[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 112 (Thursday, July 17, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6380-H6383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MOTION TO INSTRUCT CONFEREES ON H.R. 3230, PAY OUR GUARD AND RESERVE
ACT
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Holding). The Clerk will report the
motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Barber 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--
(1) recede from disagreement with section 701 of the Senate
amendment (relating to the expansion of the Marine Gunnery
Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship); and
(2) recede from the House amendment and concur in the
Senate amendment in all other instances.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7(b) of rule XXII, the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Barber) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Miller) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in strong support of the Veterans' Access to Care
through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014, which was
passed by the Senate 93-7 on June 11 of this year.
This critical piece of legislation is one that must be implemented
immediately to provide solutions to the many problems that have been
discovered at the Department of Veterans Affairs and to provide the
necessary care and assistance that our veterans deserve. We must move
immediately on an agreement with the Senate and not further delay the
long overdue care that our veterans need and have earned.
The most expeditious way to do this would be to move forward with the
Senate bill, one, as I said, that was supported by 93 Senators--
Republican, Democrat, and Independent alike. I know that my colleagues
in the House and Senate are committed to serving our veterans. Services
for our veterans, I am pleased to say, is an issue of great importance
and is one that continuously receives strong bipartisan support in both
Chambers.
I want to applaud Chairman Miller and the Veterans' Affairs Committee
and Ranking Member Michaud for their hard work in bringing to light the
many problems and the terrible corruption that we have discovered in
the VA, and for working to improve the care for our veterans.
I am here to fight for the veterans and the military families in my
district and for those across the country. Mr. Speaker, this is a
deeply personal issue with me. My father was a veteran of World War II.
He joined the Army Air Corps, and probably lied about his age so he
could go serve his country.
{time} 1300
He served in World War II. He went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam,
and when he left the Air Force, he extensively used the services of the
veterans administration.
Were he alive today, I know he would be enraged by what has been
discovered about the neglect, misconduct, and manipulation of the VA
waiting lists, so that top executives could receive financial rewards
and bonuses.
The 85,000 veterans I work for in southern Arizona--and countless
more nationwide--deserve better from us and from the Department of
Veterans Affairs than they have been getting.
I have been pressing for better access to health care for our
veterans since I first came to Congress in 2012. One of the first bills
I introduced was the Veterans Health Access Act, to ensure that
veterans could get the health care they needed in their communities,
without long commutes and even longer wait times, and I am pleased that
the House and Senate are now working to address this issue.
We must improve the quality and timeliness of care to our veterans,
and that is why, today, Mr. Speaker, I stand before you to call on my
colleagues in the House and the Senate to support the Senate bill that
increases access to care and takes many more steps to improve services
and support for our veterans and their families.
Included in the Senate-passed bill is the expansion of the Marine
Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship, so that surviving spouses
may have a chance to further their education and take care of their
families.
The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship is a current
education benefit for the surviving children of our fallen military
servicemembers. It has sent many sons and daughters of fallen heroes to
college and given them the opportunity to get the American Dream.
However, it is important that we also offer this benefit to the
spouses who are left widowed and must singlehandedly care for their
families. This scholarship could provide many spouses an opportunity to
get the education they need and the jobs that will help them succeed
and support their family.
This scholarship was originally created in memory of John David Fry,
who was a leader of marines from Lorena, Texas. Gunnery Sergeant Fry, a
member of the explosive ordnance disposal community, demonstrated true
service to his country and to his fellow marines in Iraq.
With only 1 week left on his tour in 2006, he injured his hand and
was given the option to return home early with a Bronze Star. Fry
declined the offer and volunteered to go on one last patrol, to defuse
bombs for his fellow servicemembers.
Sadly, Gunnery Sergeant Fry was killed that day by an improvised
explosive device in Anbar province, Iraq, leaving behind his wife and
three small children.
Mr. Speaker, this type of courage and sacrifice has been witnessed
countless times in the past 13 years by our men and women in uniform.
For example, just recently, on May 12, a soldier from my district with
29 years of military service succumbed to the wounds he received in
Afghanistan.
