[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 18, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H5425-H5429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3230, PAY OUR GUARD AND RESERVE ACT
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 628,
I offer a motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Miller of Florida moves that the House insist on its
amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3230 and request a
conference with the Senate thereon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida is recognized for
1 hour.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this motion is to authorize a
conference to combine our two bills into something that is focused on
the access and accountability crisis that exists at VA.
I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question
on the motion.
The previous question was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Florida.
The motion was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Motion to Instruct
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Ms. Sinema moves that the managers on the part of the House
at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses
on the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill
H.R. 3230 (an Act to improve the access of veterans to
medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and
for other purposes) be instructed to recede from the House
amendment and concur in the Senate amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the
gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Sinema) and the gentleman from Florida
(Mr. Miller) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Arizona.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I offer this motion to instruct because
veterans in Arizona and across the country need action from Congress
and from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Our motion instructs House conferees to accept the bipartisan bill,
drafted by Senator John McCain and Senator Bernie Sanders and
overwhelmingly approved by the Senate, so that we can immediately send
a bill to the President's desk that will provide relief for our
Nation's veterans.
The revelations that veterans at the Phoenix VA and veterans at other
VA facilities across the country were placed on secret lists and had to
wait months before seeing a doctor are immoral, irresponsible, and un-
American. That veterans who served our country honorably may have died
while waiting for care is unconscionable.
Ongoing audits by the VA and the VA Office of Inspector General
revealed systemic problems with wait times, with the scheduling
process, and with the honesty and integrity of the system. Those
responsible for this disaster must be held accountable.
Many dedicated VA employees, many of them veterans themselves, work
tirelessly to provide the best care to our veterans, but they are
limited by this broken system, which is failing millions of our
veterans.
The first priority of the VA and Congress must be to provide our
veterans the care they need. This challenge does not need a Democratic
or a Republican response. It demands an American response, and I
appreciate the bipartisan leadership and work of Chairman Miller and
Ranking Member Michaud. In fact, I cosponsored and voted for both of
Chairman Miller's bills.
I supported bipartisan legislation to give the Secretary of the VA a
greater ability to hold underperforming senior executives accountable
and to fire managers, like those in Phoenix who manipulated wait times
and put veterans at risk.
I also supported bipartisan legislation directing the VA to use non-
VA community providers to cut those wait times and increase the
capacity and capabilities of the VA health care system.
In Phoenix, we have established a working group of community
providers, veterans service organizations, and the local VA to work
together to improve access to services.
We joined with the American Legion to establish a veterans crisis
center to provide service to our veterans, and I would say thank you to
the American Legion for moving so quickly and working with our
community.
We have also started to fully utilize programs, like the Patient-
Centered Community Care contract, which cuts into wait times for
specialty and mental health care at the Phoenix VA. A new contract for
primary care should be in place by the end of this month, but more
action is required.
This conference should move quickly to accept the Senate language,
which passed 93-3.
In addition to the good provisions in the House bill to improve
access and accountability, the Senate language directs the VA to hire
more doctors and nurses. It invests in 26 new VA facilities.
It provides for instate tuition for veterans, regardless of their
home concept, a concept that the House overwhelmingly supported earlier
this year. It extends post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits to surviving
spouses of veterans who died in the line of duty. It improves access to
health care for military sexual assault survivors. It was scored as
costing less than the House bill.
Both Republicans and Democrats want to provide the best possible care
for our veterans and their families, and we want to move quickly to
provide this care. That is why I urge my colleagues to accept this
motion to instruct, so we can move a bill to the President's desk
quickly, and we can provide the care and services our veterans have
earned and deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
might consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to instruct.
As our committee works in a bipartisan fashion in an ongoing
investigation of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we have continued
to work and will continue to work in that bipartisan manner through
legislation and aggressive oversight.
[[Page H5426]]
Veterans are not a partisan issue and must remain as such. That is
why I am a little bit confused about the motion to instruct that has
been offered by my colleagues across the aisle today.
