[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 79 (Thursday, June 6, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED AGENCIES 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2014

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 4, 2013

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chair, I rise today to express my support for 
H.R. 2216, the FY14 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs 
Appropriations bill. I commend Chairmen Rogers and Culberson and 
Ranking Members Lowey and Bishop for crafting a bipartisan bill that 
addresses the needs of current and former service members and their 
families.
  This MilCon-VA bill provides critical funding for the DoD to build 
hospitals, clinics, schools, family housing and other facilities in 
order to deliver timely and vital medical care to our nation's 
veterans, active military members and their families. In addition, it 
provides funding for disability care, educational benefits and other 
resources to help advance U.S. missions abroad.
  I specifically applaud the committee for addressing the inexcusable 
backlog problem that continues to plague our Veteran's Affairs Regional 
Offices, including the VA's Baltimore Regional Office. This bill 
provides $155 million for the paperless claims process system, $136 
million for the digital scanning of health records, and $252 million to 
establish a single, integrated Department of Defense (DOD) and VA 
electronic health record system. I am hopeful that these measures will 
be an important step in ensuring that backlogged claims are expedited 
as quickly as possible.
  In addition, this bill fully funds the FY2014 budget request for 
Family Housing construction at $1.542 billion, providing these 
necessary resources for service members, veterans, and their families. 
I am also pleased that this bill provides for much needed improvements 
at the Arlington National Cemetery.
  While I support the military construction/veterans spending bill, I 
strongly oppose the procedure Congressional Republicans used to bring 
it to the House floor. The Rule governing this bill affects not just 
the MilCon-Va budget, but other parts of our budget. I find it 
especially cynical that our Republican colleagues would use the 
spending bills on veterans and military construction as the vehicle to 
pass their overall budget levels, which will result in dramatic cuts to 
the parts of the budget that fund our kids' education and that finance 
investments in scientific research to find cures and treatments to 
cancer and other diseases. The House Appropriations Committee has 
already set the funding levels for those categories of the budget. And 
you know what they are? A $30 billion cut below the sequester level to 
the parts of the budget that fund our kids' education and that fund 
scientific research.
  We're supposed to have a budget process. The House passed a budget. I 
don't like the House Republican budget, but it passed. The Senate 
passed a budget. Under the rules of the Congress--in fact, as a matter 
of law--the House and the Senate are supposed to have completed a 
budget conference by April 15th. That was quite a while ago. In fact, 
it's been over 70 days since the Senate passed a budget and the House 
passed a budget. We still don't have a House-Senate conference 
committee report. Why might that be? Well, it turns out that the 
Speaker of the House has refused to appoint conferees to work with the 
Senate to come up with a budget.
  The Rule for the military construction/veterans spending bill says 
``let's pretend.'' Let's make believe that the House and Senate went to 
conference, and let's pretend that they agreed on the House budget 
numbers--the numbers that would cut the part of the budget that deals 
with our kids' education--by over 20 percent. Let's pretend that, 
because we don't want to go through the normal process. That's what 
this Rule does. It's a total fake, and it's a fake because of the 
refusal to work these issues out in a transparent manner for the 
American people.
  Let's at least start the process of complying with the law. Speaker 
Boehner and House Republicans should follow regular House procedure and 
immediately request a conference and appoint conferees to negotiate a 
Fiscal Year 2014 budget resolution--so we can have a real federal 
budget, not a fake budget.
  For these reasons, I support President Obama's threat to veto final 
passage of this legislation unless it ``passes the Congress in the 
context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and 
enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation 
and national security for our economy to compete in the future.''
  It is also troubling that this bill rejects the President's proposed 
1.0 percent pay raise for federal workers. These individuals have 
already contributed more than their fair share to reducing the deficit, 
sacrificing more than $100 billion in pay and benefits. It is 
unreasonable to ask federal employees, who have already 
disproportionately sacrificed for deficit reduction, to bear the burden 
again.
  This year's MilCon-Va bill continues to ensure our veterans and 
active servicemen and women have the resources they need to succeed 
when they come home. However, Congress must also come together to 
follow regular order and appoint budget conferees so we can pass a 
final budget and have a normal appropriations process. It's time to 
replace the sequester, invest in our economy, and reduce our long-term 
deficit.

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