the large increases we have
provided the VA health care system have not always made their way down
to the individual hospitals on a very rapid basis as quickly as we
would like.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield myself 1 additional minute.
Mr. Edwards, please continue.
{time} 1650
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Because of that and our work together, we asked
the S&I staff to do this study to help us understand the process the
Department's using in distributing money and to highlight areas where
we can exert more oversight, if necessary, to ensure the efficient use
of taxpayer dollars.
The report just completed is quite large, and in the coming weeks,
staff on both sides of the aisle will be evaluating it to determine how
its recommendations can be incorporated into our final bill and report.
And I certainly look forward to working with the gentleman on examining
that report and seeing how we can incorporate some of its ideas into
the final conference report on this bill.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Donnelly) for the purpose of
my entering into a colloquy with him.
Mr. DONNELLY of Indiana. Madam Chairman, I want to thank the chairman
for his and his committee's work on this bill.
As we all know, there are veterans across the country, including
thousands in my district, who are forced to drive long distances to
receive the medical care they earned through their service to the
Nation. But I understand that included in this bill is $15 million for
the VA Health Care Center Advance Planning account, which would go
toward new VA Health Care Centers, which could help these veterans.
I wonder if the chairman wouldn't mind going into some detail on this
item.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I want to thank the gentleman for his hard work
on behalf of our veterans. He's been a leader on these issues. And
thanks to you, Mr. Donnelly, this bill directs $15 million that you
referenced to planning the VA health care centers across the country.
It's an innovative way to make more services available to veterans
locally.
I understand that among the locations due to have a new VA health
care center is South Bend, in the gentleman's district. And South
Bend's demonstrated need for such an expansion of VA health care
services was noted by the committee in its report language.
Furthermore, the committee expects that this account will be utilized
by the VA as soon as possible.
Mr. DONNELLY of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for your
leadership.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy), who has worked very hard on behalf of
our veterans and troops.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Chairman, thank you and the committee
for bringing this bill before us.
There's $13 billion in this legislation for construction. That's more
in the last 4 years combined than any 4-year period since the 1940s.
And though that will mean transformational things for our veterans, I
want to just briefly highlight this afternoon what it will mean for the
people that will do that work.
We've lost 2 million construction jobs in this recession and the
Associated General Contractors of America estimate that almost 400,000
construction jobs could be created just by this bill alone. That's good
news for jobs in this country. But we can have even better news if we
make sure that the materials used to build those buildings are bought
here in America as well.
Many of us have been working very hard on reinforcing our Buy America
law. This construction funding presents us with a unique opportunity to
not only serve our veterans, not only honor our commitment to them, but
also grow the types of jobs in construction and construction materials
that this economy badly needs.
I'm so thankful to the chairman for all of his work bringing this
bill to the floor and what it will mean for veterans and for jobs.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I continue to reserve.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, there are several other speakers
on our side of the aisle who said they would like to speak, but perhaps
we have progressed more quickly than they thought.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), a
member of the Appropriations Committee who has been vocal in his strong
support of our veterans and troops.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Madam Chair, I just wanted to take this opportunity to
come down to the House floor and congratulate our chairman, Congressman
Chet Edwards, on his efforts in this area. I feel really elated in
terms of the amount of resources that we have been able to put for our
veterans.
Having been on the Veterans' Committee and on the appropriations side
and the authorizing side, I had the opportunity to witness the
situation that we suffered with when we had to do the copayments and
require our veterans to come up and pay copayments. We cut Category 8
veterans from that. In addition, not only that, but we asked them to
pay for additional fees for services.
And in the last 3 years, it's been a turnaround, and this bill
provides resources there for the first time that allow an opportunity
for us to be able to look at our infrastructure and improve on those
areas that are out there.
We have a good number of hospitals out there that are lacking on
infrastructure, and I'm hoping that in the future we continue to do
this. This bill puts us on the right track to provide additional
resources, and I want to thank him, personally, also.
I know that it also has been able to put additional resources and
creating additional polytrauma centers. We have four in the Nation. Now
we have a fifth in Texas, and so I want to thank him personally, there
in San Antonio,
[[Page H6225]]
for the polytrauma center that has had the resources to be able to
begin to provide those needed items that our veterans need.
I also want to just thank him for putting the resources there and
just advertise the fact that, just in the last year and a half, we have
over 240,000 veterans that are now taking advantage of the GI Bill. And
this is a tremendous bill. We expect to have over half a million
veterans participating in the GI bill. And that, in the future, will
show a tremendous amount of positiveness when those individuals get
their bachelor's, their master's, and their doctorate degrees as they
move forward. In addition to that bill, it also allows their kids and
their spouses to take advantage.
So congratulations on the great work that you have been doing,
Chairman.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Hall), who is a leading voice of America's veterans
on the Veterans' Affairs Authorizing Committee.
Mr. HALL of New York. Madam Chair, on behalf of the veterans of the
Hudson Valley of New York and all those who have served our country in
uniform, I'm strongly supportive of the bill which we're considering
today. It's a solemn contract that we who do not serve in uniform--we
have enjoyed the benefits of their sacrifice and their personal risk
and their families doing without them--need to uphold our part of the
bargain, which is to take care of them anytime after their return. And,
therefore, I think it's really critical that we pass this bill to fund
not just military construction but veterans facilities.
We don't know yet what the cost will be from the conflicts we're
currently engaged in. Unfortunately, our country has a habit of
deciding to go into a conflict without an educated, informed figure
being given out, or a guess even that's very accurate as to what the
lifetime costs may be for care of the veterans created by that
conflict, but it's essential that we protect those veterans facilities
that we have and improve them as needed, construct new ones as needed.
And I am concerned, first of all, with passing the underlying bill.
But secondly, I'm also concerned with some amendments that have been
offered to this bill, which I will speak to later when the amendments
are being considered, which move money from what's considered to be, or
what's called minor construction and, in particular, from an urgent
care center and minor construction, and to other things which sound and
are good in and of themselves.
{time} 1700
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I continue to reserve my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy). And as he approaches the well, let me
just thank him. This will be his last year to be in the House, a member
of this committee. And he has been an inspiration to veterans
throughout America and to every member of our subcommittee on both
sides of the aisle in his championing the cause of mental health care
services and other services for veterans, care for our homeless
veterans. I thank the gentleman. It will be a legacy that will live on
for many decades to come.
Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the chairman and my ranking member for all the
work they did to make this a fine veterans appropriations bill.
Ladies and gentlemen, if our soldiers were caught behind enemy lines,
we would think nothing of mounting the full might of military power to
go in and retrieve those members of our military. In fact, every
American would wrap yellow ribbons around their trees in solidarity in
order that we may set those prisoners of war free, in order that we may
bring back those hostages of the Taliban, or the terrorists, or
whomever may have captured them.
But ladies and gentlemen, something is going on in this country,
something very tragic. Our military, our Veterans Affairs, everybody
talks a good game, talks a very good game of patriotism when it comes
to saying we're going to stand by our guardians of freedom, while those
very guardians of freedom aren't free themselves. They may have come
home in body, but they have not come home, many of them, in mind.
They are suffering from the signature wound of this war. What is
that? Traumatic brain injury. What is that? Post-traumatic stress
disorder. My colleagues, these veterans in essence are being held
hostage. They're being held hostage all over this great country. They
are in essence prisoners of war. They are prisoners of this war,
prisoners of traumatic brain injury and its symptoms, its many
symptoms: loss of memory, loss of cognitive ability, and the symptoms
that ensue.
Many of them self-medicate. Many of them isolate. Why? Because these
injuries are invisible, invisible to the naked eye, but not invisible
to anybody who loves them. These are real injuries. They are injuries
that can turn their lives upside down. All of the commanders in DOD say
they are doing something about it. I'm not seeing it. In fact, I was
briefed a year ago on some neuroscience research of an off-label drug
that's used to treat bleeding in the intestines, to reduce swelling.
They thought it might help reduce swelling of a concussion and the
onset of swelling in the brain. Guess what? It proved to be effective,
initial findings showed.
If this were the battle of AIDS, that drug would have been in the
field helping our soldiers. But no, we don't have the urgency we have
with AIDS. Somehow we don't have the urgency when it comes to our
veterans and the signature of this war wound, TBI and PTSD, that we
bring when it comes to something like AIDS. We don't set aside
parochial concerns. We don't set aside partisan. We don't set aside the
value of someone's proprietary research concerns.
When are we going to make our special interest the veteran? There's
nothing dirty about special interests so long as we make it the right
one. When are we going to agree that there is one special interest in
this town that there should be no disagreement about, and that's the
veteran. When are we going to say with our actions, not just our words,
that the veteran is the one who counts? When are we going to say we're
going to release them from terror, the terror and tyranny of their
bondage, of their disability because they served us?
Ladies and gentlemen, this study showed that if you reduce the
swelling in the brain you can reduce the longer-term impact.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.
Mr. KENNEDY. The blood-brain barrier reduces the ability for a bruise
that is absorbed by the regular body to be absorbed by the brain. This
drug helped reduce the swelling. The DOD has an obligation to implement
it. They are not. They should. And they ought to.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Chair, I think we have heard today what a well-balanced bill
this is, as we said at the beginning. And I think it demonstrates--it's
an example of what happens when people come together in an open
process, in a fair process, in a bipartisan process. I think this bill
demonstrates the work that we can do when we work together. So again, I
am honored to be part of this process, to work with the chairman and
the ranking member.
I urge everyone to support this bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I want to finish by thanking Mr.
Crenshaw for, again, his leadership on this and working together
importantly on so many parts of this bill, and doing so in a bipartisan
manner. We thanked a lot of people in this process. It's been a work of
good faith on both sides of the aisle.
I always want to save the best for the last in thanking our veterans
service organizations for their partnership in putting together this
legislation.
I add two letters, one from the DAV, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of
America, and Veterans of Foreign Wars; another from the president of
the National Guard Association of the United States, in support of this
legislation.
[[Page H6226]]
The Independent Budget,
July 27, 2010.
Hon. Chet Edwards,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans
Affairs, House Committee on Appropriations, The Capitol,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Edwards: On behalf of the co-authors of the
Independent Budget, we would like to take this opportunity to
thank you for your unwavering support for our nation's sick
and disabled veterans, as well as all of the men and women
who have so honorably served this country. We appreciate your
efforts as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs to achieve an
excellent funding level for the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) once again this year. Through your leadership,
the VA will receive another significant funding increase for
FY 2011.
More importantly, the Military Construction and Veterans
Affairs appropriations bill also includes approximately $50.6
billion in advance appropriations for the VA medical care
accounts--Medical Services, Medical Support and Compliance,
and Medical Facilities--for FY 2012. By providing the VA with
an advance appropriation for FY 2012, the VA will once again
be able to better plan for hiring critical new staff and
addressing demand on the health care system. The additional
planning time will also allow the VA to better work with
Congress to ensure that its true resource needs are met well
in advance of the start of the fiscal year.
These actions reflect the priority that you and the House
leadership have placed on needs of the men and women who have
so honorably served this country. We offer our strong support
for the FY 2011 Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs
appropriations bill and we hope that the House will quickly
pass this critical legislation. Final passage of sufficient
funding for the VA will allow the VA to better address the
needs of the men and women returning from Operation Enduring
Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as all veterans
who have served in the past.
Sincerely,
Raymond C. Kelley,
National Legislative Director, AMVETS.
Carl Blake,
National Legislative Director, Paralyzed Veterans of
America.
Joseph A. Violante,
National Legislative Director, Disabled American Veterans.
Eric A. Hilleman,
Director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign
Wars.
____
[From the National Guard Association of the United States, Inc., July
14, 2010]
NGAUS Hails House Efforts To Modernize National Guard Facilities
Washington.--The association that represents the leadership
of nearly 465,000 National Guard men and women today
applauded efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives to
modernize Guard facilities across the country.
This morning, the House appropriations subcommittee on
military construction and veterans' affairs (VA), led by
chairman Chet Edwards, D-Texas, and ranking member Zach Wamp,
R-Tenn., approved $200 million above the president's budget
request for Guard and Reserve military construction.
The move came as the House appropriations committee marks
up the fiscal 2011 military construction/VA budget.
``Today, chairman Edwards and ranking member Wamp continued
to lead the congressional effort to modernize our aging
National Guard facilities,'' said retired Maj. Gen. Gus L.
Hargett Jr., NGAUS president. ``We are grateful for their
leadership, and the actions of the subcommittee speak volumes
about their support of citizen-soldiers and airmen.''
Last year, the House appropriations subcommittee on
military construction and veterans affairs, took the unique
step of adding to its bill a block of funding to address
critical unfunded military construction requirements in the
National Guard and Reserve.
The extra $30 million each for the Army and Air Guard
funded an additional eight projects, which otherwise may have
been lost for years or even permanently.
NGAUS has been at the forefront of the push for additional
funds for military construction. Hargett sent a letter in
early March to House and Senate authorizers and appropriators
requesting additional funds for Guard facilities.
According to the House appropriations committee press
release, the markup provides ``$200 million to continue the
subcommittee's Guard and Reserve initiative begun last year.
This money will go to the highest unfunded military
construction priorities of the commanders of the reserve
components of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.''
The appropriations mark mirrors the House-passed version of
the fiscal 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which
authorizes an additional discretionary $60 million for the
Army National Guard and $50 million for the Air Guard for
military construction. The president's budget request for
Army Guard military construction for fiscal 2011 was $873.6
million; the Air Guard request was $177 million.
NGAUS believes the Army Guard needs $1.5 billion annually
just to begin reducing a nationwide backlog of more than $13
billion in Army Guard military construction projects. The
average armory is 43 years old. Many can no longer
accommodate modern units and equipment.
The Air Guard requires $300 million a year.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chair, I rise in support of the Military
Construction Appropriations Act of 2011.
This measure provides $141.1 billion for military construction of all
kinds from military family housing, to construction of operational
facilities in the U.S. and abroad. This funding will be used to
construct schools, hospitals and other facilities for veteran's
healthcare.
The Veterans Health Administration has estimated that it will treat
over 6.1 million patients next year. This number includes more than
439,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. This measure provides $48.8
billion for health programs within the Veterans Health Administration.
Additionally, the bill provides $53 billion for service-connected
compensation, pensions and benefits for the estimated 4 million
veterans and their families.
This measure provides $2.4 billion to further implement base closures
and realignments outlined in the 2005 BRAC, including support for the
re-stationing of troops and their families from overseas to the United
States. The bill provides $1.3 billion to support our troops in
Afghanistan and $259 million for U.S. construction funding obligations
as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Security Investment
Program in that country.
For military families living on base, the measure appropriates $1.8
billion for housing as well as for operation and maintenance costs.
These funds are used for everything from repairs, to furnishings,
management, utilities, and even for mortgage insurance. To address the
growing housing backlog for unmarried troops and trainees, the bill
provides $190 million for Army trainee housing facilities.
And finally, to ensure accountability, the measure provides funding
to the Defense Department inspector general to audit these and other
military construction projects.
I encourage my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of
the rule for H.R. 5822, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2011. I would like to thank
my colleague, Mr. Edwards, for introducing this important bill honoring
our continued commitment to support the brave men and women who have
been willing to sacrifice their very lives in the service of our nation
and the freedom we so cherish. Our armed forces and their family
members are among the most valued members of our society, custodians of
our freedom and protectors of our democracy. We must continually re-
commit ourselves to serving them with the same honor, dignity and
respect with which they serve their country.
This bill generously provides substantial funding, over 77 billion
dollars, in the service of our men and women in uniform, veterans, and
their families for fiscal year 2011. It is a continuation of three and
a half years of hard work and tireless efforts on behalf of the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs,
and Related Agencies. This bill is a testament to their commitment to
our soldiers, veterans and their loved ones. Moreover, the bill
contains specific guidelines and provisions to ensure that all funds
are spent responsibly, accountably and in a way that serves our troops
and American taxpayers.
Of the 77 billion dollars, 18.7 billion are for Military
Construction. The funds will provide adequate housing for our young
military trainees bravely serving their country; it will fund
environmental cleanup of closed or moved bases as we strategically re-
align resources; it will provide for a National Guard and Reserve
initiative for the men and women serving their nation at home; and it
grants funding for critical construction for overseas contingencies
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The bill also dedicates over 56 billion dollars to Veterans Affairs
honoring those who, after serving their country overseas, returned home
to re-integrate into the society they fought valiantly to protect. The
majority of the funding, over 37 billion, will go to providing much
needed and well deserved medical services for all veterans, including
mental health services and assistance to homeless veterans. The
remaining funding will be used for major and minor construction
projects, medical and prosthetic research, and medical facilities in
the service of our honored veterans.
Finally, in Related Agencies, the bill is providing for a number of
other critical needs, such as the National Cemetery, funding for an
Armed Forces Retirement Home, and the Monuments Commission which
manages and cares for the monuments and cemeteries around the world
that honor the service of our armed forces.
Additionally, in respect for the fact that the American public has
rightly demanded greater
[[Page H6227]]
efficiency in government and efforts to reduce our deficit spending,
there are a number of important provisions to ensure that all funds are
spent in the most effective, efficient and expedient way possible. The
provisions include several controls for Veterans Affairs spending and
contract oversight, as well as oversight provisions for all
construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others.
Although I am disappointed that my amendment, establishing
portability between states for individualized education, disability and
therapeutic benefits of a dependent of a member of the armed forces
upon transfer of the member, was not included in the final version, I
still gladly and proudly support this bill.
However, I would like to reiterate that an important part of anyone's
quality of life is their family and dependents. One of the ways in
which we can serve the members of the armed forces who sacrifice so
much for our safety and our liberty is to ensure that their families
are taken care of, and eliminate the bureaucratic red tape involved in
moving from one place to another. Members of the armed forces often
find themselves moving, and uprooting their families and their lives.
Hopefully such a provision, aimed at facilitating that process by
making the educational, disability and therapeutic benefits of a child
or dependent of a member of the armed forces transferable from one
state to another, will be included in future legislation.
In closing, I reiterate my strong support for this bill, and express
my most sincere and heartfelt appreciation to everyone fighting to
defend our country for their service and sacrifice for the good of the
nation.
Mr. DINGELL. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 5822, the
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (Mil Con-VA) and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2011.
I commend my friend and colleague, Chairman of the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans
Affairs, Congressman Chet Edwards (D-TX) for writing a bill that
provides tremendous support to our veterans and families. One of the
greatest accomplishments since the Democrats regained control of
Congress has been providing our veterans with a budget worthy of their
service and sacrifice. The Mil Con-VA Appropriations Act for FY 2011 is
no exception.
Since the Democrats took back Congress in 2007, we have provided a 70
percent increase in funding for veterans health care and benefits. Some
of the highlights of this increase include the addition to the VA of
more than 10,000 claims processors to reduce claims backlogs, 3,389
doctors and 14,316 nurses, 145 community-based outpatient clinics, 92
new vet centers, and more than 47,000 additional Veterans Health
Administration employees.
In addition, the FY 2011 Mil Con-VA Appropriations Act also fulfills
a top priority of national veterans service organizations by continuing
to provide advance appropriations of the VA. This way, the VA will be
better able to plan for its future needs.
Other important provisions in this legislation include $37.1 billion
to improve access to medical services for all veterans; $5.2 billion
for mental health services for our veterans suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder, depression, and traumatic brain injury; and
$4.2 billion to help our homeless veterans move from the streets to
secure homes.