With the vote that was just held to authorize us to go to conference,
it would really not be prudent to prematurely direct our conferees to
already recede to the Senate position before we even sit down and
discuss whatever the matter that we may have with the Senate is.
The House amendment contains the text of H.R. 4810 and H.R. 4031,
which have both passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan
majorities and could be taken up right now by the Senate and sent to
the President today.
Since it is clear that the Senate doesn't intend to do that, our only
option is to go to conference so that both Chambers--the House and the
Senate--can work together to smooth out the differences.
I want to caution my colleagues that what we are dealing with right
now is a very technical provision, a provision that will have a long-
lasting effect on VA and the manner in which veterans throughout the
country receive the needed care that they have earned.
The gravity of the issues before us and the differences in how we
solve them does require that the House Members be given an opportunity
to sit down face to face with our Senate colleagues, so that we might
make sure that we get this right for our veterans and their families.
I agree with a lot of the intent of many of the provisions in the
legislation, but I do have some concerns. First, as the Senate bill is
currently written, it provides an expedited appeal right for Senior
Executive Service employees at VA who are fired by the new removal
authority that is authorized by this bill.
The House has already passed similar provisions in H.R. 4031, with
appeal rights that follow exactly what we, as Members of Congress, have
in regards to our congressional staff. While I am open to discussing
appeal rights, I am concerned that the Senate bill really doesn't
change the status quo and could, in fact, limit the Secretary's
authority to remove poor-performing employees. In short, without
accountability, reform will not be possible.
Secondly, another major provision of the Senate bill would be to
provide the authority for VA to hire additional doctors, nurses, and
other medical personnel to provide and improve access.
The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has heard multiple times,
during the course of our investigation, that one issue with VA's
current policy on capacity and scheduling is that VA doctors do not see
nearly enough patients in one day compared to doctors in the private
sector.
We need to ensure that VA health care staff and technology are used
efficiently first, then address new hiring. Therefore, before Congress
authorizes new funding for a whole new slew of medical personnel, I
believe that VA managers must reexamine their current policies and see
if they can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the personnel
that are already in place.
Finally, the Senate bill essentially gives the VA a blank check to
fund the requirements of this bill. Again, in hearing after hearing,
the committee heard from VA about their wasteful spending on IT
programs, poorly managed contracts, large bonuses, extravagant
conferences, and bloated bureaucracy.
In short, this is not an agency for which Congress should be cutting
a no-strings-attached blank check. It is imperative that Congress
follow a more methodical, yet quick approach to funding new
requirements which preserves Congress' oversight responsibility to
protect taxpayer resources provided on behalf of America's veterans.
This is the House position, and we ought to fight for it.
Now, look, I don't doubt my colleague's sincerity to quickly and
efficiently pass legislation to help address the countless issues that
are facing the Department of Veterans Affairs today. However, the best
way to do this and to ensure that all of the issues are on the table to
work out our differences with the Senate is with a conference
committee.
I urge my colleagues to oppose the motion to instruct, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from
Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick).
Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the motion
to instruct the conferees and ask that the conferees agree to the
Senate amendments to H.R. 3230, the Veterans' Access to Care through
Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014.
I also ask that the conferees work with urgency to resolve the
differences between the House and Senate bills. Veterans cannot
continue to wait. They have already waited too long. We have a duty to
do our job and act now.
I introduced H.R. 4841, the companion legislation to the Senate-
passed legislation, because it addresses several of the issues that
currently plague the VA health care system.
This bill, sponsored by Senators Sanders and McCain, is good for
veterans in my district, in Arizona, and veterans across this country.
It contains provisions that are nearly identical to the House-passed
legislation that I supported, including the expansion of non-VA care to
veterans that cannot get timely appointment and granting the VA
Secretary the authority to immediately fire high-level officials who
are not doing their jobs.
H.R. 4841 does more. It will provide for an expedited hiring of more
doctors, nurses, and medical staff at understaffed VA medical hospitals
and clinics across the country. It will allow the VA to lease 26 new
medical facilities.