Command Sergeant Major Martin R. Barreras of Tucson was the enlisted
leader of his infantry battalion in Harat province and was on his sixth
deployment to Afghanistan.
While on patrol with his soldiers, Gunny--as his family likes to call
him and remember him--was fatally wounded by small-arms fire while
leading his troops into battle.
This was not the only time this respected leader saw combat. In 2003,
Sergeant Major Barreras helped rescue former prisoner of war Jessica
Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. At the time, he was the enlisted leader
of the Army battalion that conducted the mission.
He personally handed Lynch to another soldier to transfer her to the
helicopter that evacuated her from the area and to safety. According to
reports, he then fended off multiple attacks to retrieve all nine
bodies of the other U.S. soldiers missing in action.
Everyone in our country owes all of our fallen heroes, such as
Gunnery Sergeant Fry and Command Sergeant Major Barreras, a debt of
gratitude for their service and their courage, but we must also
remember the silent courage of spouses of our servicemembers who must
cope with the rigors of military life and who must live with only the
memory of their fallen husband or wife.
These unsung heroes are the ones who maintain the homefront for our
deployed men and women in uniform. They are the ones who maintain the
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morale of our troops. They are the ones who unite with other military
families to develop a support network for those spouses and children
while their loved ones are in harm's way.
They are the ones who live with constant worry of their
servicemember's safety, and they are the ones who must bear the burden
in the absence of their husband or wife.
Our military spouses play a pivotal role in our Nation, and it is one
that we must never forget. This is a good way to honor that service, by
providing a scholarship in memory not just of Gunnery Sergeant Fry and
Command Sergeant Barreras, but all of the servicemembers who died for
our country and have left behind a loving family.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
support this motion to instruct, to support the expansion, with no
limitations, of the Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship.
I further urge swift passage to pass the Veterans' Access to Care
through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 in its
entirety. We must act now to enact this legislation and get our
veterans the care that they deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the
motion to instruct and yield myself such time as I may consume.
As we have already heard, the motion to instruct would require the
House to recede to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3230.
Solving the problem of timely access to health care and imposing the
rule of accountability is absent at VA, and I think that is our first
and most important obligation because it is the source of many of the
problems that exist within the Department, many of the problems that
were uncovered because of the oversight from both Republicans and
Democrats on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
We are making good progress with our negotiations with our Senate
colleagues, and now is not the time to try to tie the hands of the
negotiators with what I believe is a partisan ploy.
Moreover, yesterday, Senator Sanders indicated that he wanted to
expand the scope of the conference committee's work far beyond what the
Senate bill itself had encompassed, by adding VA's request for an
additional $17.6 billion into the mix.
So today, I say to my colleagues I am not even sure that the Senate
could recede to the Senate amendment because they keep moving the
goalposts.
As I said yesterday, on the last motion to instruct, the inspector
general and the GAO have both stated on multiple occasions during our
hearings that they do not have confidence in VA's numbers.
Moreover, at every VA budget hearing, the Secretary has been asked:
Do you have the dollars you need to take care of the veterans that you
are tasked with taking care of? Invariably, we get the answer, every
single time, yes.
So why should we believe that, suddenly, VA sees the need to add an
additional $10 billion to hire 10,000 new clinical staff and $6 billion
in new construction without having those numbers vetted?
When our staff was briefed yesterday on this request for $17.6
billion--actually, I don't even know if it is a request yet, but when
the Secretary talked about it, they came to brief our staffs, and they
brought three sheets of paper to justify a $17.6 billion number.
To the Members on both sides of the aisle, I caution that, despite
the urgency of the current crisis, we have got to root out the cause
that has been affecting timely access to care and accountability, not
secondary issues, many of which we all support, including the Fry
Scholarship fund expansion.
If we don't, those of us fortunate enough to be here years from now
will be right back where we are, debating, once again, how things went
wrong at the VA.
I would point out again, as I did yesterday, there are dozens of
bills sitting, languishing in the Senate, including the authorization
of 27 clinics. The motion to instruct yesterday talked about receding
to the Senate bill that had 26 clinics.