Madam Chair, as a veteran of World War II, I am proud to support this
legislation which continues the Democratic Congress' strong commitment
to our veterans and their families. I urge my colleagues to join me in
voting for H.R. 5822.
Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Chair, I rise today to express my concern with
the reduction in military construction funding to Guam for the
realignment of U.S. Marines from Okinawa, Japan to Guam. I appreciate
the Committee's recognition of the strategic importance of this
realignment as well as their general support for these efforts.
However, I remain concerned that these cuts send the wrong message at
the wrong time. It is unfortunate that my counterparts in the
Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs did not
follow the funding levels for Guam military construction that were
agreed to in H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2011. Given the recent reluctance by the Government of
Japan to reaffirm the Guam International Agreement, I believe it is
important to collectively move forward with a unified position.
However, these cuts do make one point clear to my constituents.
Congress holds the power of the purse. There are concerns on Guam and
with certain federal agencies that the pace of construction during the
military build-up could place an undue burden on our civilian
infrastructure. However, I have made it clear that if construction was
outpacing the local community's ability to handle the additional people
we could put our foot on the brakes. Given the concerns raised by our
local government this reduction in funding highlights how Congress can
ensure that we get this build-up done right.
Finally, I would like to rise in support of amendment #8 introduced
by my colleague from Georgia, Congressman Phil Gingrey. His amendment
would restrict funds authorized by this bill to be used for the
purposes of eminent domain without providing payment of just
compensation. This amendment highlights our concern that eminent domain
is not a preferred method through which the Federal Government should
obtain private or other government lands. I support this amendment
because there is concern that the Department of the Navy would use the
powers of eminent domain to obtain private and Government of Guam land
to build a new training range. This amendment would demonstrate that I
am opposed to any such action on Guam in the future.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 5822,
the Fiscal Year 2011 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act. It is with great pride that I
serve on this subcommittee and I want to commend my colleague from
Texas, Mr. Edwards, the Chairman of the Subcommittee, and our ranking
member, my colleague from Tennessee, Mr. Wamp, for their work in
putting together this legislation.
The men and women of our armed forces and our veterans deserve the
very best support and care that we can offer them and this bill
achieves that. This legislation fulfills our commitment to their future
and to their well being.
We include in this appropriations bill $57.0 billion in funding for
veterans programs, an increase of $3.9 billion over the level of
funding we provided last year. These funds will address some of the
major problems our Nation has in addressing the needs of our veterans,
including those with mental illness, traumatic brain injuries, the
homeless, and the disabled who are forced to wait countless months and
even years to resolve their disability claims.
The largest portion of this funding, $48.8 billion, is for veterans
medical care. It will enable the VA doctors and staff to treat an
estimated 6.1 million patients, including thousands of Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans. We also continue our emphasis on mental health
and medical services for our returning heroes who are suffering from
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries.
We also increase by 20 percent to $4.2 billion our commitment to
providing housing and medical services to our homeless veterans. We
must do better in providing transitional housing and serves to these
American heroes who now find themselves with nowhere to live and
nowhere to work.
We also provide a 25 percent increase in funding, to $2.6 billion, to
hire 4,000 additional claims processors to reduce the unacceptable
backlog in claims for veterans benefits. With this increase in staffing
levels, our Committee will have added more than 10,200 new claims
processors over the past four years.
Our committee's support has also been vital to my efforts to continue
to support the work of the medical professionals at the Bay Pines VA
Healthcare System, which I have the privilege to represent.
We have opened at Bay Pines one of our Nation's most active VA
Inspector General operations, to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in
veterans programs and to ensure that every dollar we appropriate to
care for our veterans is spent as intended.
We have also been able to speed up work on the construction of a
brand new facility to treat veterans with mental illness and Post
Traumatic Syndrome Disorder. We also have broken ground thin year on a
new Ambulatory Surgery Center and Eye Treatment facility at Bay Pines,
work is well underway on a new facility to provide radiation treatment
for cancer patients, and we have opened two new VA medical clinics in
northern and southern Pinellas County to better serve veterans and
their medical needs closer to their homes.
Finally, Madam Chair, I want to thank the members of the subcommittee
for accepting my amendment to this legislation to ensure that we fix
the problems associated with the national embarrassment that we find at
Arlington National Cemetery. The committee has included $150 million in
the bill to address the many problems, those which we already know
about and those which we have yet to find out about, at Arlington. My
amendment would require that the Army develop a clear timetable and
specify their plan to resolve all identified issues before they can
spend these funds. We owe no less to our America's fallen heroes for
whom Arlington is their final resting place and to their families who
share our shock and outrage at the situation that we find at one of our
Nation's most sacred places.
Madam Chair, this is a good bill, one that addresses the current and
future needs of our Nation's veterans. It is also a bill that
emphasizes what our committee and this House can do when we work
together in a bipartisan way to solve our problems.
[[Page H6228]]
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Chair, this bill contains many worthy items,
including a substantial investment in our Veterans Affairs programs. A
strong safety net for our veterans is more important than ever,
particularly in Oregon, where returning Guard and Reserve members face
high unemployment and a difficult transition back to civilian life.
I also want to highlight what my colleague Representative Chellie
Pingree of Maine stated earlier in this debate: the cleanup of closed
military bases is critical to health and growth of our communities.
Across America, these closed bases contain discarded munitions, toxins,
and shell fragments leftover from years of military training. Funding
the return of these properties to safe and productive use is vital.
Funds go directly to the development of detection and removal
technology, the creation of skilled technician jobs, and generate
economic growth as cleaned lands become commercial, residential, or
recreational spaces.
For the past decade I have worked with a bipartisan group of members
to raise awareness of this issue. I am pleased that with the leadership
of my friend Representative Sam Farr, the House has designated $100
million over the President's budget request for the legacy BRAC
account. This $460 million is critically needed to address the large
backlog of environmental hazards still present at bases closed during
the earliest Base Realignment and Closure rounds. I hope in future
years we can build on this commitment to our nation's safety and
prosperity.
MR. EDWARDS of Texas. I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. All time for general debate has expired.
Pursuant to the rule, the bill shall be considered read for amendment
under the 5-minute rule, and the bill shall be considered read through
page 63, line 4.
The text of that portion of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5822
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for military
construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and
for other purposes, namely:
TITLE I
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Military Construction, Army
For acquisition, construction, installation, and equipment
of temporary or permanent public works, military
installations, facilities, and real property for the Army as
currently authorized by law, including personnel in the Army
Corps of Engineers and other personal services necessary for
the purposes of this appropriation, and for construction and
operation of facilities in support of the functions of the
Commander in Chief, $4,051,512,000, to remain available until
September 30, 2015, of which $190,000,000 shall be for
trainee troop housing facilities: Provided, That of this
amount, not to exceed $259,456,000 shall be available for
study, planning, design, architect and engineer services, and
host nation support, as authorized by law, unless the
Secretary of the Army determines that additional obligations
are necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees
on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the
determination and the reasons therefor: Provided further,
That, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of the Army shall submit to the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an
expenditure plan for the funds provided for trainee troop
housing facilities.
Military Construction, Navy and Marine Corps
For acquisition, construction, installation, and equipment
of temporary or permanent public works, naval installations,
facilities, and real property for the Navy and Marine Corps
as currently authorized by law, including personnel in the
Naval Facilities Engineering Command and other personal
services necessary for the purposes of this appropriation,
$3,587,376,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015:
Provided, That of this amount, not to exceed $123,750,000
shall be available for study, planning, design, and architect
and engineer services, as authorized by law, unless the
Secretary of the Navy determines that additional obligations
are necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees
on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the
determination and the reasons therefor.
Military Construction, Air Force
For acquisition, construction, installation, and equipment
of temporary or permanent public works, military
installations, facilities, and real property for the Air
Force as currently authorized by law, $1,276,385,000, to
remain available until September 30, 2015: Provided, That of
this amount, not to exceed $73,536,000 shall be available for
study, planning, design, and architect and engineer services,
as authorized by law, unless the Secretary of the Air Force
determines that additional obligations are necessary for such
purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress of the determination and the reasons
therefor.
Military Construction, Defense-wide
(including transfer of funds)
For acquisition, construction, installation, and equipment
of temporary or permanent public works, installations,
facilities, and real property for activities and agencies of
the Department of Defense (other than the military
departments), as currently authorized by law, $2,999,612,000,
to remain available until September 30, 2015: Provided, That
such amounts of this appropriation as may be determined by
the Secretary of Defense may be transferred to such
appropriations of the Department of Defense available for
military construction or family housing as the Secretary may
designate, to be merged with and to be available for the same
purposes, and for the same time period, as the appropriation
or fund to which transferred: Provided further, That of the
amount appropriated, not to exceed $434,217,000 shall be
available for study, planning, design, and architect and
engineer services, as authorized by law, unless the Secretary
of Defense determines that additional obligations are
necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the
determination and the reasons therefor: Provided further,
That of the amount appropriated, notwithstanding any other
provision of law, $31,863,000 shall be available for payments
to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for the planning,
design, and construction of a new North Atlantic Treaty
Organization headquarters.
Military Construction, Army National Guard
For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilitation,
and conversion of facilities for the training and
administration of the Army National Guard, and contributions
therefor, as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10, United
States Code, and Military Construction Authorization Acts,
$1,020,228,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015,
of which $60,000,000 shall be for critical unfunded
requirements: Provided, That of the amount appropriated, not
to exceed $57,182,000 shall be available for study, planning,
design, and architect and engineer services, as authorized by
law, unless the Director of the Army National Guard
determines that additional obligations are necessary for such
purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress of the determination and the reasons
therefor: Provided further, That, not later than 30 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of
the Army National Guard shall submit to the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an expenditure plan
for the funds provided for critical unfunded requirements.
Military Construction, Air National Guard
For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilitation,
and conversion of facilities for the training and
administration of the Air National Guard, and contributions
therefor, as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10, United
States Code, and Military Construction Authorization Acts,
$292,386,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015,
of which $50,000,000 shall be for critical unfunded
requirements: Provided, That of the amount appropriated, not
to exceed $21,214,000 shall be available for study, planning,
design, and architect and engineer services, as authorized by
law, unless the Director of the Air National Guard determines
that additional obligations are necessary for such purposes
and notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses
of Congress of the determination and the reasons therefor:
Provided further, That, not later than 30 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Air
National Guard shall submit to the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an expenditure plan
for the funds provided for critical unfunded requirements.
Military Construction, Army Reserve
For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilitation,
and conversion of facilities for the training and
administration of the Army Reserve as authorized by chapter
1803 of title 10, United States Code, and Military
Construction Authorization Acts, $358,325,000, to remain
available until September 30, 2015, of which $30,000,000
shall be for critical unfunded requirements: Provided, That
of the amount appropriated, not to exceed $26,250,000 shall
be available for study, planning, design, and architect and
engineer services, as authorized by law, unless the Secretary
of the Army determines that additional obligations are
necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the
determination and the reasons therefor: Provided further,
That, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Chief of Army Reserve shall submit to the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an
expenditure plan for the funds provided for critical unfunded
requirements.
Military Construction, Navy Reserve
For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilitation,
and conversion of facilities for the training and
administration of the reserve components of the Navy and
Marine Corps as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10,
United States Code, and Military Construction Authorization
Acts, $91,557,000, to remain available until September 30,
2015, of which $15,000,000 shall be for critical unfunded
requirements of the Navy Reserve
[[Page H6229]]
and $15,000,000 shall be for critical unfunded requirements
of the Marine Forces Reserve: Provided, That of the amount
appropriated, not to exceed $1,857,000 shall be available for
study, planning, design, and architect and engineer services,
as authorized by law, unless the Secretary of the Navy
determines that additional obligations are necessary for such
purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress of the determination and the reasons
therefor: Provided further, That, not later than 30 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Chief of
Navy Reserve and the Commander, Marine Forces Reserve shall
submit to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of
Congress an expenditure plan for the funds provided for
critical unfunded requirements.
Military Construction, Air Force Reserve
For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilitation,
and conversion of facilities for the training and
administration of the Air Force Reserve as authorized by
chapter 1803 of title 10, United States Code, and Military
Construction Authorization Acts, $48,182,000, to remain
available until September 30, 2015, of which $30,000,000
shall be for critical unfunded requirements: Provided, That
of the amount appropriated, not to exceed $2,503,000 shall be
available for study, planning, design, and architect and
engineer services, as authorized by law, unless the Secretary
of the Air Force determines that additional obligations are
necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the
determination and the reasons therefor: Provided further,
That, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Chief of Air Force Reserve shall submit to
the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress
an expenditure plan for the funds provided for critical
unfunded requirements.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Security Investment Program
For the United States share of the cost of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization Security Investment Program for
the acquisition and construction of military facilities and
installations (including international military headquarters)
and for related expenses for the collective defense of the
North Atlantic Treaty Area as authorized by section 2806 of
title 10, United States Code, and Military Construction
Authorization Acts, $258,884,000, to remain available until
expended.
Family Housing Construction, Army
For expenses of family housing for the Army for
construction, including acquisition, replacement, addition,
expansion, extension, and alteration, as authorized by law,
$92,369,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015.
Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Army
For expenses of family housing for the Army for operation
and maintenance, including debt payment, leasing, minor
construction, principal and interest charges, and insurance
premiums, as authorized by law, $518,140,000.
Family Housing Construction, Navy and Marine Corps
For expenses of family housing for the Navy and Marine
Corps for construction, including acquisition, replacement,
addition, expansion, extension, and alteration, as authorized
by law, $186,444,000, to remain available until September 30,
2015.
Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Navy and Marine Corps
For expenses of family housing for the Navy and Marine
Corps for operation and maintenance, including debt payment,
leasing, minor construction, principal and interest charges,
and insurance premiums, as authorized by law, $366,346,000.
Family Housing Construction, Air Force
For expenses of family housing for the Air Force for
construction, including acquisition, replacement, addition,
expansion, extension, and alteration, as authorized by law,
$78,025,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015.
Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Air Force
For expenses of family housing for the Air Force for
operation and maintenance, including debt payment, leasing,
minor construction, principal and interest charges, and
insurance premiums, as authorized by law, $513,792,000.
Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Defense-wide
For expenses of family housing for the activities and
agencies of the Department of Defense (other than the
military departments) for operation and maintenance, leasing,
and minor construction, as authorized by law, $50,464,000.
Department of Defense Family Housing Improvement Fund
For the Department of Defense Family Housing Improvement
Fund, $1,096,000, to remain available until expended, for
family housing initiatives undertaken pursuant to section
2883 of title 10, United States Code, providing alternative
means of acquiring and improving military family housing and
supporting facilities.
Homeowners Assistance Fund
For the Homeowners Assistance Fund established by section
1013 of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development
Act of 1966, as amended (42 U.S.C. 3374), $16,515,000, to
remain available until expended.
Chemical Demilitarization Construction, Defense-wide
For expenses of construction, not otherwise provided for,
necessary for the destruction of the United States stockpile
of lethal chemical agents and munitions in accordance with
section 1412 of the Department of Defense Authorization Act,
1986 (50 U.S.C. 1521), and for the destruction of other
chemical warfare materials that are not in the chemical
weapon stockpile, as currently authorized by law,
$124,971,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015,
which shall be only for the Assembled Chemical Weapons
Alternatives program.
Department of Defense Base Closure Account 1990
For deposit into the Department of Defense Base Closure
Account 1990, established by section 2906(a)(1) of the
Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (10 U.S.C.
2687 note), $460,474,000, to remain available until expended.
Department of Defense Base Closure Account 2005
For deposit into the Department of Defense Base Closure
Account 2005, established by section 2906A(a)(1) of the
Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (10 U.S.C.
2687 note), $2,354,285,000, to remain available until
expended: Provided, That the Department of Defense shall
notify the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of
Congress 14 days prior to obligating an amount for a
construction project that exceeds or reduces the amount
identified for that project in the most recently submitted
budget request for this account by 20 percent or $2,000,000,
whichever is less: Provided further, That the previous
proviso shall not apply to projects costing less than
$5,000,000, except for those projects not previously
identified in any budget submission for this account and
exceeding the minor construction threshold under section 2805
of title 10, United States Code.
Administrative Provisions
Sec. 101. None of the funds made available in this title
shall be expended for payments under a cost-plus-a-fixed-fee
contract for construction, where cost estimates exceed
$25,000, to be performed within the United States, except
Alaska, without the specific approval in writing of the
Secretary of Defense setting forth the reasons therefor.
Sec. 102. Funds made available in this title for
construction shall be available for hire of passenger motor
vehicles.
Sec. 103. Funds made available in this title for
construction may be used for advances to the Federal Highway
Administration, Department of Transportation, for the
construction of access roads as authorized by section 210 of
title 23, United States Code, when projects authorized
therein are certified as important to the national defense by
the Secretary of Defense.
Sec. 104. None of the funds made available in this title
may be used to begin construction of new bases in the United
States for which specific appropriations have not been made.
Sec. 105. None of the funds made available in this title
shall be used for purchase of land or land easements in
excess of 100 percent of the value as determined by the Army
Corps of Engineers or the Naval Facilities Engineering
Command, except: (1) where there is a determination of value
by a Federal court; (2) purchases negotiated by the Attorney
General or the designee of the Attorney General; (3) where
the estimated value is less than $25,000; or (4) as otherwise
determined by the Secretary of Defense to be in the public
interest.
Sec. 106. None of the funds made available in this title
shall be used to: (1) acquire land; (2) provide for site
preparation; or (3) install utilities for any family housing,
except housing for which funds have been made available in
annual Acts making appropriations for military construction.
Sec. 107. None of the funds made available in this title
for minor construction may be used to transfer or relocate
any activity from one base or installation to another,
without prior notification to the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress.
Sec. 108. None of the funds made available in this title
may be used for the procurement of steel for any construction
project or activity for which American steel producers,
fabricators, and manufacturers have been denied the
opportunity to compete for such steel procurement.
Sec. 109. None of the funds available to the Department of
Defense for military construction or family housing during
the current fiscal year may be used to pay real property
taxes in any foreign nation.
Sec. 110. None of the funds made available in this title
may be used to initiate a new installation overseas without
prior notification to the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress.
Sec. 111. None of the funds made available in this title
may be obligated for architect and engineer contracts
estimated by the Government to exceed $500,000 for projects
to be accomplished in Japan, in any North Atlantic Treaty
Organization member country, or in countries within the
United States Central Command Area of Responsibility, unless
such contracts are awarded to United States firms or United
States firms in joint venture with host nation firms.
[[Page H6230]]
Sec. 112. None of the funds made available in this title
for military construction in the United States territories
and possessions in the Pacific and on Kwajalein Atoll, or in
countries within the United States Central Command Area of
Responsibility, may be used to award any contract estimated
by the Government to exceed $1,000,000 to a foreign
contractor: Provided, That this section shall not be
applicable to contract awards for which the lowest responsive
and responsible bid of a United States contractor exceeds the
lowest responsive and responsible bid of a foreign contractor
by greater than 20 percent: Provided further, That this
section shall not apply to contract awards for military
construction on Kwajalein Atoll for which the lowest
responsive and responsible bid is submitted by a Marshallese
contractor.
Sec. 113. The Secretary of Defense is to inform the
appropriate committees of both Houses of Congress, including
the Committees on Appropriations, of the plans and scope of
any proposed military exercise involving United States
personnel 30 days prior to its occurring, if amounts expended
for construction, either temporary or permanent, are
anticipated to exceed $100,000.
