[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 25, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1011-S1013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




COMPREHENSIVE VETERANS HEALTH AND BENEFITS AND MILITARY RETIREMENT PAY 
               RESTORATION ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 301.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 301 (S. 1982) a bill to 
     improve the provision of medical services and benefits to 
     veterans, and for other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business 
until 11:05 a.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes 
each, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans 
controlling the final half.
  At 11:05 a.m. the Senate will resume executive session to consider 
the nomination of James Moody to be a U.S. district judge for the 
Eastern District of Arkansas.
  At 11:15 a.m. there will be five rollcall votes in order to confirm a 
number of district court nominations.


                           Order of Procedure

  I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes of debate equally 
divided between the two leaders or their designees between the votes in 
this series.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Blumenthal). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would also note, these are 10-minute votes 
after the first one, and we are going to cut them off when the time is 
up. So if people are late, they are at their peril. We have a lot to do 
today, and we are going to move along. It is not fair to Members to 
keep them waiting around while someone else is finishing a phone call.
  Following the disposition of the nomination of Beth Freeman to be a 
U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California, the Senate 
will recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.


                           Order of Procedure

  I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate reconvenes at 2:15 p.m., 
there be an hour of debate equally divided and controlled between the 
two leaders or their designees prior to a cloture vote on the motion to 
proceed to S. 1982, the veterans' benefits bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                 Veterans Health Care and Job Training

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today the Senate will vote to advance 
bipartisan legislation that expands and improves the health care and 
job training available to our Nation's veterans.
  I thank the Senator from Vermont, Bernard Sanders, for his leadership 
on this issue and for his dedication to America's service men and 
women.
  The 19th century British statesman George Canning said: ``When our 
perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?''
  ``When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?''
  Although it is clear the world is still a very perilous place, the 
United States is finally winding down more than a decade of war in 
Afghanistan, and we are out of Iraq.
  Mr. President, our gratitude shall not sleep. It is time to 
demonstrate the

[[Page S1012]]

depth and breadth of our appreciation to the men and women who have 
kept this country safe in spite of the risk to their lives and the 
sacrifices required of their families.
  I think of a young man from Hawthorne, NV, who enlisted right out of 
high school, who was 18 years old. He was in Afghanistan for a matter 
of days, and one of those explosive devices blew off his legs at the 
hips. I think of him and his parents. What a struggle. That is what 
this legislation is all about.
  This bill would not only improve veterans' access to health care, it 
would extend job training programs for servicemembers reentering the 
civilian workforce. It would bolster benefits for surviving spouses and 
children. And it would make the Veterans' Administration more 
transparent and more efficient.
  Senator Sanders' legislation would allow the Veterans' Administration 
to open 27 new clinics and medical facilities in 18 States and Puerto 
Rico. These clinics will improve the quality of care and reduce travel 
time for our retired heroes, particularly for veterans who live in 
rural areas--as the young man I just talked about is from a very rural 
part of Nevada in Hawthorne.
  This legislation would help the VA work to end the backlog of claims 
for benefits. Legislation contained in this package will also improve 
care and benefits for veterans who experienced sexual trauma while 
serving their country.
  This measure also expands educational opportunities for recently 
separated veterans by securing in-State tuition rates for post-9/11 
veterans at all public colleges and universities. And this measure 
renews the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which has helped spur hiring of out-
of-work servicemembers and has given more than 70,000 veterans access 
to job training.
  Unfortunately, though, unemployment is still far too high among 
veterans transitioning back to the civilian workforce. Last year more 
than 700,000 men and women who served in the U.S. military were 
unemployed. This is simply unacceptable. No one who has fought for 
their country overseas should have to fight for a job here at home.
  Instead, we should be helping veterans--especially those who have 
endured more than a decade of war--to continue to serve their country 
as productive citizens. That is why this legislation extends for 2 
years a program that helps former servicemembers get the skills they 
need to compete in a civilian workforce.
  This legislation has the support of virtually every veterans 
organization in this country--25 of them--including the American Legion 
and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
  The bill is fully paid for with the savings from winding down the two 
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that so strained our military and our 
financial resources for more than a decade. The Pentagon projects that 
war spending will go down as we continue to reduce the number of 
American troops in Afghanistan.
  This legislation will lock in those savings, establishing caps on 
overseas war spending for the very first time. It is only fair that we 
use a small portion of those savings to invest in our returning 
veterans, who have given so much over the past 13 years to ensure our 
safety.
  Even with the perils of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan past for so 
many of our servicemembers, our gratitude shall not sleep. We owe it to 
our veterans to make the transition to peace a very productive time.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.