It calls for an independent commission that will work to improve
appointment scheduling, and it will improve access to health care for
military sexual assault survivors. These additional measures are vital
to address the access to care crisis in the VA health care system.
In addition to addressing the VA's access to care crisis, Sanders-
McCain ensures that veterans using their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits
receive instate tuition at public colleges and universities, and it
extends post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to surviving spouses.
Comprehensive legislation is needed to help our veterans. I think we
can all agree that we must do everything we can to help those who have
fought and sacrificed for us. Let's work together to get this
legislation to the President as soon as possible.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Enyart), a veteran colleague.
{time} 1345
Mr ENYART. I thank the gentlewoman.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a veteran and 35-year military member in
support of swift action to remedy our veterans' health care concerns.
As former commanding general of the Illinois National Guard, I have
seen firsthand the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make each
day, sacrifices that affect not only themselves, but their families, as
well. That is why it didn't come as a surprise to me to see so many
family members standing beside their veterans at the Marion, Illinois,
VA hospital 2 weeks ago.
I stopped by two facilities--one scheduled and one a complete
surprise to the staff and administrators, a lesson learned from my days
in the military. I wanted to see the true nature of the problem for
myself. I didn't want to speak to administrators or to managers. More
importantly, I wanted to speak to patients and to frontline workers.
Although most of the veterans I spoke to received quality care, far
too many spoke of burdensome paperwork and of delays. Although the
southern Illinois facilities I visited have better-than-average wait
times for patients, even one patient on a waiting list is too many. And
although most of the staff that report daily to our Nation's VA
facilities are competent, caring individuals, there are some who are
not.
That is why I support the two main goals of H.R. 3230, the Veterans
Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of
2014. This act will ensure that administrators at VA facilities can be
removed from power in a timely and swift manner if they are not doing
their jobs. It will also provide veterans the opportunity to seek care
at private health care facilities as needed.
[[Page H5427]]
Join me in support of our veterans and the dire need to reform our VA
health care system.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance
of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Nevada (Ms. Titus), my colleague on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Ms. TITUS. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Democratic motion to instruct
conferees. As a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I
am working hard to ensure that veterans in Las Vegas and around the
country have access to high-quality health care in a timely fashion.
I believe the Sanders-McCain compromise bill that passed the Senate
93-3 makes great strides towards meeting this goal. Specifically, I
would like to highlight two provisions of the Sanders-McCain compromise
that should be passed as soon as possible. Both pieces are legislation
that I have introduced to help veterans and their families.
The first is H.R. 3441, the Spouses of Heroes Education Act. This
legislation amends the post-9/11 GI Bill to expand the Fry Scholarship
by making surviving spouses of members of the armed services eligible
for the benefit program. This scholarship provides full in-State
tuition, fees, a monthly living stipend, and a book allowance to
children of servicemembers who have died in the line of duty. And for
the first time, this change would extend to spouses the same benefit.
The second is H.R. 2527, the National Guard Military Sexual Trauma
Parity Act, which would include extended counseling and treatment to
servicemembers who have suffered sexual trauma while serving on
inactive duty training. This legislation recently passed the House with
unanimous bipartisan support.
Other provisions addressing the claims backlog, access to non-VA
health care, and reform of scheduling and personnel problems are also
critical to include.
So, as the conferees begin their work, it is important that we
continue to keep the best interests of our Nation's heroes and their
families in mind, that we put aside partisan differences, and that we
work expeditiously to try and solve the problems that we have
discovered at the VA.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Castro).
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Thank you, Congresswoman.
Mr. Speaker, my time is short, and so I want to cut to the chase. The
United States of America should honor its veterans and stand up for
them in the same way that they stood up for us during their time of
service.
Mr. Speaker, I had a chance, as have many other Members of Congress,
to visit with the Acting Secretary of the VA about a week ago in San
Antonio and also to meet with some of the veterans who were being
served there at Audie Murphy. These are folks who served during the
Vietnam war, Korea, and other times of conflict. These are folks who
are very proud people who don't ask a lot from their country but who
are there for care.