Sec. 114. Not more than 20 percent of the funds made
available in this title which are limited for obligation
during the current fiscal year shall be obligated during the
last two months of the fiscal year.
Sec. 115. Funds appropriated to the Department of Defense
for construction in prior years shall be available for
construction authorized for each such military department by
the authorizations enacted into law during the current
session of Congress.
Sec. 116. For military construction or family housing
projects that are being completed with funds otherwise
expired or lapsed for obligation, expired or lapsed funds may
be used to pay the cost of associated supervision,
inspection, overhead, engineering and design on those
projects and on subsequent claims, if any.
Sec. 117. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any
funds made available to a military department or defense
agency for the construction of military projects may be
obligated for a military construction project or contract, or
for any portion of such a project or contract, at any time
before the end of the fourth fiscal year after the fiscal
year for which funds for such project were made available, if
the funds obligated for such project: (1) are obligated from
funds available for military construction projects; and (2)
do not exceed the amount appropriated for such project, plus
any amount by which the cost of such project is increased
pursuant to law.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 118. In addition to any other transfer authority
available to the Department of Defense, proceeds deposited to
the Department of Defense Base Closure Account established by
section 207(a)(1) of the Defense Authorization Amendments and
Base Closure and Realignment Act (10 U.S.C. 2687 note)
pursuant to section 207(a)(2)(C) of such Act, may be
transferred to the account established by section 2906(a)(1)
of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (10
U.S.C. 2687 note), to be merged with, and to be available for
the same purposes and the same time period as that account.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 119. Subject to 30 days prior notification, or 14
days for a notification provided in an electronic medium
pursuant to sections 480 and 2883, of title 10, United States
Code, to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of
Congress, such additional amounts as may be determined by the
Secretary of Defense may be transferred to: (1) the
Department of Defense Family Housing Improvement Fund from
amounts appropriated for construction in ``Family Housing''
accounts, to be merged with and to be available for the same
purposes and for the same period of time as amounts
appropriated directly to the Fund; or (2) the Department of
Defense Military Unaccompanied Housing Improvement Fund from
amounts appropriated for construction of military
unaccompanied housing in ``Military Construction'' accounts,
to be merged with and to be available for the same purposes
and for the same period of time as amounts appropriated
directly to the Fund: Provided, That appropriations made
available to the Funds shall be available to cover the costs,
as defined in section 502(5) of the Congressional Budget Act
of 1974, of direct loans or loan guarantees issued by the
Department of Defense pursuant to the provisions of
subchapter IV of chapter 169 of title 10, United States Code,
pertaining to alternative means of acquiring and improving
military family housing, military unaccompanied housing, and
supporting facilities.
Sec. 120. (a) Not later than 60 days before issuing any
solicitation for a contract with the private sector for
military family housing the Secretary of the military
department concerned shall submit to the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the notice
described in subsection (b).
(b)(1) A notice referred to in subsection (a) is a notice
of any guarantee (including the making of mortgage or rental
payments) proposed to be made by the Secretary to the private
party under the contract involved in the event of--
(A) the closure or realignment of the installation for
which housing is provided under the contract;
(B) a reduction in force of units stationed at such
installation; or
(C) the extended deployment overseas of units stationed at
such installation.
(2) Each notice under this subsection shall specify the
nature of the guarantee involved and assess the extent and
likelihood, if any, of the liability of the Federal
Government with respect to the guarantee.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 121. In addition to any other transfer authority
available to the Department of Defense, amounts may be
transferred from the accounts established by sections
2906(a)(1) and 2906A(a)(1) of the Defense Base Closure and
Realignment Act of 1990 (10 U.S.C. 2687 note), to the fund
established by section 1013(d) of the Demonstration Cities
and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 3374) to
pay for expenses associated with the Homeowners Assistance
Program incurred under 42 U.S.C. 3374(a)(1)(A). Any amounts
transferred shall be merged with and be available for the
same purposes and for the same time period as the fund to
which transferred.
Sec. 122. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
funds made available in this title for operation and
maintenance of family housing shall be the exclusive source
of funds for repair and maintenance of all family housing
units, including general or flag officer quarters: Provided,
That not more than $35,000 per unit may be spent annually for
the maintenance and repair of any general or flag officer
quarters without 30 days prior notification, or 14 days for a
notification provided in an electronic medium pursuant to
sections 480 and 2883 of title 10, United States Code, to the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress,
except that an after-the-fact notification shall be submitted
if the limitation is exceeded solely due to costs associated
with environmental remediation that could not be reasonably
anticipated at the time of the budget submission: Provided
further, That the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) is
to report annually to the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress all operation and maintenance
expenditures for each individual general or flag officer
quarters for the prior fiscal year.
Sec. 123. Amounts contained in the Ford Island Improvement
Account established by subsection (h) of section 2814 of
title 10, United States Code, are appropriated and shall be
available until expended for the purposes specified in
subsection (i)(1) of such section or until transferred
pursuant to subsection (i)(3) of such section.
Sec. 124. None of the funds made available in this title,
or in any Act making appropriations for military construction
which remain available for obligation, may be obligated or
expended to carry out a military construction, land
acquisition, or family housing project at or for a military
installation approved for closure, or at a military
installation for the purposes of supporting a function that
has been approved for realignment to another installation, in
2005 under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of
1990 (part A of title XXIX of Public Law 101-510; 10 U.S.C.
2687 note), unless such a project at a military installation
approved for realignment will support a continuing mission or
function at that installation or a new mission or function
that is planned for that installation, or unless the
Secretary of Defense certifies that the cost to the United
States of carrying out such project would be less than the
cost to the United States of cancelling such project, or if
the project is at an active component base that shall be
established as an enclave or in the case of projects having
multi-agency use, that another Government agency has
indicated it will assume ownership of the completed project.
The Secretary of Defense may not transfer funds made
available as a result of this limitation from any military
construction project, land acquisition, or family housing
project to another account or use such funds for another
purpose or project without the prior approval of the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress. This
section shall not apply to military construction projects,
land acquisition, or family housing projects for which the
project is vital to the national security or the protection
of health, safety, or environmental quality: Provided, That
the Secretary of Defense shall notify the congressional
defense committees within seven days of a decision to carry
out such a military construction project.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 125. During the 5-year period after appropriations
available in this Act to the Department of Defense for
military construction and family housing operation and
maintenance and construction have expired for obligation,
upon a determination that such appropriations will not be
necessary for the liquidation of obligations or for making
authorized adjustments to such appropriations for obligations
incurred during the period of availability of such
appropriations, unobligated balances of such appropriations
may be transferred into the appropriation ``Foreign Currency
Fluctuations, Construction, Defense'', to be merged with and
to be available for the same time period and for the same
purposes as the appropriation to which transferred.
Sec. 126. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available in this title may be used for any action that is
related to or promotes the expansion of the boundaries or
size of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Colorado.
Sec. 127. Amounts appropriated or otherwise made available
in an account funded
[[Page H6231]]
under the headings in this title may be transferred among
projects and activities within the account in accordance with
the reprogramming guidelines for military construction and
family housing construction contained in the report of the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives
to accompany this bill and in the guidance for military
construction reprogrammings and notifications contained in
Department of Defense Financial Management Regulation
7000.14-R, Volume 3, Chapter 7, of December 1996, as in
effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
TITLE II
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Veterans Benefits Administration
compensation and pensions
(including transfer of funds)
For the payment of compensation benefits to or on behalf of
veterans and a pilot program for disability examinations as
authorized by section 107 and chapters 11, 13, 18, 51, 53,
55, and 61 of title 38, United States Code; pension benefits
to or on behalf of veterans as authorized by chapters 15, 51,
53, 55, and 61 of title 38, United States Code; and burial
benefits, the Reinstated Entitlement Program for Survivors,
emergency and other officers' retirement pay, adjusted-
service credits and certificates, payment of premiums due on
commercial life insurance policies guaranteed under the
provisions of title IV of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
(50 U.S.C. App. 541 et seq.) and for other benefits as
authorized by sections 107, 1312, 1977, and 2106, and
chapters 23, 51, 53, 55, and 61 of title 38, United States
Code, $53,492,234,000, to remain available until expended:
Provided, That not to exceed $30,423,000 of the amount
appropriated under this heading shall be reimbursed to
``General operating expenses'', ``Medical support and
compliance'', and ``Information technology systems'' for
necessary expenses in implementing the provisions of chapters
51, 53, and 55 of title 38, United States Code, the funding
source for which is specifically provided as the
``Compensation and pensions'' appropriation: Provided
further, That such sums as may be earned on an actual
qualifying patient basis, shall be reimbursed to ``Medical
care collections fund'' to augment the funding of individual
medical facilities for nursing home care provided to
pensioners as authorized.
readjustment benefits
For the payment of readjustment and rehabilitation benefits
to or on behalf of veterans as authorized by chapters 21, 30,
31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 51, 53, 55, and 61 of title 38,
United States Code, $10,440,245,000, to remain available
until expended: Provided, That expenses for rehabilitation
program services and assistance which the Secretary is
authorized to provide under subsection (a) of section 3104 of
title 38, United States Code, other than under paragraphs
(1), (2), (5), and (11) of that subsection, shall be charged
to this account.
veterans insurance and indemnities
For military and naval insurance, national service life
insurance, servicemen's indemnities, service-disabled
veterans insurance, and veterans mortgage life insurance as
authorized by title 38, United States Code, chapters 19 and
21, $62,589,000, to remain available until expended.
veterans housing benefit program fund
For the cost of direct and guaranteed loans, such sums as
may be necessary to carry out the program, as authorized by
subchapters I through III of chapter 37 of title 38, United
States Code: Provided, That such costs, including the cost of
modifying such loans, shall be as defined in section 502 of
the Congressional Budget Act of 1974: Provided further, That
during fiscal year 2011, within the resources available, not
to exceed $500,000 in gross obligations for direct loans are
authorized for specially adapted housing loans.
In addition, for administrative expenses to carry out the
direct and guaranteed loan programs, $163,646,000.
vocational rehabilitation loans program account
For the cost of direct loans, $48,000, as authorized by
chapter 31 of title 38, United States Code: Provided, That
such costs, including the cost of modifying such loans, shall
be as defined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act
of 1974: Provided further, That funds made available under
this heading are available to subsidize gross obligations for
the principal amount of direct loans not to exceed
$3,042,000.
In addition, for administrative expenses necessary to carry
out the direct loan program, $337,000, which may be paid to
the appropriation for ``General operating expenses''.
native american veteran housing loan program account
For administrative expenses to carry out the direct loan
program authorized by subchapter V of chapter 37 of title 38,
United States Code, $707,000.
Veterans Health Administration
medical services
(including transfer of funds)
For necessary expenses for furnishing, as authorized by
law, inpatient and outpatient care and treatment to
beneficiaries of the Department of Veterans Affairs and
veterans described in section 1705(a) of title 38, United
States Code, including care and treatment in facilities not
under the jurisdiction of the Department, and including
medical supplies and equipment, food services, and salaries
and expenses of health care employees hired under title 38,
United States Code, aid to State homes as authorized by
section 1741 of title 38, United States Code, assistance and
support services for caregivers as authorized by section
1720G of title 38, United States Code, and loan repayments
authorized by section 604 of Public Law 111-163,
$39,649,985,000, plus reimbursements, shall become available
on October 1, 2011, and shall remain available until
September 30, 2012: Provided, That, of the amount made
available under this heading $1,015,000,000 shall remain
available until September 30, 2013: Provided further, That,
notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs shall establish a priority for the provision
of medical treatment for veterans who have service-connected
disabilities, lower income, or have special needs: Provided
further, That, notwithstanding any other provision of law,
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall give priority funding
for the provision of basic medical benefits to veterans in
enrollment priority groups 1 through 6: Provided further,
That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs may authorize the dispensing of
prescription drugs from Veterans Health Administration
facilities to enrolled veterans with privately written
prescriptions based on requirements established by the
Secretary: Provided further, That the implementation of the
program described in the previous proviso shall incur no
additional cost to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
medical support and compliance
For necessary expenses in the administration of the
medical, hospital, nursing home, domiciliary, construction,
supply, and research activities, as authorized by law;
administrative expenses in support of capital policy
activities; and administrative and legal expenses of the
Department for collecting and recovering amounts owed the
Department as authorized under chapter 17 of title 38, United
States Code, and the Federal Medical Care Recovery Act (42
U.S.C. 2651 et seq.); $5,535,000,000, plus reimbursements,
shall become available on October 1, 2011, and shall remain
available until September 30, 2012: Provided, That, of the
amount made available under this heading, $145,000,000 shall
remain available until September 30, 2013.
medical facilities
For necessary expenses for the maintenance and operation of
hospitals, nursing homes, and domiciliary facilities and
other necessary facilities of the Veterans Health
Administration; for administrative expenses in support of
planning, design, project management, real property
acquisition and disposition, construction, and renovation of
any facility under the jurisdiction or for the use of the
Department; for oversight, engineering, and architectural
activities not charged to project costs; for repairing,
altering, improving, or providing facilities in the several
hospitals and homes under the jurisdiction of the Department,
not otherwise provided for, either by contract or by the hire
of temporary employees and purchase of materials; for leases
of facilities; and for laundry services, $5,426,000,000, plus
reimbursements, shall become available on October 1, 2011,
and shall remain available until September 30, 2012:
Provided, That, of the amount made available under this
heading, $145,000,000 shall remain available until September
30, 2013: Provided further, That, of the amount available for
fiscal year 2012, $130,000,000 for non-recurring maintenance
shall be allocated in a manner not subject to the Veterans
Equitable Resource Allocation.
medical and prosthetic research
For necessary expenses in carrying out programs of medical
and prosthetic research and development as authorized by
chapter 73 of title 38, United States Code, $590,000,000,
plus reimbursements, shall remain available until September
30, 2012.
National Cemetery Administration
For necessary expenses of the National Cemetery
Administration for operations and maintenance, not otherwise
provided for, including uniforms or allowances therefor;
cemeterial expenses as authorized by law; purchase of one
passenger motor vehicle for use in cemeterial operations;
hire of passenger motor vehicles; and repair, alteration or
improvement of facilities under the jurisdiction of the
National Cemetery Administration, $259,004,000, of which not
to exceed $24,200,000 shall remain available until September
30, 2012.
Departmental Administration
general operating expenses
For necessary operating expenses of the Department of
Veterans Affairs, not otherwise provided for, including
administrative expenses in support of Department-wide capital
planning, management and policy activities, uniforms, or
allowances therefor; not to exceed $25,000 for official
reception and representation expenses; hire of passenger
motor vehicles; and reimbursement of the General Services
Administration for security guard services, and the
Department of Defense for the cost of overseas employee mail,
$2,601,389,000: Provided, That expenses for services and
assistance authorized under paragraphs (1), (2), (5), and
(11) of section 3104(a) of title 38, United States Code, that
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs determines are necessary to
enable entitled veterans: (1) to the maximum extent feasible,
to become
[[Page H6232]]
employable and to obtain and maintain suitable employment; or
(2) to achieve maximum independence in daily living, shall be
charged to this account: Provided further, That the Veterans
Benefits Administration shall be funded at not less than
$2,162,776,000: Provided further, That of the funds made
available under this heading, not to exceed $111,000,000
shall remain available until September 30, 2012: Provided
further, That from the funds made available under this
heading, the Veterans Benefits Administration may purchase
(on a one-for-one replacement basis only) up to two passenger
motor vehicles for use in operations of that Administration
in Manila, Philippines.
information technology systems
For necessary expenses for information technology systems
and telecommunications support, including developmental
information systems and operational information systems; for
pay and associated costs; and for the capital asset
acquisition of information technology systems, including
management and related contractual costs of said
acquisitions, including contractual costs associated with
operations authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United
States Code, $3,222,000,000, plus reimbursements, shall
remain available until September 30, 2012: Provided, That
none of the funds made available under this heading may be
obligated until the Department of Veterans Affairs submits to
the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress,
and such Committees approve, a plan for expenditure that: (1)
meets the capital planning and investment control review
requirements established by the Office of Management and
Budget; (2) complies with the Department of Veterans Affairs
enterprise architecture; (3) conforms with an established
enterprise life cycle methodology; and (4) complies with the
acquisition rules, requirements, guidelines, and systems
acquisition management practices of the Federal Government:
Provided further, That not later than 30 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress a reprogramming base letter which
sets forth, by project, the operations and maintenance costs,
with salary expenses separately designated, and development
costs to be carried out utilizing amounts made available
under this heading.
office of inspector general
For necessary expenses of the Office of Inspector General,
to include information technology, in carrying out the
provisions of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C.
App.), $115,367,000, of which $6,000,000 shall remain
available until September 30, 2012.
construction, major projects
For constructing, altering, extending, and improving any of
the facilities, including parking projects, under the
jurisdiction or for the use of the Department of Veterans
Affairs, or for any of the purposes set forth in sections
316, 2404, 2406, 8102, 8103, 8106, 8108, 8109, 8110, and 8122
of title 38, United States Code, including planning,
architectural and engineering services, construction
management services, maintenance or guarantee period services
costs associated with equipment guarantees provided under the
project, services of claims analysts, offsite utility and
storm drainage system construction costs, and site
acquisition, where the estimated cost of a project is more
than the amount set forth in section 8104(a)(3)(A) of title
38, United States Code, or where funds for a project were
made available in a previous major project appropriation,
$1,166,036,000, to remain available until expended, of which
$6,000,000 shall be to make reimbursements as provided in
section 13 of the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (41 U.S.C.
612) for claims paid for contract disputes: Provided, That
except for advance planning activities, including needs
assessments which may or may not lead to capital investments,
and other capital asset management related activities,
including portfolio development and management activities,
and investment strategy studies funded through the advance
planning fund and the planning and design activities funded
through the design fund, including needs assessments which
may or may not lead to capital investments, and salaries and
associated costs of the resident engineers who oversee those
capital investments funded through this account, and funds
provided for the purchase of land for the National Cemetery
Administration through the land acquisition line item, none
of the funds made available under this heading shall be used
for any project which has not been approved by the Congress
in the budgetary process: Provided further, That funds made
available under this heading for fiscal year 2011, for each
approved project shall be obligated: (1) by the awarding of a
construction documents contract by September 30, 2011; and
(2) by the awarding of a construction contract by September
30, 2012: Provided further, That the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs shall promptly submit to the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress a written report on
any approved major construction project for which obligations
are not incurred within the time limitations established
above.
construction, minor projects
For constructing, altering, extending, and improving any of
the facilities, including parking projects, under the
jurisdiction or for the use of the Department of Veterans
Affairs, including planning and assessments of needs which
may lead to capital investments, architectural and
engineering services, maintenance or guarantee period
services costs associated with equipment guarantees provided
under the project, services of claims analysts, offsite
utility and storm drainage system construction costs, and
site acquisition, or for any of the purposes set forth in
sections 316, 2404, 2406, 8102, 8103, 8106, 8108, 8109, 8110,
8122, and 8162 of title 38, United States Code, where the
estimated cost of a project is equal to or less than the
amount set forth in section 8104(a)(3)(A) of title 38, United
States Code, $507,700,000, to remain available until
expended, along with unobligated balances of previous
``Construction, minor projects'' appropriations which are
hereby made available for any project where the estimated
cost is equal to or less than the amount set forth in such
section: Provided, That funds made available under this
heading shall be for: (1) repairs to any of the nonmedical
facilities under the jurisdiction or for the use of the
Department which are necessary because of loss or damage
caused by any natural disaster or catastrophe; and (2)
temporary measures necessary to prevent or to minimize
further loss by such causes.
grants for construction of state extended care facilities
For grants to assist States to acquire or construct State
nursing home and domiciliary facilities and to remodel,
modify, or alter existing hospital, nursing home, and
domiciliary facilities in State homes, for furnishing care to
veterans as authorized by sections 8131 through 8137 of title
38, United States Code, $85,000,000, to remain available
until expended.
grants for construction of state veterans cemeteries
For grants to assist States in establishing, expanding, or
improving State veterans cemeteries as authorized by section
2408 of title 38, United States Code, $46,000,000, to remain
available until expended.
