[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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