                           Medicare Advantage

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, late last week the Obama administration 
proposed yet another round of drastic cuts to a popular Medicare 
program used by millions--millions--of American seniors. Not 
surprisingly, they did it quietly, in the hopes that these latest cuts 
to Medicare Advantage would somehow get lost in what folks around here 
call the ``Friday news dump.'' But the American people are not easily 
fooled.
  The far left has always hated Medicare Advantage. It is a program 
that offends them ideologically because it offers more market-based 
choices to seniors than traditional Medicare. But the left's prodding 
is not the only reason the Obama administration has already cut this 
successful program so deeply, and why now it plans to cut it even 
deeper.
  The hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of cuts that Washington 
Democrats want to impose on Medicare Advantage--cuts that will cause 
millions of seniors to lose access to doctors and face higher 
premiums--are basically all to fund ObamaCare.
  Some folks might describe this as ``robbing Peter to pay Paul.'' But 
I have a better analogy: It is like ripping parts off a Cadillac to 
patch up a Pinto. America's seniors actually understand this.
  Our constituents like--they like--the choices Medicare Advantage 
offers. And they do not like ObamaCare. That is why seniors from all 
across Kentucky have written to protest this misguided policy.
  Jack and Alda Rice from Fairdale wrote that Medicare Advantage has 
been there for them when they needed it, and that it is ``tough for 
seniors to have to find new doctors, especially for those who live in 
rural areas. It means traveling greater distances and spending more on 
gas.''
  ``It is a sad thing,'' they wrote, ``when good doctors leave a plan 
because of funding cuts.''
  Ronald and Linda Baynum from Edgewood wrote that they ``[found] it 
appalling'' that money that was put away for senior citizens is now 
being used for things like ObamaCare. ``It seems like most politicians 
are only working for themselves instead of the people,'' they wrote.
  Well, look, they have every right to be frustrated. I mean, why on 
Earth would we want to ruin one program that is helping people in order 
to fund another that is causing them so much pain? The question answers 
itself.
  That is why I, along with Senators Cornyn, Thune, Barrasso, Moran, 
and Blunt sent a letter to the administration today--to express our 
deep concerns with these proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage and other 
proposals that would increase premiums, reduce choices, and cause 
America's seniors to lose access to the health plans they were promised 
they could keep. Our letter asks the administration to act within the 
bounds of the law to limit the negative impact these misguided policies 
would have on seniors.
  It is notable that even some of our friends on the other side of the 
aisle seem to understand the pain all of this is causing. That is why 
19--19--Senate Democrats recently signed a bipartisan letter with 21 
Republicans that called on the administration to mitigate the impact of 
these cuts to Medicare Advantage. We appreciate Democratic support on 
any issue. It is good when they acknowledge the senselessness of 
cutting one successful program to fund a failed one, of cuts that will 
make it even harder for America's seniors to keep the benefits, plans, 
and doctors of their choice. But, frankly, it is hard to believe they 
are really being serious on this one. That is because nearly every one 
of these Senators voted for ObamaCare, the very law that imposed the 
same cuts they are now railing against. Nearly every single one of them 
voted later to keep these cuts in place.

  Senator Hatch proposed an amendment that would have reversed 
ObamaCare's cuts to Medicare Advantage. It only failed because nearly 
every Democratic Senator voted against it. So Washington Democrats had 
their chance for a mulligan. They took a pass. They actually cannot 
have it both ways. Signing on to some letter will not absolve them of 
responsibility now. It will not erase the fact that even when they were 
given a second chance to help American's seniors, many voted a second 
time to take a whack at Medicare.
  Let's not forget that these folks and their allies are basically the 
same ones--the very same ones--who promised up and down that Americans 
could keep their health care plans that they had and they liked, under 
ObamaCare--a promise that was voted the ``Lie of the Year'' in 2013. So 
Americans are not about to be taken in on the latest ObamaCare spin.
  Let's be honest. The only realistic solution is to undo the damage 
altogether by starting over with real reform. That means replacing

[[Page S1013]]

ObamaCare and its more than $700 billion in Medicare cuts--cuts imposed 
solely to fund ObamaCare--and replacing that with bipartisan reforms 
that can actually help struggling middle-class Americans.
  I urge the Democrats to follow the lead of one prominent Senate 
Democrat who said just the other day he would vote tomorrow--vote 
tomorrow--to repeal ObamaCare. If he is serious about what he said, 
that means he is finally listening to the American people instead of 
the party bosses in Washington. If more of his colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle would only do the same, we could finally move forward 
with real patient-centered health reform; we could finally do away with 
the practice of raiding Medicare to fund ObamaCare; we could finally be 
done with the hurt this law is imposing on men and women all across our 
country--college graduates, moms, dads, small business women, 
constituents who struggle every day just to get by, and, of course, 
millions, literally millions of seniors. Republicans are on their side. 
We agree with them that ObamaCare is a law that just does not work, and 
we agree with them that now is not the time to impose higher costs and 
reduce choices for senior citizens, as the partisan ObamaCare law 
proposes.
  I know the authors of this law may have had good intentions, but now 
is the time for them to admit past mistakes and to work with 
Republicans in a bipartisan fashion to remedy these errors before even 
more people get hurt by ObamaCare.
  I yield the floor.

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