Too often in Congress, we have been Monday morning quarterbacks
rather than leaders on this issue. It was mentioned a bit earlier that
veterans are not a partisan issue, and I agree with that. The problem
in Washington these days is too often only partisan issues are the ones
that get talked about. We have to take action as soon as we can to
support our veterans and to make sure that the VA has the funding that
it needs to do its job properly.
There was a story that the Acting Secretary told about his visit to
Phoenix. If I recall it right, he said that there was a neurosurgeon in
the meeting that he had with staff who mentioned that, as he was about
to go into the room for surgery, there were two X-ray machines that
were not working in Phoenix, and those were the conditions that these
folks were trying to work under and to serve our veterans. We need to
make sure that small government inefficiency is not an excuse for doing
right by our veterans. And so I support this legislation.
I want to commend not only Chairman Miller on that committee, but
also the Senators, Senators McCain and Sanders, who have come together
to put aside party politics, and also thank my Democratic colleagues,
Beto O'Rourke in Texas, and many fine people here in Congress who are
working on this issue.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think the question that needs
to be asked is why in the world, with an almost $160 billion budget,
would there be two nonfunctioning machines inside a VA medical center?
It just goes to show the incapability for the current bureaucracy that
exists out there to do what they need to do.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona.
As a nation, we have a debt of gratitude to our veterans, a debt that
will be very difficult to repay; but, nonetheless, we must make every
effort to do so.
Mr. Speaker, I spent the last few weeks meeting with veterans in my
district and getting firsthand accounts of their experiences at the
hospital as well as its supporting clinics in south Florida.
While secret wait lists and months-long waits are inexcusable, it has
become clear that the problems are much deeper than that. So many of my
veterans felt that their concerns weren't being heard--and they
were absolutely right. On top of the long waits for appointments with
doctors, we heard about the need for better transportation, greater use
of technology, reduced wait times and more convenient hours.
Just this week, we held our first working group meeting in my
district with local veterans as well as the director of the hospital
and his administrative staff. It is an important step to a dialogue
that is sorely needed.
While we in Washington can wait and bicker about this issue and the
ongoing relationship between us and the hospital system and the
Veterans Administration, what there is no question about is that the
time has come to solve this problem. We as a nation must renew our
commitment to serve our veterans with the same dignity and respect with
which they served us. It is the absolute least we can do. By
instructing House conferees to accept the McCain-Sanders compromise, we
can quickly get the bill to the President and get on with the business
of ensuring every veteran gets the care and need they deserve.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think what is very curious is
that if people would look at the bill that they are referring to today,
that 80 percent of the text in that bill is already House-passed
language. The Senate could pass that--could have passed that some time
ago--and they have refused to do so. And now, all of a sudden, because
it is wrapped up with a tiny little bow, it is the perfect piece of
legislation.
I don't believe that my colleagues are trying to imply that the
bickering that takes place is not supporting the veterans. The House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs has held 90 hearings in the 113th
Congress. Over 50 of those are oversight hearings. The Senate has only
held six oversight hearings. The House has been doing their job and has
been doing it in a bipartisan fashion.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Miller, just know that folks on both
sides of the aisle are very, very grateful for his leadership, in
particular the research that was done to uncover the tragedy that
occurred in the Phoenix VA in my district. So know that folks on both
sides of the aisle here in the House are very, very grateful for the
bipartisan nature in which the Veterans' Affairs Committee has
conducted its affairs during his tenure, and we appreciate his
leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Takano), my colleague who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Mr. TAKANO. I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to give praise to the gentleman from
Florida, Chairman Miller, for the way in which he has conducted the
hearings and conducted the business of the Veterans'
[[Page H5428]]
Affairs Committee. In no way do we wish to imply that the House has not
done its due diligence.