Administrative Provisions
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 201. Any appropriation for fiscal year 2011 for
``Compensation and pensions'', ``Readjustment benefits'', and
``Veterans insurance and indemnities'' may be transferred as
necessary to any other of the mentioned appropriations:
Provided, That before a transfer may take place, the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall request from the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the
authority to make the transfer and such Committees issue an
approval, or absent a response, a period of 30 days has
elapsed.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 202. Amounts made available for the Department of
Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2011, in this Act or any
other Act, under the ``Medical services'', ``Medical support
and compliance'', and ``Medical facilities'' accounts may be
transferred among the accounts: Provided, That any transfers
between the ``Medical services'' and ``Medical support and
compliance'' accounts of 1 percent or less of the total
amount appropriated to the account in this or any other Act
may take place subject to notification from the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs to the Committees on Appropriations of both
Houses of Congress of the amount and purpose of the transfer:
Provided further, That any transfers between the ``Medical
services'' and ``Medical support and compliance'' accounts in
excess of 1 percent, or exceeding the cumulative 1 percent
for the fiscal year, may take place only after the Secretary
requests from the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses
of Congress the authority to make the transfer and an
approval is issued: Provided further, That any transfers to
or from the ``Medical facilities'' account may take place
only after the Secretary requests from the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the authority to
make the transfer and an approval is issued.
Sec. 203. Appropriations available in this title for
salaries and expenses shall be available for services
authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code,
hire of passenger motor vehicles; lease of a facility or land
or both; and uniforms or allowances therefore, as authorized
by sections 5901 through 5902 of title 5, United States Code.
Sec. 204. No appropriations in this title (except the
appropriations for ``Construction, major projects'', and
``Construction, minor projects'') shall be available for the
purchase of any site for or toward the construction of any
new hospital or home.
Sec. 205. No appropriations in this title shall be
available for hospitalization or examination of any persons
(except beneficiaries entitled to such hospitalization or
examination under the laws providing such benefits to
veterans, and persons receiving such treatment under sections
7901 through 7904 of title 5, United States Code, or the
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance
Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.)), unless reimbursement of the
cost of such hospitalization or examination is made to the
``Medical services'' account at such rates as may be fixed by
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Sec. 206. Appropriations available in this title for
``Compensation and pensions'', ``Readjustment benefits'', and
``Veterans insurance and indemnities'' shall be available for
payment of prior year accrued obligations required to be
recorded by law against the corresponding prior year accounts
within the last quarter of fiscal year 2010.
[[Page H6233]]
Sec. 207. Appropriations available in this title shall be
available to pay prior year obligations of corresponding
prior year appropriations accounts resulting from sections
3328(a), 3334, and 3712(a) of title 31, United States Code,
except that if such obligations are from trust fund accounts
they shall be payable only from ``Compensation and
pensions''.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 208. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
during fiscal year 2011, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
shall, from the National Service Life Insurance Fund under
section 1920 of title 38, United States Code, the Veterans'
Special Life Insurance Fund under section 1923 of title 38,
United States Code, and the United States Government Life
Insurance Fund under section 1955 of title 38, United States
Code, reimburse the ``General operating expenses'' and
``Information technology systems'' accounts for the cost of
administration of the insurance programs financed through
those accounts: Provided, That reimbursement shall be made
only from the surplus earnings accumulated in such an
insurance program during fiscal year 2011 that are available
for dividends in that program after claims have been paid and
actuarially determined reserves have been set aside: Provided
further, That if the cost of administration of such an
insurance program exceeds the amount of surplus earnings
accumulated in that program, reimbursement shall be made only
to the extent of such surplus earnings: Provided further,
That the Secretary shall determine the cost of administration
for fiscal year 2011 which is properly allocable to the
provision of each such insurance program and to the provision
of any total disability income insurance included in that
insurance program.
Sec. 209. Amounts deducted from enhanced-use lease
proceeds to reimburse an account for expenses incurred by
that account during a prior fiscal year for providing
enhanced-use lease services, may be obligated during the
fiscal year in which the proceeds are received.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 210. Funds available in this title or funds for
salaries and other administrative expenses shall also be
available to reimburse the Office of Resolution Management of
the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of
Employment Discrimination Complaint Adjudication under
section 319 of title 38, United States Code, for all services
provided at rates which will recover actual costs but not
exceed $35,794,000 for the Office of Resolution Management
and $3,354,000 for the Office of Employment and
Discrimination Complaint Adjudication: Provided, That
payments may be made in advance for services to be furnished
based on estimated costs: Provided further, That amounts
received shall be credited to the ``General operating
expenses'' and ``Information technology systems'' accounts
for use by the office that provided the service.
Sec. 211. No appropriations in this title shall be
available to enter into any new lease of real property if the
estimated annual rental cost is more than $1,000,000, unless
the Secretary submits a report which the Committees on
Appropriations of both Houses of Congress approve within 30
days following the date on which the report is received.
Sec. 212. No funds of the Department of Veterans Affairs
shall be available for hospital care, nursing home care, or
medical services provided to any person under chapter 17 of
title 38, United States Code, for a non-service-connected
disability described in section 1729(a)(2) of such title,
unless that person has disclosed to the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs, in such form as the Secretary may require, current,
accurate third-party reimbursement information for purposes
of section 1729 of such title: Provided, That the Secretary
may recover, in the same manner as any other debt due the
United States, the reasonable charges for such care or
services from any person who does not make such disclosure as
required: Provided further, That any amounts so recovered for
care or services provided in a prior fiscal year may be
obligated by the Secretary during the fiscal year in which
amounts are received.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 213. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
proceeds or revenues derived from enhanced-use leasing
activities (including disposal) may be deposited into the
``Construction, major projects'' and ``Construction, minor
projects'' accounts and be used for construction (including
site acquisition and disposition), alterations, and
improvements of any medical facility under the jurisdiction
or for the use of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Such
sums as realized are in addition to the amount provided for
in ``Construction, major projects'' and ``Construction, minor
projects''.
Sec. 214. Amounts made available under ``Medical
services'' are available--
(1) for furnishing recreational facilities, supplies, and
equipment; and
(2) for funeral expenses, burial expenses, and other
expenses incidental to funerals and burials for beneficiaries
receiving care in the Department.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 215. Such sums as may be deposited to the Medical
Care Collections Fund pursuant to section 1729A of title 38,
United States Code, may be transferred to ``Medical
services'', to remain available until expended for the
purposes of that account.
Sec. 216. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may enter into
agreements with Indian tribes and tribal organizations which
are party to the Alaska Native Health Compact with the Indian
Health Service, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations
serving rural Alaska which have entered into contracts with
the Indian Health Service under the Indian Self Determination
and Educational Assistance Act, to provide healthcare,
including behavioral health and dental care. The Secretary
shall require participating veterans and facilities to comply
with all appropriate rules and regulations, as established by
the Secretary. The term ``rural Alaska'' shall mean those
lands sited within the external boundaries of the Alaska
Native regions specified in sections 7(a)(1)-(4) and (7)-(12)
of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended (43
U.S.C. 1606), and those lands within the Alaska Native
regions specified in sections 7(a)(5) and 7(a)(6) of the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended (43 U.S.C.
1606), which are not within the boundaries of the
Municipality of Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough,
the Kenai Peninsula Borough or the Matanuska Susitna Borough.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 217. Such sums as may be deposited to the Department
of Veterans Affairs Capital Asset Fund pursuant to section
8118 of title 38, United States Code, may be transferred to
the ``Construction, major projects'' and ``Construction,
minor projects'' accounts, to remain available until expended
for the purposes of these accounts.
Sec. 218. None of the funds made available in this title
may be used to implement any policy prohibiting the Directors
of the Veterans Integrated Services Networks from conducting
outreach or marketing to enroll new veterans within their
respective Networks.
Sec. 219. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit
to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of
Congress a quarterly report on the financial status of the
Veterans Health Administration.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 220. Amounts made available under the ``Medical
services'', ``Medical support and compliance'', ``Medical
facilities'', ``General operating expenses'', and ``National
Cemetery Administration'' accounts for fiscal year 2011, may
be transferred to or from the ``Information technology
systems'' account: Provided, That before a transfer may take
place, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall request from
the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress
the authority to make the transfer and an approval is issued.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 221. Amounts made available for the ``Information
technology systems'' account may be transferred between
projects: Provided, That no project may be increased or
decreased by more than $1,000,000 of cost prior to submitting
a request to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses
of Congress to make the transfer and an approval is issued,
or absent a response, a period of 30 days has elapsed.
Sec. 222. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available by this Act or any other Act for the Department of
Veterans Affairs may be used in a manner that is inconsistent
with--
(1) section 842 of the Transportation, Treasury, Housing
and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of
Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
(Public Law 109-115; 119 Stat. 2506); or
(2) section 8110(a)(5) of title 38, United States Code.
Sec. 223. Of the amounts made available to the Department
of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2011, in this Act or any
other Act, under the ``Medical facilities'' account for non-
recurring maintenance, not more than 20 percent of the funds
made available shall be obligated during the last 2 months of
that fiscal year: Provided, That the Secretary may waive this
requirement after providing written notice to the Committees
on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress.
Sec. 224. Of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made
available by this title, the Secretary may execute $5,000,000
for cooperative agreements with State and local government
entities or their designees with a demonstrated record of
serving veterans to conduct outreach to ensure that veterans
in underserved areas receive the care and benefits for which
they are eligible.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 225. Of the amounts appropriated to the Department of
Veterans Affairs in this Act, and any other Act, for
``Medical services'', ``Medical support and compliance'',
``Medical facilities'', ``Construction, minor projects'', and
``Information technology systems'', such sums as may be
necessary, plus reimbursements, may be transferred to the
Joint Department of Defense-Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Facility Demonstration Fund, established by section
1704 of title XVII of division A of Public Law 111-84, and
shall be available to fund operations of the integrated
Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center,
consisting of the North Chicago Veteran Affairs Medical
Center, and Navy Ambulatory Care Center, and supporting
facilities designated as a combined Federal medical facility
as described by Section 706 of Public Law 110-417.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 226. Such sums as may be deposited to the Medical
Care Collections Fund pursuant
[[Page H6234]]
to section 1729A of title 38, United States Code, for health
care provided at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health
Care Center may be transferred to the Joint Department of
Defense-Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility
Demonstration Fund, established by section 1704 of title XVII
of division A of Public Law 111-84, and shall be available to
fund operations of the integrated Captain James A. Lovell
Federal Health Care Center, consisting of the North Chicago
Veteran Affairs Medical Center, and Navy Ambulatory Care
Center, and supporting facilities designated as a combined
Federal medical facility as described by section 1706 of
Public Law 110-417.
(including transfer of funds)
Sec. 227. Of the amounts available in this title for
``Medical services'', ``Medical support and compliance'', and
``Medical facilities'', a minimum of $15,000,000, shall be
transferred to the Department of Defense/Department of
Veterans Affairs Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund, as
authorized by section 8111(d) of title 38, United States
Code, to remain available until expended, for any purpose
authorized by section 8111 of title 38, United States Code.
(including rescission of funds)
Sec. 228. (a) Of the funds appropriated in the Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-117, Division E),
the following amounts which become available on October 1,
2010 are hereby permanently cancelled from the accounts in
the amounts specified:
``Medical services'', Department of Veterans Affairs,
$1,015,000,000;
``Medical support and compliance'', Department of Veterans
Affairs, $145,000,000; and
``Medical facilities'', Department of Veterans Affairs,
$145,000,000.
(b) An additional amount is appropriated to the following
accounts in the amounts specified, to become available on
October 1, 2010 and to remain available until September 30,
2012:
``Medical services'', Department of Veterans Affairs,
$1,015,000,000;
``Medical support and compliance'', Department of Veterans
Affairs, $145,000,000; and
``Medical facilities'', Department of Veterans Affairs,
$145,000,000.
Sec. 229. For an additional amount for the ``General
operating expenses'' account, $23,584,000, to increase the
Department's acquisition workforce capacity and capabilities:
Provided, That such funds may be transferred by the Secretary
to any other account in the Department to carry out the
purposes provided herein: Provided further, That such
transfer authority is in addition to any other transfer
authority provided in this Act: Provided further, That such
funds shall be available only to supplement and not to
supplant existing acquisition workforce activities: Provided
further, That such funds shall be available for training,
recruitment, retention, and hiring additional members of the
acquisition workforce as defined by the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy Act, as amended (41 U.S.C. 401 et seq.):
Provided further, That such funds shall be available for
information technology in support of acquisition workforce
effectiveness or for management solutions to improve
acquisition management.
Sec. 230. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans
Affairs shall report to the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress within 30 days of enactment of this
Act the planned funding allocation from each of the Veterans
Health Administration accounts to the National Reserve Fund
and any subsequent increase in these allocations of ten
percent or more: Provided, That the Secretary shall notify
the Committees of any planned obligation of the National
Reserve Fund fifteen days before such obligation takes place,
as well as the intended use of the funds.
Sec. 231. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans
Affairs shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of both
Houses of Congress of all bid savings in major construction
projects that total at least $5,000,000, or five percent of
the programmed amount, whichever is less: Provided, That such
notification shall occur within 14 days after the date on
which funds are obligated.
Sec. 232. The scope of work for a project included in
``Construction, major projects'', may not be increased above
the scope specified for that project in the original
justification data provided to the Congress as part of the
request for appropriations, without prior notification to the
Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress.
TITLE III
RELATED AGENCIES
American Battle Monuments Commission
salaries and expenses
For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, of the
American Battle Monuments Commission, including the
acquisition of land or interest in land in foreign countries;
purchases and repair of uniforms for caretakers of national
cemeteries and monuments outside of the United States and its
territories and possessions; rent of office and garage space
in foreign countries; purchase (one-for-one replacement basis
only) and hire of passenger motor vehicles; not to exceed
$7,500 for official reception and representation expenses;
and insurance of official motor vehicles in foreign
countries, when required by law of such countries,
$65,667,000, to remain available until expended: Provided,
That of the amount made available under this heading,
$1,000,000 shall be for improvements and rehabilitation of
the Bataan Death March Memorial at the Cabanatuan American
Memorial in the Philippines.
Foreign Currency Fluctuations Account
For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, of the
American Battle Monuments Commission, such sums as may be
necessary, to remain available until expended, for purposes
authorized by section 2109 of title 36, United States Code.
United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
salaries and expenses
For necessary expenses for the operation of the United
States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims as authorized by
sections 7251 through 7298 of title 38, United States Code,
$90,147,000: Provided, That, of the foregoing amount,
$62,000,000 shall be transferred to the General Services
Administration for the construction of a courthouse to house
the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims:
Provided further, That $2,515,229 shall be available for the
purpose of providing financial assistance as described, and
in accordance with the process and reporting procedures set
forth, under this heading in Public Law 102-229.
Department of Defense--Civil
Cemeterial Expenses, Army
salaries and expenses
For necessary expenses, as authorized by law, for
maintenance, operation, and improvement of Arlington National
Cemetery and Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery,
including the purchase of two passenger motor vehicles for
replacement only, and not to exceed $1,000 for official
reception and representation expenses, $39,600,000, to remain
available until expended: Provided, That none of the funds
available under this heading shall be for construction of a
perimeter wall at Arlington National Cemetery. In addition,
such sums as may be necessary for parking maintenance,
repairs and replacement, to be derived from the Lease of
Department of Defense Real Property for Defense Agencies
account.
Funds appropriated under this Act may be provided to
Arlington County, Virginia, for the relocation of the
federally-owned water main at Arlington National Cemetery
making additional land available for ground burials.
Armed Forces Retirement Home
trust fund
For expenses necessary for the Armed Forces Retirement Home
to operate and maintain the Armed Forces Retirement Home--
Washington, District of Columbia, and the Armed Forces
Retirement Home--Gulfport, Mississippi, to be paid from funds
available in the Armed Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund,
$71,200,000, of which $2,000,000 shall remain available until
expended for construction and renovation of the physical
plants at the Armed Forces Retirement Home--Washington,
District of Columbia, and the Armed Forces Retirement Home--
Gulfport, Mississippi.
TITLE IV
OVERSEAS CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS
Department of Defense
Military Construction, Army
(including transfer of funds)
For an additional amount for ``Military Construction,
Army'', $929,996,000, to remain available until September 30,
2013: Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision of
law, such funds may be obligated and expended to carry out
planning and design and military construction projects not
otherwise authorized by law: Provided further, That of the
amount appropriated, $10,000,000 shall be transferred to
``Department of Defense -- Other Department of Defense
Programs -- Office of the Inspector General'', to be merged
with and to be available for the same time period as the
appropriation to which transferred, for the purpose of
carrying out audits of military construction projects in
Afghanistan: Provided further, That this transfer authority
is in addition to any other transfer authority available to
the Department of Defense.
Military Construction, Air Force
For an additional amount for ``Military Construction, Air
Force'', $280,504,000, to remain available until September
30, 2013: Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision
of law, such funds may be obligated and expended to carry out
planning and design and military construction projects not
otherwise authorized by law.
Military Construction, Defense-wide
For an additional amount for ``Military Construction,
Defense-Wide'', $46,500,000, to remain available until
September 30, 2013: Provided, That notwithstanding any other
provision of law, such funds may be obligated and expended to
carry out planning and design and military construction
projects not otherwise authorized by law.
Administrative Provisions
Sec. 401. Unless otherwise specified, each amount in this
title is designated as an emergency requirement and necessary
to meet emergency needs pursuant to sections 403(a) and
423(b) of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the concurrent
resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010.
Sec. 402. None of the funds made available in this title
may be obligated for architect
[[Page H6235]]
and engineer contracts estimated by the Government to exceed
$500,000, unless such contracts are awarded to United States
firms or United States firms in joint venture with host
nation firms.
Sec. 403. None of the funds made available in this title
may be used to award any contract estimated by the Government
to exceed $1,000,000 to a foreign contractor: Provided, That
this section shall not be applicable to contract awards for
which the lowest responsive and responsible bid of a United
States contractor exceeds the lowest responsive and
responsible bid of a foreign contractor by greater than 20
percent: Provided further, That the Secretary of Defense may
waive the limitation imposed by this section upon a
determination that such limitation is inconsistent with
national security: Provided further, That the Secretary of
Defense shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of both
Houses of Congress no later than five days following a
decision to waive the limitation imposed in this section.
TITLE V
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 501. No part of any appropriation contained in this
Act shall remain available for obligation beyond the current
fiscal year unless expressly so provided herein.
Sec. 502. Such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year
2011 for pay raises for programs funded by this Act shall be
absorbed within the levels appropriated in this Act.
Sec. 503. None of the funds made available in this Act may
be used for any program, project, or activity, when it is
made known to the Federal entity or official to which the
funds are made available that the program, project, or
activity is not in compliance with any Federal law relating
to risk assessment, the protection of private property
rights, or unfunded mandates.
Sec. 504. No part of any funds appropriated in this Act
shall be used by an agency of the executive branch, other
than for normal and recognized executive-legislative
relationships, for publicity or propaganda purposes, and for
the preparation, distribution, or use of any kit, pamphlet,
booklet, publication, radio, television, or film presentation
designed to support or defeat legislation pending before
Congress, except in presentation to Congress itself.
Sec. 505. All departments and agencies funded under this
Act are encouraged, within the limits of the existing
statutory authorities and funding, to expand their use of
``E-Commerce'' technologies and procedures in the conduct of
their business practices and public service activities.
Sec. 506. None of the funds made available in this Act may
be transferred to any department, agency, or instrumentality
of the United States Government except pursuant to a transfer
made by, or transfer authority provided in, this or any other
appropriations Act.
Sec. 507. Unless stated otherwise, all reports and
notifications required by this Act shall be submitted to the
Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs,
and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of
the House of Representatives and the Subcommittee on Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies of
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.
Sec. 508. None of the funds made available in this Act may
be used for a project or program named for an individual
serving as a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner of
the United States House of Representatives.
Sec. 509. (a) Any agency receiving funds made available in
this Act, shall, subject to subsections (b) and (c), post on
the public website of that agency any report required to be
submitted by the Congress in this or any other Act, upon the
determination by the head of the agency that it shall serve
the national interest.
(b) Subsection (a) shall not apply to a report if--
(1) the public posting of the report compromises national
security; or
(2) the report contains confidential or proprietary
information.
(c) The head of the agency posting such report shall do so
only after such report has been made available to the
requesting Committee or Committees of Congress for no less
than 45 days.
Sec. 510. None of the funds made available in this Act may
be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations
for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries.
Sec. 511. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available by this Act may be obligated by any covered
executive agency in contravention of the certification
requirement of section 6(b) of the Iran Sanctions Act of
1996, as included in the revisions to the Federal Acquisition
Regulation pursuant to such section.
Sec. 512. (a) None of the funds made available in this Act
may be used to maintain or establish a computer network
unless such network blocks the viewing, downloading, and
exchanging of pornography.
(b) Nothing in subsection (a) shall limit the use of funds
necessary for any Federal, State, tribal, or local law
enforcement agency or any other entity carrying out criminal
investigations, prosecution, or adjudication activities.
Sec. 513. None of the funds made available in this Act may
be used for the processing of new enhanced-use leases at the
National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers located in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The CHAIR. No amendment is in order except those printed in House
Report 111-570. Each such amendment may be offered only in the order
printed in the report, may be offered by a Member designated in the
report, shall be considered read, shall be debatable for 10 minutes,
equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and
shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question.
After consideration of the bill for amendment, the chair and ranking
minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their designees
each may offer one pro forma amendment to the bill for the purpose of
debate, which shall be controlled by the proponent.
{time} 1710
Amendment No. 1 Offered by Mr. Holt
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 1 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. HOLT. Madam Chair, I have amendment No. 1 at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 33, line 15, after the dollar amount, insert
``(reduced by $20,000,000) (increased by $20,000,000)''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Holt) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. HOLT. Madam Chair, I want to thank the Rules Committee for making
this amendment in order and for the strong support and encouragement I
have received in this effort from the chairman of the Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee. The gentleman from
Texas' leadership of the subcommittee and his concern and compassion
and advocacy for the needs of veterans is truly an inspiration.
Madam Chair, we have few responsibilities as solemn and as important
as ensuring that our veterans receive the care that we have promised
them as a Nation. To that end, my amendment directs the Department of
Veterans Affairs to allocate $20 million for direct advertising, the
use of online social media and other media for suicide prevention
outreach. Let me take a moment to tell you why this issue means so much
to me, and I would like to tell you about one very remarkable family
from my central New Jersey congressional district.
A little over a week ago, on July 14, I had the privilege of
introducing Mrs. Linda Bean of East Brunswick, New Jersey, to the House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Linda was appearing before the
Oversight and Investigations subcommittee to tell the story of how her
son, Coleman, came to take his own life in September 2008. Linda made
it clear why she had traveled to Washington to, I would say,
courageously share her family's painful story: ``I owe a duty to my son
and our debt to the men with whom Coleman served.''
You see, Coleman was a two-tour veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Like so many of our troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Coleman developed post-traumatic stress disorder. In between and after
those tours, he sought treatment for his PTSD. Because Sergeant Bean
was a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, the so-called IRR--a pool
of reserve soldiers not assigned to any unit but available for
mobilization if needed--he could not get treatment for his condition
because the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs refused to take
ownership of Sergeant Bean and the thousands like him. A few weeks
after Coleman took his life, the VA called to confirm his next
appointment.
As Linda closed her testimony before the House Veterans' Affairs
Committee, she relayed how one VA official had told her, ``If they
won't walk through the door, we can't help them.'' Linda's response
must be our response: ``Of course we can help them. It is our duty to
figure out how, not theirs.''
Earlier this year, I secured the inclusion of a suicide prevention
provision in the annual defense authorization bill that would require
the Secretary of Defense to conduct periodic telephone or in-person
outreach and counseling calls to reservists like Coleman. The idea is
to check on the IRR member's mental, emotional and professional well-
being and to identify and treat any IRR
[[Page H6236]]
members who are deemed to be at risk of harming themselves.
Because the other body has thus far failed to act on the fiscal year
2011 authorization, I have sent a letter to Secretaries Gates and
Shinseki asking that they take whatever administrative action is
necessary to reach out and monitor this very large pool of at-risk
reservists. I have also asked that they meet with Greg and Linda Bean
and explain in detail what those departments intend to do to prevent
other Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans from suffering Coleman's fate.
Our commitment to reducing suicides among our veterans must be
comprehensive and unwavering. This amendment today is designed to give
the VA the resources and the direction to get appropriate and broad-
based outreach under way as soon as President Obama signs this bill. I
hope this amendment will be supported on a bipartisan basis, because,
as Linda Bean says, ``It's not their job to figure out how, it's
ours.''
I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I just want to commend the gentleman for his
leadership on this effort. It is a heartbreaking tragedy every time a
veteran takes his or her life as a result of their service to our
country. I look forward to working with the gentleman and with the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw) and the gentleman from Tennessee
(Mr. Wamp) as we go to conference committee to see that we do more than
everything that is already being done to see that we prevent suicides
from occurring.
If we save one life, then the gentleman's and our service here in
Congress will have been time well served.
Mr. HOLT. I thank the gentleman.
In closing, I would say there are tens of thousands of people who
will be helped.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I would like to claim the time in
opposition, although I'm not necessarily opposed to the amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from
Florida is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I just want to also commend the gentleman
for offering this amendment. I think so often we have resources that
are available like this that sometimes our veterans are not aware of. I
think we've made great strides in dealing with this. We have a suicide
prevention hotline we're working every day, but I think he makes an
excellent point that so often people are not aware of the services they
might avail themselves of.
I commend him for this. I would certainly favor this amendment so
that we can get the word out to know that we're trying to help folks.
Mr. KENNEDY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.
Mr. KENNEDY. I appreciate the gentleman's yielding.
I too want to join in paying tribute to the gentleman from New Jersey
for this amendment and also to the chairman, Chairman Edwards, for his
diligence to this mental health issue in the bill.
As I said earlier, these wounds may be invisible but they're not
invisible to the members of our uniform who are suffering from them. I
think it may not come as a surprise to most people that those
servicemembers dying of suicide outnumber those who are killed in
action. And that does not include our veterans. It wasn't until this
defense bill that we just passed that we included a provision that the
President of the United States would actually send a letter of
condolence to the family of those who had taken their life in the
field, and we all know what the pressures are on those individuals:
more tours of duty, longer times away from their families, and more
stress.
The fact of the matter is I think that this work that you're doing,
Rush, is to be commended. I think it is also important for everyone to
note that this historic health bill that we just passed will encompass
72 percent of all veterans who will get their care thanks to this
Congress' work to include mental health parity in the health care
reform bill that was just passed. Seventy-two percent of all vets will
never see the VA for their health care but, rather, through private
health insurance. And this Congress passed legislation making it
illegal for them to be discriminated against based upon health status,
whether it be mental, physical, and we all know that mental now is a
neurological disorder.
Thanks again for your good work. Again thank you to the chairman and
ranking member for their good work on this.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 2 Offered by Mr. Buyer
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 2 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. BUYER. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 34, line 7, before the period at the end insert the
following: ``: Provided further, That of the funds made
available under this heading, $10,000,000 shall be available
to increase the number of Department of Veterans Affairs
employees who administer benefits under chapter 31 of title
38, United States Code''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Buyer) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. BUYER. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to
H.R. 5822. This amendment would fence off $10 million in the VA's
general operating expenses account.
The goal of the VA's vocational rehabilitation and employment program
is to put disabled veterans back to work or, for the most severely
disabled, to live as independently as possible.
VA's counselors currently have an average caseload of over 130
disabled veterans. Because of the heavy workload which includes a
significant amount of case management and regular interaction with
their clients, the time to actually enter vocational training is nearly
six months. That is on top of the average of the 6 months it takes to
receive a disability rating needed to even become eligible for this
benefit.
The $10 million included in this amendment would fund one hundred
additional professional level staff and will be a small step towards
reducing the caseload to a more manageable average of 100 per counselor
thereby shortening the time it takes to begin training. For many
veterans and servicemembers VR&E training is the bridge to meaningful
and productive employment.
I urge all members to vote in favor of my amendment to H.R. 5822.
{time} 1720
I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I want to commend Mr. Buyer for offering this
amendment.
Without this amendment, the VA would actually be reducing at the very
worst time the number of vocational rehab employees. We ought to be
increasing those numbers, and that's what we will be doing with this,
particularly given a lot of our troops coming back from Iraq and
Afghanistan are having difficult times finding jobs. They need this
support.
The VA gets a lot of things right, but I don't think they got this
part of their budget right. And I thank the gentleman for correcting
it, and it's a privilege to support his amendment.
Mr. BUYER. I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 3 Offered by Mr. Buyer
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 3 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. BUYER. I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 38, line 18, before the period insert the following:
``: Provided further, That of the funds made available under
this heading, $162,734,000 shall be for renewable energy
projects at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility
campuses pursuant to section 8103 of title 38, United States
Code''.
[[Page H6237]]
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Buyer) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. BUYER. I ask unanimous consent to modify my amendment.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will report the modification.
The Clerk read as follows:
Modification to Amendment No. 3 offered by Mr. Buyer:
The amendment as modified is as follows:
Page 54, after line 2, insert the following:
Sec. __. Of the amounts made available for fiscal year
2011 for ``Medical Facilities'' in Public Law 111-117,
$162,734,000 shall be available for renewable energy projects
at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility
campuses subject to section 8103 of title 38, United States
Code.
The CHAIR. Is there objection to the modification?
Without objection, the amendment is modified.
There was no objection.
The CHAIR. The gentleman from Indiana is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BUYER. I will proceed on the modified amendment.
After discussion with Chairman Edwards and with the ranking member,
Mr. Crenshaw, we've all agreed to a better way forward on the
amendment. So I appreciate your efforts on the modification.
Accordingly, what we're seeking to do here is overcome some
challenges that we have with regard to the advance appropriation and
how dollars can be dedicated to particular uses. So the Appropriations
Committee has worked with me, and for that I am deeply appreciative.
I want to express my thanks to Chairman Edwards and to Mr. Crenshaw.
Both of you have been very good friends. I respect your leadership, and
I appreciate your good faith in working with myself and my staff.
Over the years, the 18 years I've been here, the years I've been
privileged to work in leadership as chairman and as ranking member, I
have respected the interoperability and cooperation between the
Appropriations staff and the authorizers. It has worked really, really
well. At times they can disagree, but they can professionally work it
out. I've been impressed by that, and it has continued.
So I want to thank you for that. And this is a prime example. This is
one of them whereby I look back to 2008 when we wanted to do these
renewable energy projects, and you were challenged at the time because
the Speaker didn't want renewable projects in the bill, but you agreed
that this was something that we needed to do and tried to figure out
how we're going to do it.
So I recognize it couldn't be done at the time, but it was something
that you also embraced and supported. And I went on down the street
like I said I was going to do, and we did 16 of these renewable energy
projects. Then we come back in 2009, you and I do a colloquy, and we're
$147 million already down the road. That's how far we're into this now,
Chairman Edwards and Mr. Crenshaw, and this is a good thing.
The VA, such a very large enterprise, large consumer of energy and
being the second largest department here of government, what you're
doing here in this green management and renewable energy, geothermal,
wind, solar, this is smart. It really is. It's smart what you're doing.
So I really want to thank you for doing this.
We've got more projects identified. They're around 60. These moneys
will allow the VA to stay on track on their timelines, and I really
appreciate your working with me to do this.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I just want to commend Mr. Buyer for his
leadership. This is not the first time he has come to the floor
fighting for renewable energy projects and conservation projects for
the VA. And as he leaves Congress at the end of this Congress, I want
to thank him for this effort. Every dollar we save by conservation
investments and renewable energy investments is a dollar that's either
back into the taxpayers' pocket or a dollar that goes to actually
provide better health care for America's veterans. So that's why I'm
enthusiastic in my support of this amendment, and I commend the
gentleman for his authorship of it.
Mr. BUYER. Reclaiming my time, I also want to extend my appreciation
to Secretary Shinseki for his work and the previous Secretary.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment, as modified, offered by
the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).
=========================== NOTE ===========================
July 28, 2010 on Page H6237 the following appeared: gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. Buyer).
The online version should be corrected to read: gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Buyer).
========================= END NOTE =========================
The amendment, as modified, was agreed to.
Amendment No. 4 Offered by Mr. Buyer
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 4 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. BUYER. I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 34, line 7, before the period at the end insert the
following: ``: Provided further, That of the funds made
available under this heading, $8,000,000 shall be available
to fund the adaptive sports grant program under section 521A
of title 38, United States Code, and $2,000,000 shall be
available to carry out section 322 of title 38, United States
Code''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Buyer) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. BUYER. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to
H.R. 5822, as reported.
This amendment would provide $10 million in VA general operating
expense funding for the VA-US Paralympic Adaptive Sports Grant Program.
Madam Chairwoman, several years ago I had the opportunity to visit
the U.S. Olympic Training Center in San Diego. From that moment we then
set the course to restructure the United States Olympic Committee. Once
we did that, by the relationships that developed, by the reorganization
of the Olympic Committee, we then became a Nation at war. I then sought
to leverage these relationships with the VA and their sports programs.
I looked at this and how we can use sports as a platform for healing,
and you know, when I looked back on this, yes, you know, we moved out
and we embraced it. I started at the top and probably should have
started at the bottom. I started where I started and it was with the
Olympics, the Olympic Committee. Not everyone is an Olympian. That's
the reality of this. Not everyone was blessed with an Olympic body or
the mind or the will. But it's how do we, as a Nation, use sports as a
platform for healing? And most of our warriors are athletes. And so
when they get injured, how do we inspire them?
Now, when we brought the Olympic Committee and the sports programs
from the VA together, we were able to leverage that whereby our
military athletes then could actually have an avenue to be part of the
Olympic team. And that has, in fact, happened and has been done.
Last year--and I want to thank Chairman Edwards--he supported the $10
million that went into this adaptive sports program.
{time} 1730
The Olympic committee helps with this grant program now to take the
same ideal, the Olympic ideal, and move it out to all the communities
across the country. And so an individual who may not be an Olympian can
be an Olympian of their own community, can actually compete. It is that
competition--it's not the winning. It's have you improved yourself,
have you bettered your time, and making someone feel good about that,
this Adaptive Sports program, whereby it's done at the local level and
then builds up is really good, and this is a very good program. We're
in our infancy, and I want to thank the chairman and for supporting
this last time.
So the concept I think is pretty simple. I do have some pictures here
I'd like to share with everyone. This is a picture of disabled veterans
and servicemembers running the 100 meter dash at the Warrior Games in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, and this was in May of this year. And when
you see this running the 100 meter dash, you know we've got a mixture
here. This gentleman lost--this is a below the ankle, here is a below
the knee amputation, and this is a double amputation, and they're
sprinting the 100 meter dash. Think about the inspiration that they
have. I mean, these warrior athletes are truly remarkable.
[[Page H6238]]
I want to show you another photo of a double amputee. This Olympian
right here during the winter games, this is Heath Calhoun, a
Paralympian, and this was in Vancouver in March of this year. Mr.
Calhoun is an Army Ranger. He was wounded when a rocket-propelled
grenade hit his Humvee while he was serving in Iraq. He lost both legs
as a result of that attack. His grandfather served in World War II, his
father served in Vietnam, and he then sought to serve his country and
lost both legs. He dedicated himself then to overcome this challenge
and made the United States Olympic team and competed in Vancouver.
So these Olympians also then mentor and aspire others into the
Adaptive Sports Grant Program. So this is remarkable. This is building
off the Olympic ideal to really help our warriors, and we're achieving
the goal, and that is to use sports as a platform for healing.
So $10 million can be a lot of money, but talking about what we get
out of this, the intangibles that we can get out of this, when these
men and women that go through this feel so good about themselves and
take their bodies to new levels, guess what? They feel good about their
families, they feel good about their jobs, and our goal here is to make
sure that they can live as full a life as they possibly can.
That's what we want to do.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition, although
I'm not necessarily opposing this amendment.
The CHAIR. Without objection, the gentleman from Florida is
recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I just wanted to say that I think this is a wonderful
program. I'm a little bit aware of that because in my home district in
Jacksonville, Florida, there's an organization called the Wounded
Warriors, and they work in conjunction with this program, and I've had
the chance to visit that program to see and meet some of these Wounded
Warriors.
The thing that I hear over and over again is they say this is
something that gives us our spirit back. We can compete. We can enjoy
life. We can be with our families, and I think it is something that is
very, very worthwhile and commend the gentleman for bringing it up.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I just want to commend him and commend Mr.
Buyer for this effort. These photographs are an inspiration to all of
us, to our veterans, to our Wounded Warriors, but to every American.
This program is an inspiration to our Wounded Warriors, our veterans,
and all Americans who hear about it. I am in full support of this
amendment. I also want to thank again Mr. Buyer, along with Mr.
Perlmutter and Mr. Langevin, who over the last several years have been
real champions, along with Mr. Buyer, of this program, and again, I'm
honored to support the amendment.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 5 Offered by Mr. Cuellar
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 5 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
At the end of the bill (before the short title), add the
following new section:
Sec. 5__. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available in this Act may be used by an agency of the
executive branch to pay for first-class travel by an employee
of the agency in contravention of sections 301-10.122 through
301-10.124 of title 41, Code of Federal Regulations.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Cuellar) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Chair, my amendment is a commonsense amendment
that ensures no taxpayers dollars will be used to purchase first-class
tickets for employees of agencies funded by this bill except in special
circumstances as allowed under law.
This is, again, important because it does prohibit unapproved first-
class travel and offers a direct method of guidance by referencing the
Code of Federal Regulations to prohibit this type of premium travel for
Federal employees.
I think the chairman is in agreement with me that this is a way to
save taxpayer dollars, and he's in agreement with this amendment.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I am glad to support this amendment.
Mr. CUELLAR. I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 6 Offered by Mr. Flake
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 6 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. FLAKE. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the
following:
Sec. __. None of the funds provided in this Act shall be
available from the following Department of Defense military
construction accounts for the following projects:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Account Location Project Amount
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Army................................... Alabama: Fort Rucker..... Emergency Medical $1,700,000
Services Facility.