As my colleagues have mentioned, the motion before us to instruct the
House conferees to accept the bipartisan McCain-Sanders bill--and I
want to emphasize it is a bipartisan bill--that passed the Senate by 93
votes, would allow veterans to seek care outside the VA health care
system if they face long wait times or if they live far from a VA
medical facility. It also allows the VA to hire more doctors and nurses
and authorizes leases for 26 new major VA facilities, which I do not
believe the House language contains. It improves access to health care
for military and sexual assault providers. Finally, it includes several
nonhealth-related provisions, such as the provision of in-State tuition
for all veterans at public colleges and universities. This is a
provision that was authored by my friend, Mr. Miller.
The revelation that numerous VA facilities manipulated data with
respect to wait times is disturbing. It is even more disturbing to
learn that those practices may have resulted in the deaths of dozens of
our veterans.
Our veterans have sacrificed so much, and we owe it to them to make
sure that they receive the best possible care from a system that is
accountable and transparent. I urge my colleagues to support the motion
to instruct conferees.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to remind
the Members here on the floor that H.R. 357, the in-State tuition and
bonus elimination bill, passed the House by 390-0; H.R. 4031, the VA
accountability bill, passed this House in a wide, bipartisan fashion,
390-33; H.R. 4810, the access to care bill, passed this House
unanimously, 400--we are hearing about 93-3? How about 426-0? Why don't
we fight for what the House believes in once in a while around here
instead of giving up to the Senate? H.R. 3521, the VA clinics--27
clinics are authorized in our bill. That was a 347-1 vote.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Brownley), my colleague who serves on the Veterans'
Affairs Committee and the ranking member on the Health Subcommittee.
Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Speaker, thank you to the gentlewoman
from Arizona.
I rise to support the motion to instruct conferees. I grew up in a
military home. I personally understand the sacrifices our
servicemembers and their families make in service to our Nation. My
father was the proudest marine, my brother was a P-3 pilot for 20 years
in the Navy, and my uncle served in both World War II and Vietnam.
When I was elected to Congress, I asked to serve on the House
Veterans' Affairs Committee to represent our future veterans at Naval
Base Ventura County and throughout our country to represent our current
veterans that live in Ventura County and throughout the country, and to
represent our military families who also commit to serve our Nation.
One of the greatest pleasures of working on the Veterans' Affairs
Committee is addressing the issues at hand in a bipartisan way, and I
want to thank Chairman Miller for his leadership and Ranking Member
Michaud because this committee has remained in a bipartisan mode to
address these issues. Every week, we discuss innovative ways to improve
access to good-paying jobs, how to strengthen education opportunities
for our veterans, to reduce wait times for critical and fundamental
health care, and much, much more.
I was deeply honored when my colleagues elected me to serve as the
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health to ensure our veterans'
health needs are properly addressed, including improving access to
traditional and mental health care.
As my colleagues know, there is a lot of improvement that needs to
take place at the VA. We have a sacred responsibility to those who
serve our country in uniform. Just as the military leaves no one behind
on the battlefield, we must leave no veteran behind when they come
home.
{time} 1400
The motion to instruct is the best path to completing a conference
agreement to fix the long-term problems at the VA. Let's ensure we are
serving our veterans as well as they have served us.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I remind my fellow colleagues in
the Chamber today that there are 12 pieces of legislation that have
passed our committee and this full House that await action in the
United States Senate, and they continue to languish.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Brown), who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of the first words
of the first President of the United States, George Washington, whose
words are worth repeating at this time:
The willingness with which our young people are likely to
serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly
proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier
wars were treated and appreciated by their country.
I want to thank the chairman for his leadership. Those 90 hearings, I
was at most of them. I know the House has done their work, whether it
was here in Washington, D.C., or in the field and around the country. I
am the senior member on the committee, having served on the committee
for over 22 years.
I have to remind the committee and this House that the problems with
the veterans did not start today. They are long-term problems. I am
pleased with the fact that I was on the committee when we passed the
largest VA budget in the history of the United States.