Air Force.............................. Alabama: Maxwell AFB..... Air Traffic Control Tower $810,000
Defense-Wide........................... Arizona: Marana.......... SOF Parachute Training $6,250,000
Facility.
Army NG................................ Arkansas: Camp Robinson.. Regional Training $2,334,000
Institute, Ph 2.
Navy................................... California: Coronado NAB. MESG-1 Consolidated Boat $6,890,000
Maintenance Facility.
Air Force.............................. California: Los Angeles Parking Structure, Ph 2.. $4,500,000
AFB.
Air NG................................. California: Moffett Field Relocate Main Gate....... $2,000,000
Navy................................... California: Monterey NSA. International Academic $11,960,000
Instruction Building.
Army NG................................ California: Sacramento... Field Maintenance Shop $891,000
Paving.
Air Force.............................. California: Travis AFB... BCE Maintenance Shops and $387,000
Supply Warehouse.
Army NG................................ California: Ventura...... Renewable Photovoltaic $1,466,000
Solar Power.
Air NG................................. Colorado: Buckley AFB.... Repair Taxiways Juliet $4,000,000
and Lima.
Army NG................................ Colorado: Watkins........ Parachute Maintenance $3,569,000
Facility.
Navy................................... Connecticut: New London Submarine Group Two $550,000
NSB. Headquarters.
Air Force.............................. Florida: MacDill AFB..... Infrastructure $249,000
Improvements.
Navy................................... Florida: Panama City NSA. Land Acquisition-9 Acres. $5,960,000
Navy................................... Georgia: Albany MCLB..... Maintenance Center Test $5,180,000
Firing Range.
Air Force.............................. Georgia: Robins AFB...... Combat Communications $5,500,000
Squadron Warehouse.
Army NG................................ Illinois: Marseilles Simulation Center........ $2,500,000
Training Area.
Air Force.............................. Illinois: Scott AFB...... New Fitness Facility, Ph $396,000
1.
Navy................................... Indiana: Crane NSWC...... Platform Protection $760,000
Engineering Complex.
[[Page H6239]]
Army NG................................ Iowa: Camp Dodge......... Regional Training $800,000
Institute, Ph 1.
Air NG................................. Iowa: Des Moines......... Corrosion Control Hangar. $4,750,000
Army NG................................ Iowa: Iowa City.......... Simulation Center/MVSB/ $1,999,000
Helipad/Parking.
Army NG................................ Kentucky: Frankfort...... Joint Forces $281,000
Headquarters, Ph 1.
Air NG................................. Kentucky: Standiford Contingency Response $534,000
Field. Group Facility.
Air NG................................. Louisiana: New Orleans ASA Replace Alert Complex $2,000,000
NAS/JRB.
Navy................................... Maine: Portsmouth NSY.... Consolidation of $11,910,000
Structural Shops, Ph 1.
Army NG................................ Maryland: Easton......... Readiness Center Add/Alt. $347,000
Army................................... Maryland: Fort Meade..... Infrastructure-Mapes Road $1,750,000
& Cooper Avenue.
Navy................................... Maryland: Patuxent River Atlantic Test Range $10,160,000
NAS. Addition.
Air NG................................. Massachusetts: Barnes Add to Aircraft $6,000,000
ANGB. Maintenance Hangar.
Army NG................................ Michigan: Fort Custer Troop Service Support $446,000
(Augusta). Center.
Air NG................................. Minnesota: Duluth........ Load Crew Training & $8,000,000
Weapons Release Shops.
Army NG................................ Minnesota: Mankato....... Field Maintenance Shop... $947,000
Defense-Wide........................... Mississippi: Stennis SOF Land Acquisition, Ph $8,000,000
Space Center. 3.
Air Force.............................. Missouri: Whiteman AFB... Consolidated Air $23,500,000
Operations Facility.
Army NG................................ Nevada: Las Vegas........ Civil Support Team Ready $8,771,000
Building.
Air NG................................. New Jersey: Atlantic City Fuel Cell and Corrosion $8,500,000
IAP. Control Hangar.
Army Reserve........................... New Jersey: Fort Dix..... Automated Multipurpose $9,800,000
Machine Gun Range.
Air Force.............................. New Mexico: Holloman AFB. Parallel Taxiway, Runway $8,000,000
07/25.
Air Force.............................. New Mexico: Kirtland AFB. Replace Fire Station 3... $6,800,000
Army................................... New York: Fort Drum...... Alert Holding Area $6,700,000
Facility.
Air Reserve............................ New York: Niagara Falls C-130 Flightline $9,500,000
ARS. Operations Facility, Ph
1.
Army NG................................ New York: Ronkonkoma Flightline Rehabilitation $2,780,000
(MacArthur Airport).
Air NG................................. New York: Stewart ANGB... Aircraft Conversion $3,750,000
Facility.
Army NG................................ North Carolina: Camp Barracks (AT), Ph 1...... $1,484,000
Butner.
Army NG................................ North Carolina: AASF 1 Fixed Wing Hangar $8,815,000
Morrisville. Annex.
Army NG................................ North Carolina: Murphy... Fire Fighting Team $223,000
Support Facility.
Air Force.............................. North Carolina: Pope AFB. Crash/Fire/ Rescue $13,500,000
Station.
Air Force.............................. North Dakota: Grand Forks Central Deployment Center $495,000
AFB.
Army NG................................ Ohio: Camp Sherman....... Maintenance Building Add/ $3,100,000
Alt.
Army NG................................ Ohio: Ravenna Training Unit Training Equipment $2,000,000
Site. Site Add/Alt.
Air NG................................. Ohio: Toledo Express Replace Security Forces $7,300,000
Airport. Complex.
Defense-Wide........................... Oklahoma: Tulsa IAP...... Fuels Storage Complex.... $1,036,000
Army NG................................ Oregon: Salem............ Armed Forces Reserve $1,243,000
Center Add/Alt (JFHQ).
Air NG................................. Pennsylvania: Fort Multipurpose Air National $675,000
Indiantown Gap. Guard Training Facility.
Army NG................................ Pennsylvania: Hermitage.. Readiness Center......... $671,000
Army NG................................ Pennsylvania: Tobyhanna.. Armed Forces Reserve $1,513,000
Center.
Army NG................................ Pennsylvania: Field Maintenance Shop... $1,508,000
Williamsport.
Army NG................................ Rhode Island: Middletown. Readiness Center Add/Alt. $3,646,000
Army NG................................ Rhode Island: Quonset Readiness Center......... $3,729,000
Point.
Air NG................................. South Carolina: McEntire Replace Operations and $9,100,000
JRB. Training Facility.
Air NG................................. South Dakota: Joe Foss Aircraft Maintenance $3,600,000
Field. Shops.
Air Force.............................. Tennessee: Arnold AFB.... AEDC Power Distribution $378,000
Modernization.
Army................................... Texas: Corpus Christi Rotor Blade Processing $13,400,000
Depot. Facility, Ph 2.
Army................................... Texas: Fort Bliss........ Alternative Energy $1,166,000
Projects.
Army................................... Texas: Fort Bliss........ Rail Yard Improvements... $2,070,000
Army................................... Texas: Fort Hood......... Soldier Readiness $1,000,000
Processing Center.
Navy................................... Texas: Kingsville NAS.... Youth Center............. $2,610,000
Air Force.............................. Texas: Lackland AFB...... Consolidated Security $900,000
Forces Ops Center, Ph 1.
Air Force.............................. Texas: Laughlin AFB...... Community Event Complex.. $10,500,000
Army NG................................ Texas: Laredo............ Receiving, Staging, & $475,000
Onward Integration
Facility/Hangar.
Army NG................................ Texas: McLennan County... Operational Reserve $5,000,000
Headquarters.
Army NG................................ Texas: South Texas Cantonment and Support $5,000,000
Training Center. Infrastructure.
Army................................... Virginia: Fort Belvoir... Growth Support $3,060,000
Infrastructure.
Air Force.............................. Virginia: Langley AFB.... Clear Zone Land $3,000,000
Acquisition, Ph 1.
Defense-Wide........................... Washington: Fort Lewis... SOF Military Working Dog $4,700,000
Kennel.
Navy................................... Washington: Kitsap NB.... Charleston Gate ECP $6,150,000
Improvements.
Army NG................................ West Virginia: Bridgeport FWAATS Apron Expansion... $2,000,000
Army NG................................ West Virginia: Bridgeport FWAATS Expansion......... $2,000,000
Army NG................................ West Virginia: Glen Jean. Emergency Power Generator $1,500,000
Army NG................................ Wisconsin: Wausau........ Field Maintenance Shop... $12,008,000
Army NG................................ Guam: Barrigada.......... Joint Forces HQ Readiness $778,000
Center Add/Alt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Flake) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
Mr. FLAKE. Madam Chair, this amendment is straightforward.
It would simply prevent the funding of all Member-requested earmarks
in the bill. It would return the funds to the original accounts. I'm
not here to dispute the merits of these projects. I have no doubt that
some of those projects are worthwhile and would improve the quality of
life for our military servicemembers and their families, but that's not
what is at issue here.
At issue, again, as I pointed out before, is the spoils system that
this process of earmarking represents. This year's Military
Construction-VA appropriations bill shows that the spoils system is
alive and well. It's happened in previous years, and it's no different
this year. The only difference here is we have basically just one party
engaging in it, and so the spoils are even more concentrated in fewer
Members.
Let me just put this chart up here. These are the FY 2011 earmark
dollars associated with powerful Members of
[[Page H6240]]
Congress. By powerful Members I mean those who are on the
Appropriations Committee, those who are in leadership, or those who are
chairmen of committees. And if you look at the appropriations bills
that have gone through either the subcommittee or full committee on
appropriations, you see this appropriations spoils system in action
here.
This looks like a Pacman chart here with a hungry Pacman here. The
red represents the percentage taken by powerful members. In the
Homeland Security bill, 52 percent of the earmark dollars go to
powerful Members. Fifty-two percent go to just 13 percent of this body;
CJS bill, 57 percent; Agriculture, 76 percent; THUD, 42 percent; and
MILCON VA, what we're doing now, 51 percent.
More than half of the earmark dollars in this legislation are going
to just 13 percent of the Members in this body. Madam Chair, that is
simply not right. We shouldn't be doing this. Yet year after year we do
it. No matter what kind of reforms we enact, we still have the spoils
system alive and well.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition.
The CHAIR. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
{time} 1740
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I respect the gentleman. He takes
a principled position on congressionally sponsored projects, but I
strongly oppose this amendment.
The Flake amendment, regardless of its intentions, would cut $163
million out of important military construction projects for the
National Guard and Reserves, which are playing a key role in our war in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
This amendment would cut $57 million out of force protection, safety
and security forces facilities, including more secure entrance gates at
our military installations, fire stations to protect our troops and
their families on posts.
The Flake amendment would cut $30 million from quality of life
facilities--much needed by our troops and earned by our troops,
deserved by our troops--barracks, youth and community centers, roads.
It cuts 44 projects that are in the Department of Defense's Future
Years Defense Program.
One of the programs this would cut is $1 million I put in this bill
as an earmark to provide for a new Soldier Readiness Processing Center
at Fort Hood so those soldiers, over 40,000 serving there, will not
have to go through a processing center which was the site of the murder
of 12 of their Army comrades and one civilian just months ago.
A ``yes'' vote on this amendment will cut these kinds of worthy
projects.
Now, Mr. Flake will claim and has claimed that DOD will still have
the money to spend, but that's not correct because this amendment is
flawed in the way it's drafted because--well, first of all, let me say
that let's at least get rid of the pretence that cutting earmarks would
save taxpayer dollars if he says, well, this money could still be spent
by DOD.
But the reality is, because of the flawed nature of the way this
amendment was put together, it would be the best--the worst, actually,
of both worlds. One, it wouldn't save taxpayers' dollars because the
appropriations would go to the Department of Defense; but because it
would be in an account for programs not authorized, that money could
not be spent for all of the worthwhile kinds of projects that I have
just mentioned.
Let me put in perspective what we are talking about here. This is a
$140 billion bill. Less than three-tenths of 1 percent of this bill was
designated by Members of Congress working with community leaders,
military leaders, military base leaders.
If I can ask my staff for a chart, I would just like to show, in
perspective, what a small part of this total bill actually goes to
congressionally sponsored projects.
Now, Mr. Flake apparently has more trust in the Obama administration
than I did. I don't think bureaucrats in Washington are right 100
percent of the time, and it's not wrong--in fact, it's right--to say
that Members of Congress, working with military leaders and community
leaders, ought to have some voice in where their taxpayers' dollars go.
Madam Chair, I want to point out this is a chart. This graph shows
how much is spent in this bill. The part of the bill that Mr. Flake is
objecting to is this red part right here. Probably from that side of
the aisle it would be very, very hard to see it.
But I just want people to understand that the administration gets a
voice on this amount of money in the bill. Members of Congress working
with military leaders get a voice on this amount. This is what we are
talking about.
But I want to talk and say this amount is significant because, if
this amendment were to pass, and I hope it will not and I do not
believe it will, it would harm important quality of life and protection
projects for our service men and women. It would kill a major
initiative in this bill to increase funding for the National Guard and
Reserves who are playing a vitally important role in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
May I inquire how much time I have remaining?
The CHAIR. The gentleman has 1 minute remaining.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I would yield that time to my colleague Mr.
Ortiz.
Mr. ORTIZ. I rise in opposition to the Flake amendment. This
amendment would seek to strike certain modifications to the Military
Construction appropriations bill.
I believe that it is essential that this body work with the
administration and determine a budget that is best for the Nation. I
believe that the process that my subcommittee and Chairman Edwards'
subcommittee has put in place accomplishes this goal.
For example, the projects that this amendment would seek to strike
have been individually reviewed by the administration for cost and the
way it's going to be executed. The projects are carefully compared
against a very long list of requirements that the Department of Defense
has generated. These projects have been included in the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 that this body has
recently passed.
Finally, all of these military construction projects that are
included at the end of this process, including all of the projects that
this amendment seeks to strike, will be competitively awarded.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
The gentleman from Arizona has 3 minutes remaining.
Mr. FLAKE. Madam Chair, I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds if
he wants to finish.
Mr. ORTIZ. We cannot forget the fact that we are involved in two
wars. We have soldiers stationed in 120 countries. Whatever we do
today, let's do it for our servicepeople. They are my sons and your
daughters and family here who are serving our country.
Mr. FLAKE. Madam Chair, I plan to withdraw this amendment. I had
planned to from the beginning. What I wanted to do was come down here
and explain the spoils system that this kind of earmarking represents.
The problem, the gentleman mentioned that this amendment is crafted
in a way that it would prohibit the spending of money on these
projects. It would. The problem is there is no way to craft an
amendment that wouldn't do that.
What we have here is a situation where we simply can't go in and say
this is a good earmark and this is not, not through this process.
That's part of the whole flawed aspect of what we are doing here and
why we need to change this.
But the gentleman is correct, we shouldn't give the administration a
free ride to say this is where things ought to be spent. We have the
power of the purse. This is article I stuff, and we ought to exercise
it.
The problem I have is we basically exercise authority over that much
of it and leave the administration with this, instead of saying,
through the process of authorization, appropriation, and oversight, we
have more control of what the administration is doing.
Instead, we say we don't like the way you are spending this money--we
say that to the executive branch--so we are going to run a little
parallel track in the Congress where we determine where this much goes.
Then when we determine where this much goes, 51 percent of it goes to
just 13 percent of this body.
[[Page H6241]]
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FLAKE. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I appreciate that, and I do respect his
principled position on this, not with just this bill but with other
bills.
I just want to point out the reason we don't spread out earmarks
evenly among 435 Members is military bases in the United States are not
spread out evenly among 435 congressional districts. So it is logical
and it makes sense and it's good policy that Members that represent
military bases get more earmarks than Members that don't represent
military bases.
Mr. FLAKE. I think that is a valid point; although, I would argue
that Members with military bases don't necessarily align with the 13
percent represented in this chart.
But I would again, before asking unanimous consent to withdraw this
amendment, make the case, we will be dealing with another appropriation
bill tomorrow that is cleaner than this one in terms of being able to
target earmarks and prohibit funding for them and actually save money.
The way this bill is structured makes it difficult to do that, but I
recognize it.
I just wanted to make the point and to drive it home again, through
the process of authorization, appropriation, and oversight, we can do a
far better job.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. FLAKE. Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the
amendment.
The CHAIR. Without objection, the amendment is withdrawn.
There was no objection.
Amendment No. 7 Offered by Mr. Hill
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 7 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. HILL. I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 33, line 15, after the dollar amount, insert
``(reduced by $100,000) (increased by $100,000)''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Hill) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. HILL. I want to thank Chairman Edwards for crafting this
critically important bill for our Nation's veterans.
My amendment simply removes funding from the VA General Operating
Expense Account and replaces it back in the very same account. My
intent in doing this is to highlight an issue for my colleagues and for
the VA.
I believe that the VA needs to examine its practice in how it
accounts for returned post-9/11 GI benefit payments and that the VA
should submit a report to Congress no later than January 1 of 2011 on
changes they intend to make to ensure accurate, timely, and efficient
accounting of any returned post-9/11 GI benefit payments.
{time} 1750
I, along with many of my colleagues, enthusiastically supported the
Post-
9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008. This law provides
qualified veterans with a full 4-year college scholarship, restoring a
commitment our country made to our World War II-era veterans.
I believe that the Post-9/11 GI bill can spark another period of
economic growth and prosperity for the current generation of veterans,
much like the Montgomery GI bill did for the previous generation of
veterans. That is why I believe it is so critical that this bill be
implemented accurately.
I understand that the VA legitimately requires some payments to
veterans and universities to be returned. There can be instances of a
student taking fewer classes than what was originally thought,
accidentally duplicating payments. This is reasonable to an extent. I
believe that these funds need to be accounted for accurately; however,
this is a two-way street. It has come to my attention that there has
been some difficulty with the VA to properly and accurately account for
returned payments from universities and veterans alike. In some
instances, this has resulted in the VA withholding further Post-9/11
educational benefit payments to the student in question as they are
credited with an outstanding debt despite having already paid back the
necessary accounts. This is even after the returned checks have been
cashed by the VA. This issue needs to be addressed in a timely manner.
I do not believe that the VA is acting with any malice in this
measure, far from it. I applaud the work that the VA is doing to
improve the lives of veterans. They deserve this benefit, but they
deserve for it to work for them.
Madam Chair, I yield to the chairman, Mr. Edwards, for the purpose of
a colloquy.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I thank the gentleman. I support this
amendment.
Through no one's malicious intentions, students--our veteran
servicemen and -women or their children using the new 21st Century GI
Bill--are being punished for mistakes that they did not make, perhaps
paperwork mistakes by a school administration or by the VA. The result
can be that sometimes students can have halted their additional GI
benefits in order to continue college. So this is really an important
issue. I salute the gentleman. We are going to see that this issue is
solved with his leadership, and I look forward to working with him.
Mr. HILL. I thank the chairman for his support.
This issue was brought to my attention by Indiana University, which
is a university that I represent back home in Indiana. I have also been
working with a community college, Ivy Tech in Indiana, with the same
problem.
I thank the chairman for his support for this amendment, and I
encourage my colleagues to support it as well.
Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Hill).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 8 Offered by Mr. Gingrey of Georgia
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 8 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the
desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
At the end of the bill (before the short title), add the
following new section:
Sec. 5__. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available in this Act may be used by an agency of the
executive branch to exercise the power of eminent domain (to
take private property for public use) without the payment of
just compensation.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, my amendment would prohibit
funds in the bill from being used to exercise eminent domain without
just compensation to the individuals involved. This is necessary
because the Kelo v. City of New London Supreme Court decision expanded
the so-called ``public use'' provision of the takings clause of the
Fifth Amendment. This decision allows State and local governments to
practice eminent domain for the benefit of one private party over
another.
In this specific case, Madam Chairman, the City of New London,
Connecticut, used its eminent domain authority to actually seize
private property to sell to private developers in order to aid a
struggling economy in the name of economic development, but not
specifically in the traditional interpretation of ``public use.''
Justice John Paul Stevens' majority opinion states that the Fifth
Amendment does not require a literal ``public use.'' However, the Fifth
Amendment of the document this Nation holds sacred--and I have it right
here with me all the time, Madam Chairman--the Fifth Amendment of this
document clearly reads: ``Nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation.''
This decision represents the disparity between constitutional
interpretation and, yes, judicial activism. Governments should solely
be allowed to compel an individual to forfeit their property for the
public's use, but not for the benefit of another private person.
[[Page H6242]]
I agree with the dissenting views in the case which point out that
the decision is an intrusion into private citizens' lives, and it picks
winners and losers in the private market at the cost of an individual
losing their personal property.
Madam Chairman, according to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,
all levels of government have a responsibility and a moral obligation
to defend the property rights of individuals and only exercise eminent
domain when it's necessary for public use--the literal interpretation
of public use--and then just compensation is paid to those affected
individuals. Any execution of eminent domain by State and local
governments that does not specifically adhere to these requirements
constitutes an abuse of government power and a usurpation of the
individual property rights as indeed defined in the Fifth Amendment.
My amendment would take one step toward ensuring that property rights
of citizens are protected and they are justly compensated when they are
taken for public use.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I want to thank the gentleman. I will support
his amendment.
I want to make it clear there is nothing, to my knowledge, in this
bill intended to allow the exercise of eminent domain without payment
of just compensation, but I believe in the principle of just
compensation, and I would be glad to support the gentleman's amendment.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, reclaiming my time, I thank
Mr. Edwards for that commitment. I certainly appreciate his comments.
Again, I would urge all of my colleagues to support the amendment.
Let's end this abuse of eminent domain. Eminent domain is necessary,
but it is being abused; this definition of which, with the help of very
liberal interpretations by the Supreme Court in some cases, has been
blurred to seemingly allow one private entity to benefit over another.
That, as the gentleman from Texas indicated, is the intent of the
amendment, and I am very grateful for his support.
Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 9 Offered by Mr. Gingrey of Georgia
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 9 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the
desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
At the end of the bill (before the short title) insert the
following:
Sec. __. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available to the Department of Defense in this Act may be
used to renovate or construct any facility in the continental
United States for the purpose of housing any individual who
has been detained, at any time after September 11, 2001, at
United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I rise today to offer an
amendment to ensure that no funds in this bill are used to construct or
to renovate any facility in the United States to house Gitmo detainees.
Now, I realize that the majority will likely support my amendment
given that the bill contains no funds for this purpose; but today,
Madam Chairman, I want to challenge the Democratic majority to commit
to adhering to an underlying principle, that being that it is wholly
unnecessary to transfer the detainees and to close Guantanamo Bay, or
Gitmo. No matter what appropriations bills we are considering--today,
MILCON/VA, when we come back, DOD, Homeland Security, CJS--this fact
still holds true.
{time} 1800
We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the facilities at
Gitmo, and the only reason we continue to debate its status is, quite
honestly, Madam Chair, for public relations reasons.
As I witnessed most recently in April during my third site visit, the
Gitmo detainees are treated with dignity and with respect. They are
allowed access to their attorneys. They are allowed access to the
International Committee of the Red Cross. They are provided with
excellent medical care. As I am a physician Member, I know of what I
speak. They are even allowed to live in a communal setting. If they
were to consume everything provided to them on a daily basis, they
would take in 5,500 calories per day. Indeed, most of them have gained
anywhere from 15 to 25 pounds since they were originally detained.
Their religious customs in all areas of their lives are respected, and
they are provided with everything necessary to observe those customs.
If the world knew how we were actually treating these detainees, we
would not be facing the prospect of spending hundreds of millions of
dollars more--money that we don't have unless China will continue to
lend it to us--to duplicate what we are already doing at Guantanamo
Bay.
Madam Chair, transferring the detainees to the United States could
eventually lead to their release on American soil, which would put our
own citizens at risk. It could create significant immigration issues as
aliens could become eligible for asylum or other forms of immigration-
related relief from removal. It most certainly would make any facility
where they are held a terrorist target.
Not surprisingly, Madam Chair, the American people are overwhelmingly
opposed to closing Gitmo. In a March 2010 CNN/Opinion Research
Corporation poll, 60 percent of Americans expressed that the United
States should continue to operate the detention center at Guantanamo
Bay. They understand that the battlefield is not limited to our
military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have recently
witnessed two attempted attacks on our homeland in the skies over
Detroit and, indeed, on the streets of New York City.
The American people know that the detainees located at Gitmo are not
minor offenders by any means. These detainees include terrorist
trainers, terrorist financiers, bomb makers, Osama bin Laden's
bodyguards, terrorist recruiters, and would-be suicide bombers. Indeed,
one of three adolescents originally detained is currently being tried
by a military tribunal. Another, who was released after extensive
efforts at rehabilitation, was subsequently killed on the battlefield
after returning to the fight in Afghanistan.
Madam Chair, simply put, the American people believe that bringing
Guantanamo Bay detainees to American soil for any purpose puts
Americans at risk and is a national security threat. It is time this
Congress listens to the collective voice of the American people and
stops perpetrating the ``Washington knows best'' mindset.
I urge my colleagues to support my amendment on this bill--and on all
other appropriations bills--to prevent the wholly unnecessary transfer
of Gitmo detainees to American soil.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition to the
amendment, though I am not opposed to the amendment.
The CHAIR. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for 5
minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I will support this amendment, Madam Chair.
I do want to clarify that there is no funding in this bill of any
type to fund any kind of facility to house detainees from Guantanamo.
Having said that, I would be glad to support the gentleman's amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I want to thank my friend from Texas. In
knowing him and his heart, I am not surprised that he would support
this amendment, but I want to ask the gentleman a question.
Mr. Edwards, can I count on you to commit to supporting this
amendment in future appropriations bills so that we can end the debate
as to whether Guantanamo Bay should be closed once and for all?
I hope the gentleman will answer the question.
[[Page H6243]]
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
The question was taken; and the Chair announced that the ayes
appeared to have it.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further proceedings on
the amendment offered by the gentleman from Georgia will be postponed.
Amendment No. 10 Offered by Mrs. Halvorson
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 10 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mrs. HALVORSON. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 33, line 15, after the dollar amount, insert
``(reduced by $10,000,000)''.
Page 36, line 11, after the dollar amount, insert
``(increased by $10,000,000)''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Mrs. Halvorson) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois.
Mrs. HALVORSON. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, I would first like to take a moment and praise Chairman
Obey and Chairman Edwards for their continued commitment to caring for
American veterans. Three-and-a-half years ago, their committee made a
commitment and renewed the promise to care for those who have served in
our armed services. They have kept that promise and have dramatically
increased funding for our veterans by 70 percent since 2007.
As the only Member of Congress from Illinois who sits on the
Veterans' Affairs Committee, I really can speak to the critical need
that these funds have addressed for Illinois veterans.
Madam Chair, my amendment is simple. It adds $10 million to the VA
Major Construction Project and subtracts $10 million from the general
operating expenses. Much of the VA medical infrastructure is aging,
outdated and, in many cases, obsolete.
According to the 2011 Independent Budget, which is written by some of
the largest Veteran Service Organizations, a great number of current
medical facilities were built after World War II and were constructed
with structurally obsolete designs which ``typically do not meet the
needs of modern health care delivery.'' The result of these outdated
buildings has left the VA with a long list of major construction
projects, which are just sitting there, waiting for congressional
funding.
Right now, there are over 60 medical construction projects in the
backlog. That means that there are over 60 locations that are in need
of major construction, renovation, or modification. It means that there
are 60 locations where our veterans are not receiving optimal care in
modern facilities. Unfortunately, this bill was only able to address a
total of five of these projects, and only two of them are new medical
facilities.
With more women and men servicemembers transitioning from active duty
to VA care and with multiple illnesses, such as PTSD and TBI, we will
require even more new and modified medical facilities. Though $10
million is far less than what is needed to address these aging medical
facilities' infrastructures and construction needs, the amendment will
still play a role in ensuring that more veterans are receiving the care
they deserve in a modern and quality health care facility. This
amendment is also supported by the American Legion.
I urge my colleagues to stand up and to support modern medical
facilities for our veterans and to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition, though I am
not opposed to the gentlewoman's amendment.
The CHAIR. Without objection, the gentleman from Florida is
recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. CRENSHAW. I have a couple of questions.
We have a process for building outpatient clinics. I just wondered:
Does this amendment, in any way, try to circumvent the process? Does it
direct where the money would be spent in any way?
I yield to the gentlewoman.
Mrs. HALVORSON. Absolutely not.
You have the amendment, as do I, and it just takes $10 million out of
the general operating to put it into major construction.
You know, there are needs everywhere. I wish it were in some way to
help my district. We have needs, but it does not help my district. This
major construction is $28 million less than it was last year. So I
would like to see that we gradually get it back up to the $28 million
at least that it was last year.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Reclaiming my time, the amendment allows the VA to use
this funding at any location that it seeks?
Mrs. HALVORSON. At any location anywhere. I wish I could say that it
were for someplace special, but it is not.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Reclaiming my time, I would just point out to the
gentlewoman that there is $1.166 billion for construction. That is $15
million above the request.
I can appreciate that the gentlewoman would like to spend even more
and that she, apparently, is not trying to circumvent the process,
because a lot of people would like to have clinics in their districts,
and a lot of people have been waiting in line and have been watching
this process work, but if it doesn't seek to spend it at any one
location, then that is helpful to me.
I yield back the balance of my time.
{time} 1810
Mrs. HALVORSON. Madam Chairman, our veterans deserve the best care in
the world and at the best and most modern medical facilities, and
that's why we're working to accomplish this here. And in this body we
need to keep those promises. This is something that is very important,
I think, to all of us here in Congress.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Halvorson).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 11 Offered by Mr. Bilirakis
The CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 11 printed in
House Report 111-570.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 38, line 18, before the period insert the following:
``: Provided further, That of the funds made available under
this heading, $9,500,000 shall be for the acquisition,
construction, and alteration of up to four post-acute long-
term care residential brain injury medical facilities
pursuant to section 8103 of title 38, United States Code''.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Chair, my amendment would provide $9.5 million
to acquire and construct up to four long-term care residential brain
injury medical facilities.
The primary danger faced by our troops in Operation Enduring Freedom
and Operation Iraqi Freedom comes in the form of improvised explosive
devices. When an IED explodes, the blast wave can result in our
servicemembers incurring catastrophic injuries including amputations,
spinal cord injuries, visual and auditory impairments, traumatic brain
injury, and posttraumatic stress.
Wounded warriors with these complex injuries require a high level of
health care coordination with an interdisciplinary clinical support
team and a wide range of specialized services. Since 2003, almost 2,000
severely injured servicemembers have received state-of-the-art care at
one of the Department of Veterans Affairs four Polytrauma
Rehabilitation Centers.
But what happens to these heroes when they are discharged? Some of
them require intensive medical care for the rest of their lives. My
amendment addresses the problem of how to provide ongoing recovery for
these wounded warriors.
[[Page H6244]]
These heroes honorably served their country. Now we have to step up
to meet our obligation to them. They need a place to go that will
provide for post-acute long-term care, subacute residential
rehabilitation, and outpatient day rehabilitation with the dignity,
respect, and honor they have earned.
Their families, who are enduring the extreme stress of having one of
their own come home with catastrophic injuries, also need this long-
term care facility for their loved ones.
My amendment will enable the VA to construct facilities that are
specifically designed to provide ongoing recovery for wounded warriors.
Such facilities will enable families to visit in an atmosphere that is
conducive to the rehabilitation and the reintegration.
These facilities will be paid for with existing funds within the VA's
budget and will allow the VA to select locations that are close enough
to existing VA medical facilities to ensure that intensive, ongoing
medical and specialist care is easily provided. At the same time, the
facility can be in a location that would be natural and, importantly,
family friendly.
By supporting my amendment, you will be requiring funds already
available to the VA to be directed toward relieving the obvious need
for long-term, ongoing recovery for our veterans suffering from TBI and
other polytrauma injuries.
A properly selected and designed facility is so important, Madam
Chair. My amendment will enable medical specialists from the VA to
develop a special plan to allow our veterans to heal. That is so
important. It should be our top priority. A doctor would be able to
look in the eyes of a wounded warrior and tell him or her, This is your
home, and we are going to help you participate in society and visit
with your family.
The facilities my amendment would promote, Madam Chairman, would
enable our young wounded warriors to focus on hope and to focus on
honor and have hope for a future. We owe them that, Madam Chair. Let's
give them that.
I ask my colleagues to recognize the extreme difficulty faced by our
catastrophically wounded warriors. Show them your support and vote
``yes'' on the Bilirakis amendment.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I rise to claim time in opposition
to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR (Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas). The gentleman is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I want to salute the gentleman's focus, his
genuine commitment on the important need of providing long-term care
for our veterans and wounded warriors with traumatic brain injury.
I care deeply about this. We all care deeply about it. In fact,
several years ago I personally put the money in our VA appropriations
bill to build a new polytrauma center where there was not one in the
entire southwestern part of the United States.
I wish the gentleman could agree to work with the majority and the
minority, the conference committee, to try to find a way to also work
with the VA to find a way to address the very important needs that he
is wanting to address.
If he's not willing to pull this amendment down, I must reluctantly
rise in opposition to it for several reasons:
First, the VA is studying this issue right now, and we ought to sit
down with them and find out what they have learned and what they think
are the best ways to use taxpayers' dollars to address these needs.
Secondly, I don't know if we need four of these long-term centers or
six or eight or 10. Rather than spending money on four centers, perhaps
it would be better to do smaller renovations on 10 to 20 centers where
our traumatically injured veterans could receive care closer to the
homes of their loved ones.
Third, I don't know what the full cost of this is going to be. The
$9.5 million doesn't, I don't think, even come close to providing for
the full cost of the construction of these four projects. Perhaps the
gentleman could help illuminate for all of us both the cost of the
construction plus the cost of the operations of those centers. And
there are a lot of unanswered questions, important questions, such as:
Where would the staff come from to man these centers? Would they come
from existing VA facilities? I don't know. Perhaps there are good
answers to those questions. I just don't think the committee has them
at this point.
Finally, there are pay-fors on this. The consequences of how this
gentleman would pay for these would be that we would have a domiciliary
extended-stay unit would not be replaced in Butler, Pennsylvania; a
kidney dialysis unit expansion would not occur in Richmond, Virginia;
an ambulatory surgery center would not be completed in Albuquerque, New
Mexico; an urgent care center will not be renovated at Castle Point,
New York; and a psychiatric residential rehab facility will not be
replaced in Perry Point, Maryland.
It was not the intention of the gentleman to try to prevent these
five important projects from being completed, but it is the consequence
of his amendment as written.
I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment by the gentleman
from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis). I support the underlying goal of the
gentleman's amendment to acquire and construct long-term residential
medical facilities for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury;
however, this designation will jeopardize other important construction
projects because it is offset by a decrease in what is called the minor
projects construction account.
This would jeopardize an important project in my district at the
Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Hospital. And if this amendment is
adopted, it would hinder the expansion of McGuire's dialysis unit. This
is an important project and will improve services that many veterans in
the Richmond area need very desperately.
So I appreciate the gentleman's intent; however, I believe that
circumventing the Veterans Affairs Department's construction priorities
is an inappropriate way to achieve that goal. The Nation has promised
our veterans access to quality health care services, and we owe them to
ensure that those services are there.
So, Madam Chairman, I would urge the rejection of this amendment so
that the underlying projects can go forward.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I would be glad to yield.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Edwards, I appreciate the concerns that have been
raised here, and I think, as you point out, this is a very important
subject, very worthwhile. And to the question of where the money comes
from, those minor construction projects, I think everyone has a concern
about that.
{time} 1820
But I think if Mr. Bilirakis is willing to work, there is probably a
way to find an offset that doesn't impact the minor construction. There
are some funds, as you know, that might be available. And I would
encourage Mr. Bilirakis, with your commitment, to say let's try to
figure out a way to do this, find a way to pay for it, find out what
the real costs are. And it says up to four. Maybe there is a way just
to begin that process, because we know, based on what Mr. Kennedy had
said earlier, it's a very, very important issue.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Reclaiming my time, if Mr. Bilirakis would be
willing to ask unanimous consent to bring down his amendment, I will
make my genuine commitment to work with him, because I salute him for
pointing out the important need that needs to be addressed here.
I'll work with Mr. Crenshaw, the acting ranking member, Mr. Wamp, the
ranking member of the subcommittee, and we will get together with the
VA and try to find a pay-for that doesn't take away from awfully
important projects such as Mr. Scott's in Virginia and others.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. If you would agree to work with me on this particular
amendment--this is a very important project, as you know. We do have
our polytrauma centers, but we need the long-term care for our heroes.
And this is a top priority of mine. If you would
[[Page H6245]]
agree to work with me on this, then I will withdraw.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. If the gentleman will yield, I appreciate that.
I will work in good faith. And let's see if by working with the VA, the
majority and minority, see if we can find a way to most efficiently and
effectively take care of these great Americans that have suffered such
a sacrifice on behalf of our country, and do so without impacting these
other important projects throughout the country.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I would join in support of this. Traumatic
brain injuries is a very important problem that we need to deal with. I
would join in support of that and work with you as long as you do not
affect the other projects.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Reclaiming my time, I have studied this issue, and
it's a top priority of mine. We need to get this done. So thank you for
your willingness to work with me.
With that, I appreciate the gentleman's willingness, as I said, to
work with me. I look forward to doing so.
Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman
from Florida?
There was no objection.
Amendment No. 12 Offered by Mr. Peters
The Acting CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 12
printed in House Report 111-570.
Mr. PETERS. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 33, line 15, after the dollar amount, insert the
following: ``(reduced by $50,000) (increased by $50,000)''.
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Peters) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. PETERS. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, in the interests of common sense, I rise today to offer
an amendment that will save taxpayer dollars by reducing waste in
prescription medications at the VA. Currently, whenever patients leave
a VA hospital, leftover medications like eye drops and inhalers are
just thrown away. Often, veterans would have to go right to the
pharmacy to refill what was discarded.
My amendment simply directs the VA to implement a program that would
re-label prescription drugs used in VA hospitals to be sent home with
discharged patients for outpatient use. My amendment offers a simple,
commonsense change that will save taxpayers an estimated $14 million
over 10 years, while saving patients both time and effort.
I am proud that this amendment has the support of the American Legion
and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and urge its passage
here today.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I just want to commend the gentleman. This is
such a good amendment. Sometimes common sense can prevail, because it
certainly makes no sense to take drugs that a veteran is using,
prescription drugs used in a VA hospital, and then have a half a bottle
or three-quarters of a bottle of those pills left, have to throw them
away, and then go directly to the pharmacy at the VA hospital to get
those exact same prescription drugs to take for use at home.
So this is going to save taxpayers money. And every dollar that's
saved can be put back into much-needed medical care for our veterans.
So I am thrilled to support the gentleman's amendment and salute him
for working on this.
Mr. PETERS. Madam Chair, my amendment is a commonsense change and
saves taxpayers money, saves time and effort for veterans. I urge
passage.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Peters).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 13 Offered by Mr. Peters
The Acting CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 13
printed in House Report 111-570.
Mr. PETERS. I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 33, line 15, after the dollar amount, insert
``(reduced by $150,000) (increased by $150,000)''.
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Peters) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. PETERS. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, while I applaud the progress this Congress has made in
ensuring that our Nation's veterans receive the care they deserve, and
the efforts of Secretary Shinseki in making the VA a more proactive
institution, we must continue to work to improve the responsiveness of
the VA both in terms of treatment our veterans receive and the care
with which the VA or any agency handles taxpayer money.
It is in this spirit that I am offering my amendment to the MILCON-VA
Appropriations Act. My amendment works to both increase the efficiency
in which the VA obligates funds, and the speed at which necessary
contracts for supplies and services are fulfilled.
The VA Office of Inspector General audited a sample of over 18,000 VA
contracts which identified some areas of concern regarding contracts
that remain unfulfilled. With little or no oversight for months of
these contracts, the OIG projected that $55 million a year, and $261
million over 5 years, could be put to better use.
By conducting a simple review after a period of 90 days in which the
contract is inactive in fulfilling the contract, millions of dollars
can be de-obligated from contracts that no longer need to be fulfilled
or can be fulfilled in a more productive manner.
The American Legion agrees with my amendment as a commonsense change
and step in the right direction, and I urge its passage here today.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I once again on this amendment want to thank
the gentleman for bringing this before the House. This could save up to
$55 million in taxpayer funding according to the Inspector General.
It's a good amendment, and I am glad to support it.
Mr. PETERS. My amendment is a commonsense change that frees taxpayer
dollars for better use to care for our veterans, and I urge its passage
here today.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Peters).
The amendment was agreed to.
{time} 1830
Amendment No. 14 Offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey
The Acting CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 14
printed in House Report 111-570.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the
desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 38, line 7, after the dollar amount, insert the
following: ``(decreased by $7,000,000)''.
Page 39, line 8, after the dollar amount, insert the
following: ``(increased by $7,000,000)''.
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. I thank the Chair.
This amendment would increase the amount of funding for grants for
construction of States veterans cemeteries by $7 million while reducing
funding for grants for construction of minor projects by an equal
amount.
The VA provides funding for State veterans cemeteries through the
grants for construction of State veterans cemeteries program. All
pending projects are evaluated by the VA and ranked in order of
priority. This is not an earmark program. It is a competitive ranking
process.
[[Page H6246]]
The current priority list shows that there are $121 million worth of
projects where the State matching funds are already in place. More than
half of these projects--totaling $70 million--are still awaiting
Federal matching grants. Yet the appropriations bill we are considering
today provides only $46 million for grants for construction of State
veterans cemeteries.
The first priority for the State cemetery program is to provide
funding for the expansion of existing cemeteries. The second priority
is for the construction of new cemeteries according to geographical
need. The third is for improvements to existing cemeteries. So what
this means is that existing cemeteries which require improvements do
not receive the necessary funding.
For example, my State of New Jersey is home to the BGWC Doyle
Veterans Memorial Cemetery. This cemetery is the busiest State veterans
cemetery in the Nation. On average, it has seven burials per day. For
the past 2 years, the cemetery has had two important improvement
projects with State grants in place, but there hasn't been sufficient
funding for matching Federal grants.
The following States also have a State matching grant but have at
least one unfunded project: Tennessee, Minnesota, Kentucky, Alabama,
California, Idaho, South Dakota, Hawaii, Maryland, Montana, Virginia,
Nevada and Maine.
To make matters worse, the State veterans cemetery grant program has
been underfunded over the past several years, even though the number of
World War II veterans that are needing interments is rapidly
increasing. VA and VFW officials at both the State and national level
agree that there is a need for an overall increase to the annual budget
of the grants to State cemeteries program. In fact, it is one of their
top priorities.
This bipartisan amendment would increase the amount for this program
by $7 million. This amendment would simultaneously decrease by $7
million the amount for the minor projects. However, the construction of
minor project account is already fully funded at a level that is $40
million above both the VA and the President's budget requests.
Last year, during consideration of the FY10 MILCON-VA appropriations
bill, I introduced an almost identical amendment. The only difference
was that the amount of increase/decrease was $4 million rather than $7
million. That amendment passed this House by voice vote.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I rise to claim time in opposition
to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, I will salute the gentleman from
New Jersey for focusing on the need to fund our State veterans
cemeteries. I believe in those cemeteries. I think they're an important
partnership between the Federal Government and our State governments.
So I have absolutely no objection to his wanting to try to find
additional funding for State cemeteries.
However, I will object and ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this
amendment because of the way in which he pays for it. While not
intended in any way, it just turns out the money that he would be
taking out of the VA minor construction project would come out of these
specific projects:
A domiciliary extended stay unit will not be replaced in Butler,
Pennsylvania; a kidney dialysis unit expansion will not occur in
Richmond, Virginia; an ambulatory surgery center will not be completed
in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and an urgent care center will not be
renovated at Castle Point, New York.
So you have an amendment that won't even guarantee that even one dime
of this amendment's funding will go to State veterans cemeteries in New
Jersey. In fact, the last list I saw the VA has put out officially has
the New Jersey project significantly down the list. But regardless of
that, I think it's just not right to take funding out of these much-
needed health care construction projects.
I would like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Altmire) for any time he would care to consume.
Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the chairman.
Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the Garrett amendment to the
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill which
would transfer $7 million in funding for the grants for construction,
minor projects account into another unrelated account. This amendment
would adversely affect veterans in my district by shifting funding away
from priority construction projects, such as the domiciliary extended
stay unit in Butler, Pennsylvania. That facility is a vital source of
shelter and rehabilitation for homeless veterans in western
Pennsylvania, and I will not allow its upkeep and improvement to be
compromised by this type of unwise amendment.
Last-minute shifts in funding for parochial concerns take away from
priority projects and plans that the VA has determined to be necessary
for veterans' health and safety nationwide. I ask my colleagues to join
me in strongly opposing the Garrett amendment to prevent harmful
construction project cuts for the VA.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I would like to now yield time to the gentleman
from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Chair, I too rise in opposition to the
amendment.
As it has been said before, this would jeopardize the dialysis unit
in the McGuire Hospital in Richmond. Although I appreciate the
gentleman from New Jersey's intent, I do not believe that shortchanging
important projects at the VA to improve and expand quality health care
for our veterans is the appropriate way to achieve that goal. We have
promised our veterans health care and decreases in what is called the
minor projects account will actually jeopardize important projects all
over the country, including one in Richmond, Virginia.
I urge my colleagues to reject the amendment. Hopefully we can work
out some other pay-for. But we do not want it taken out of the projects
in Richmond, Virginia; Pennsylvania; and other projects around the
country.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. I now yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. HALL of New York. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I rise in opposition to the amendment, although I do support the
underlying intent; but not, however, the pay-for.
One project that would be affected by this cutback is the renovation
of the urgent care center at Castle Point, New York, a VA hospital that
was built in 1926. It's the oldest VA hospital in the country and has
never undergone a major renovation. The project would dramatically
increase urgent care capacity at Castle Point and make the facility
more accommodating for female veterans who are increasingly a large
part of our force.
I ask that before you vote on this measure, please take a moment to
consider the unintended consequences and the negative consequences, not
just in the Hudson Valley but across the country.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Chair, do I have any time remaining?
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman has 30 seconds remaining.
Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Let me just conclude by saying no one objects
to the gentleman's goal. We would be glad to try to work in good faith
to see if we can find another pay-for to improve funding for our
veterans cemeteries. But I will strongly object and ask my colleagues
to vote ``no'' on this amendment because of the damage done to veterans
at these facilities that need the care that they would otherwise not
get if this amendment is passed into law.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Chair, I would just remind the
gentleman that the money you appropriated is already $40 million over
what the President asked for and also what the VA asked for.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance).
Mr. LANCE. Madam Chair, I rise in support of Congressman Garrett's
amendment also sponsored in a bipartisan capacity by Congressman Adler
on the other side of the aisle and by me. This is bipartisan in nature,
and, of course, we believe that across the country, veterans and their
families
[[Page H6247]]
are dealing with the hardships of overcrowded and unkempt State
cemeteries.
For example, in New Jersey there is only one State veterans cemetery
that is currently available for new burials--the Doyle Veterans
Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown, in southern New Jersey, not in my
district and not in Congressman Garrett's district, but this is
bipartisan in nature on our side of the aisle; and certainly we think
that this amendment will help fund these projects and reduce existing
backlogs in the State veterans cemetery grant program.
I certainly concur with Congressman Garrett's point of view that the
funding is already over what has been requested by the administration
and we believe strongly that this is in the best interest of the United
States.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. May I inquire of the time remaining.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from New Jersey has 1 minute
remaining.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. In conclusion, I will end where I started,
and that is to say, there is a need for the cemeteries not just in the
state of New Jersey but across the country as well. In a bipartisan
manner we passed this bill with the support presumably from the
chairman last year in a similar manner as we are doing this year. As
was stated already, the amount of money that is already appropriated is
$40 million more than not only what the White House wants but also what
the VA wants.
I do find it curious that the chairman is able to come to the floor
and cite specifically what programs would be cut when our staff tried
diligently through the committee to ask them to identify exactly which
ones would be cut and we could never get an answer from them as to what
would be cut whatsoever with regard to priorities. Now the chair comes
and says, well, this program, this program, and this program will be
cut.
{time} 1840
How can anybody say it's being cut when we're already spending $40
million more than what the VA and the administration is asking for?
This is a duty that we owe to our veterans, and we should do it in a
proper manner, and we should do it now. We should not be pointing
fingers saying that we want a cut from this or a cut from that. We have
set out the program this year as we have done in the past. And we
should meet that moral obligation.
The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).
The question was taken; and the Acting Chair announced that the noes
appeared to have it.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further
proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from New Jersey
will be postponed.
Announcement by the Acting Chair
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, proceedings
will now resume on those amendments printed in House Report 111-570 on
which further proceedings were postponed, in the following order:
Amendment No. 9 by Mr. Gingrey of Georgia.
Amendment No. 14 by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey.
The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. The
second electronic vote will be conducted as a 5-minute vote.
Amendment No. 9 Offered by Mr. Gingrey of Georgia
The Acting CHAIR. The unfinished business is the demand for a
recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Gingrey) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which
the ayes prevailed by voice vote.
The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
The Clerk redesignated the amendment.
Recorded Vote
The Acting CHAIR. A recorded vote has been demanded.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 353,
noes 69, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 480]
AYES--353
Ackerman
Aderholt
Adler (NJ)
Alexander
Altmire
Arcuri
Austria
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boccieri
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Bright
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Cantor
Cao
Capito
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter
Cassidy
Castle
Chaffetz
Chandler
Childers
Clarke
Clyburn
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Crenshaw
Critz
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Dahlkemper
Davis (CA)
Davis (KY)
Davis (TN)
DeFazio
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Deutch
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Djou
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Dreier
Driehaus
Duncan
Edwards (TX)
Ellsworth
Emerson
Eshoo
Etheridge
Flake
Fleming
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gordon (TN)
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Guthrie
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Halvorson
Hare
Harper
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Heinrich
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Hoyer
Hunter
Inglis
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kilroy
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kirkpatrick (AZ)
Kissell
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Kosmas
Kratovil
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lee (NY)
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Maffei
Maloney
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey (CO)
Markey (MA)
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McCotter
McGovern
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McMahon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Minnick
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moran (KS)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Myrick
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Nunes
Nye
Oberstar
Obey
Olson
Ortiz
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Paul
Paulsen
Payne
Pence
Perlmutter
Perriello
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Polis (CO)
Pomeroy
Posey
Price (GA)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Rangel
Rehberg
Reichert
Reyes
Richardson
Rodriguez
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman (NJ)
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schauer
Schiff
Schmidt
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Shadegg
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Space
Speier
Spratt
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Taylor
Teague
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Turner
Upton
Van Hollen
Visclosky
Walden
Walz
Weiner
Welch
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
NOES--69
Baird
Baldwin
Becerra
Berman
Blumenauer
Bordallo
Braley (IA)
Capps
Castor (FL)
Christensen
Chu
Clay
Cohen
Davis (IL)
DeGette
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards (MD)
Ellison
Engel
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Harman
Hinchey
Honda
Inslee
Israel
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kucinich
Lee (CA)
Lofgren, Zoe
McDermott
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (NY)
Nadler (NY)
Norton
Olver
Pastor (AZ)
Pierluisi
Pingree (ME)
Price (NC)
Quigley
Roybal-Allard
Ryan (OH)
Sablan
Sanchez, Linda T.
Schakowsky
Scott (VA)
Sestak
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Towns
Tsongas
Velazquez
[[Page H6248]]
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Woolsey
Wu
NOT VOTING--16
Akin
Andrews
Cleaver
Crowley
Davis (AL)
Ehlers
Faleomavaega
Fallin
Hoekstra
Lewis (GA)
Slaughter
Stark
Tiahrt
Wamp
Watson
Young (FL)
{time} 1911
Mr. ELLISON, Ms. NORTON, Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California, Ms.
DeGETTE, Mr. TOWNS, Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas, Mr. ISRAEL, Ms. WASSERMAN
SCHULTZ, Mr. CLAY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Messrs. DAVIS of
Illinois, DOGGETT, INSLEE, COHEN and SCOTT of Virginia changed their
vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
Mr. POLIS, Ms. RICHARDSON, Messrs. AL GREEN of Texas, SERRANO,
McGOVERN, MINNICK and GEORGE MILLER of California changed their vote
from ``no'' to ``aye.''
So the amendment was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Amendment No. 14 Offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey
The Acting CHAIR. The unfinished business is the demand for a
recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Garrett) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which
the noes prevailed by voice vote.
The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
The Clerk redesignated the amendment.
Recorded Vote
The Acting CHAIR. A recorded vote has been demanded.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The Acting CHAIR. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 128,
noes 296, not voting 14, as follows:
[Roll No. 481]
AYES--128
Aderholt
Adler (NJ)
Alexander
Bachmann
Bachus
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Campbell
Cantor
Capito
Cassidy
Chaffetz
Cole
Conaway
Crenshaw
Davis (KY)
DeFazio
Deutch
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dreier
Duncan
Emerson
Flake
Fleming
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Giffords
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Graves (MO)
Guthrie
Hall (TX)
Harper
Hastings (WA)
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Hodes
Holt
Hunter
Issa
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
King (NY)
Kline (MN)
Lamborn
Lance
Latham
LaTourette
Lee (NY)
Lewis (CA)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McKeon
McMahon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mitchell
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Nye
Olson
Pallone
Pascrell
Paul
Pence
Petri
Pingree (ME)
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Price (GA)
Radanovich
Rahall
Rangel
Rehberg
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Roskam
Rothman (NJ)
Ruppersberger
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Shadegg
Simpson
Sires
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stearns
Sullivan
Walden
Westmoreland
Wilson (SC)
Wu
NOES--296
Ackerman
Altmire
Arcuri
Austria
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Barton (TX)
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boccieri
Boozman
Bordallo
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Bright
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Butterfield
Camp
Cao
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter
Castle
Castor (FL)
Chandler
Childers
Christensen
Chu
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Dahlkemper
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (TN)
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Dicks
Dingell
Djou
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Driehaus
Edwards (MD)
Edwards (TX)
Ellison
Ellsworth
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gerlach
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gordon (TN)
Granger
Graves (GA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Halvorson
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Holden
Honda
Hoyer
Inglis
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Jenkins
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Jordan (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kilroy
Kind
King (IA)
Kingston
Kirk
Kirkpatrick (AZ)
Kissell
Klein (FL)
Kosmas
Kratovil
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Luetkemeyer
Lujan
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey (CO)
Markey (MA)
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Miller (FL)
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Minnick
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (NY)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Nadler (NY)
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Norton
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Owens
Pastor (AZ)
Paulsen
Payne
Perlmutter
Perriello
Peters
Peterson
Pierluisi
Platts
Polis (CO)
Pomeroy
Posey
Price (NC)
Putnam
Quigley
Reichert
Reyes
Richardson
Rodriguez
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sablan
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schauer
Schiff
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sessions
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Skelton
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Space
Speier
Spratt
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Taylor
Teague
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Whitfield
Wilson (OH)
Wittman
Wolf
Woolsey
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
NOT VOTING--14
Akin
Andrews
Crowley
Ehlers
Faleomavaega
Fallin
Hoekstra
Lewis (GA)
Moran (KS)
Slaughter
Tiahrt
Wamp
Watson
Young (FL)
{time} 1919
Mr. ROONEY changed his vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
So the amendment was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will read.
The Clerk read as follows:
This Act may be cited as the ``Military Construction and
Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2011''.
The Acting CHAIR. Under the rule, the Committee rises.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Ms.
Baldwin) having assumed the chair, Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas, Acting
Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,
reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill
(H.R. 5822) making appropriations for military construction, the
Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes, and pursuant to
House Resolution 1559, reported the bill back to the House with sundry
amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the rule, the previous question is
ordered.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1559, the question on adoption of the
amendments will be put en gros.
The question is on the amendments.
The amendments were agreed to.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
Under clause 10 of rule XX, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 411,
nays 6, not voting 15, as follows:
[Roll No. 482]
YEAS--411
Ackerman
Aderholt
Adler (NJ)
Alexander
Altmire
Arcuri
Austria
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett
[[Page H6249]]
Barton (TX)
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boccieri
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Bright
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Cao
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter
Cassidy
Castle
Castor (FL)
Chaffetz
Chandler
Childers
Chu
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cohen
Cole
Conaway
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Crenshaw
Critz
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Dahlkemper
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis (TN)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Deutch
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Djou
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Dreier
Driehaus
Edwards (MD)
Edwards (TX)
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Fleming
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gallegly
Garamendi
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gordon (TN)
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Halvorson
Hare
Harman
Harper
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Heinrich
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Hunter
Inglis
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Jenkins
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kilroy
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kirkpatrick (AZ)
Kissell
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Kosmas
Kratovil
Kucinich
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lee (CA)
Lee (NY)
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Maffei
Maloney
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey (CO)
Markey (MA)
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McCotter
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McMahon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Minnick
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (NY)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Myrick
Nadler (NY)
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Nunes
Nye
Oberstar
Obey
Olson
Olver
Ortiz
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Paulsen
Payne
Pence
Perlmutter
Perriello
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pingree (ME)
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Polis (CO)
Pomeroy
Posey
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Putnam
Quigley
Radanovich
Rahall
Rangel
Rehberg
Reichert
Reyes
Richardson
Rodriguez
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schauer
Schiff
Schmidt
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Space
Speier
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Taylor
Teague
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walden
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
NAYS--6
Campbell
Duncan
Flake
Johnson (IL)
Paul
Sensenbrenner
NOT VOTING--15
Akin
Andrews
Braley (IA)
Crowley
Ehlers
Fallin
Hoekstra
Lewis (GA)
Moran (KS)
Slaughter
Tiahrt
Wamp
Waters
Watson
Young (FL)
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members have 2 minutes
remaining in this vote.
{time} 1937
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________