In addition to that, forward budgeting--which I thought would never
happen, but the veterans have not caught up with the whims of the
House, not passing this appropriation or not passing this
authorization, so we know today what kind of veterans benefits that we
are going to get.
Many other veterans--in fact, over 99 percent of them say that they
are very satisfied with the system. They love their VA system, but the
key is that there are some problems, and we need to work in a
bipartisan and bicameral fashion with the Senate to make sure that we
address these challenges.
I really do believe to whom God has given much, much is expected, and
we have to make sure that the veterans get the care that we have
promised them.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I remind my friends here that the
whims of the Congress to not pass appropriation bills blows very strong
over on the Senate side because the House passes its Military
Construction-VA bill year in and year out. It was the Senate that chose
not to pass any appropriation bills last year.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins of New York). The gentlewoman
from Arizona has 9\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank all Members who have come to speak on this very
important matter. This should be a bipartisan matter, and it has been
in our committee and certainly in this entire House.
I am still wondering why in the world we would just now vote to go to
conference with the Senate on 80 percent of the bills that have already
passed the House, and then we would turn around, and we would have a
motion to instruct the conferees to just forget what the House said,
take up the Senate bill.
It doesn't make sense that we would do that. In a normal course of
legislative business, this is the way the process works: the House, the
Senate get together, and we work out the issues that concern all of us.
I would ask the minority--or I would request the minority to not use
this motion to instruct in one single political ad. I hope that I don't
see this vote used in any political ads because our committee does
things in a bipartisan fashion. Congressman Michaud and I have worked
together diligently to keep the votes from becoming partisan.
I cannot see any other reason to have the vote today on the motion to
instruct conferees to accept the Senate-
[[Page H5429]]
passed legislation after we have done the same thing in the House,
passed the same bills in the House that they could take up on our side,
yet we are going to cede to the Senate position.
With that, I urge defeat of the motion to instruct.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member
Michaud for their tremendous leadership and the work that they have
done over the years to provide veterans with the best possible care,
holding multiple hearings and passing a multitude of bipartisan bills.
By working together, I know we can address this crisis and create a VA
system that our veterans deserve.
I urge our colleagues to support this motion to instruct, so we get a
bill to the President's desk quickly. This is not the end of our work,
but it is an important step forward to meet the needs of our veterans.
I trust that Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, and the members
of the conference committee will represent the interests of veterans
very well in our conference committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to instruct.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 198,
nays 220, not voting 13, as follows:
[Roll No. 316]
YEAS--198
Barber
Barrow (GA)
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera (CA)
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Caardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Enyart
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Gibson
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutieerrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujaan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
Nolan
O'Rourke
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Richmond
Rooney
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Saanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stockman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velaazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NAYS--220
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Cotton
Cramer
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jolly
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
McAllister
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Mullin
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schock
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOT VOTING--13
Crawford
Goodlatte
Hanna
Kelly (IL)
Lankford
McHenry
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Nunnelee
Poe (TX)
Rangel
Ryan (OH)
Waxman
{time} 1441
Messrs. LUCAS, JORDAN, BUCSHON, LATTA, UPTON, LaMALFA, TERRY, POSEY,
SIMPSON, SESSIONS, ROSKAM, and FLEMING changed their vote from ``yea''
to ``nay.''
Ms. LINDA T. SAANCHEZ of California and Mrs. BEATTY changed their
vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to instruct was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
personal explanation
Mr. HANNA. Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, I was absent and
missed rollcall votes Nos. 315 and 316. Had I been present, I would
have voted: rollcall 315--``yea,'' rollcall 316--``nay.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Webster of Florida). Without objection,
the Chair appoints the following conferees on H.R. 3230:
For consideration of the House amendment and the Senate amendment,
and modifications committed to conference:
Messrs. Miller of Florida, Lamborn, Roe of Tennessee, Flores,
Benishek, Coffman, Wenstrup, Mrs. Walorski, Mr. Michaud, Ms. Brown of
Florida, Mr. Takano, Ms. Brownley of California, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, and
Mr. Walz.
There was no objection.
____________________