The House bill was passed in December of last year--27 clinics. If
the Senate would just bring it up, pass it, send to it the President,
we could immediately make a difference.
I also talked about the expansion of the Fry Scholarship program.
That is something that we certainly should look at, but it will do
nothing, nothing to increase the care and break the backlog, the lines
that our veterans are waiting in now to get the health care that they
have earned.
So I would ask the Senate to pass the dozen bills that sit over there
on their side, send them to the President today, and I would also point
out that I am willing to discuss--and I think most Members on our
side--the Fry Scholarship issues, but we don't think that they are in
the scope of the emergency that exists today.
Part of the reason that I believe that, section 701 of the Senate
bill does not address timely access to care or the cultural corruption
that exists within the Department.
A surviving spouse--as my colleague, Mr. Barber has already said--who
has a spouse that was killed on active duty is already entitled to
receive financial benefits that include 45 months of GI Bill-type
education benefits, $500,000 in death benefits, and $1,215 in monthly
dependency and indemnity compensation benefits.
In short, I don't believe it is time for us to be talking about
expanding the benefits without expressing them through regular order
here on the House floor, especially in the face of what I now
understand is the Senate's new effort to move the goal line in our
conference committee work.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, could you advise me on how much time
remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arizona has 22 minutes
remaining.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, I want to introduce a series of Members who
would like to speak to this issue, but before I do, I would just say
this: I have been here now a little bit more than 2 years, and I have
learned a few things.
One of those things I have learned is that, when you have the
public's attention and when you have this Chamber's attention and when
you have the Senate's attention on an issue of importance like this,
you act, and you do as much as you can to not only take care of the
corruption, the systemic problems within the VA, but other issues that
have been pending for a long time. To that end, I hope that we will, in
fact, recede to the Senate version of the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Arizona (Mrs.
Kirkpatrick), ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee of the
Veterans' Affairs Committee, who has been a strong fighter for our
veterans her entire time in Congress.
Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I support this motion to instruct the
conferees. The Senate amendments go beyond a short-term solution to
solving the patient access crisis at the VA.
As a member of the conference committee, I continue to push for the
provisions in the Senate amendments because they are good for veterans
and their families.
We must seize this opportunity to pass meaningful reforms at the VA.
Our veterans and their families deserve better than piecemeal, short-
term fixes, especially with report after report of veterans struggling
to receive timely care and benefits and struggling to find good-paying
jobs.
One provision in the Senate amendment will give post-9/11 GI benefits
to surviving spouses of servicemembers who have given the ultimate
sacrifice for our country.
We cannot forget about surviving spouses. A surviving spouse
struggles with the loss of a loved one and often struggles with a
financial loss that can make it difficult to provide for the family
left behind.
Servicemembers are able to transfer GI Bill benefits to their spouses
and children, but the benefits and the ability to transfer this benefit
are based on time served on active duty.
We can all agree that surviving spouses should not be cut out of
receiving full bill benefits if they lose a loved one before that loved
one has served 36 months on active duty.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill will give surviving spouses the opportunity to
receive education and training so they
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are better able to provide for themselves and their families. It would
be wrong of the conference committee and Congress to pass up this
opportunity to give surviving spouses this benefit.
We cannot delay passing meaningful veterans legislation. If we do not
take this opportunity now, then Congress will once again fail all the
American people, veterans, and their families by refusing to act.
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Passing VA reform legislation in a meaningful way that gives GI Bill
benefits to surviving spouses should be an easy decision for every
Member of Congress.
For those who are holding up the progress of this legislation, how
will you go home to your district in August and explain to veterans and
constituents why Congress was unable to pass something as simple as
giving GI benefits to surviving spouses?
I know that all of my colleagues sincerely wish to help veterans and
their families, but it is not enough to pay lip service to our military
and veterans. Congress must act now. At the very least, the conference
committee should agree to this provision in the Senate amendments.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the last speaker did
not imply that anybody on the conference committee from the House was
trying to delay the progress on this particular bill.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, next I would like to yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Nevada, Congresswoman Dina Titus, a member of the
House Veterans' Affairs Committee, who has introduced legislation here
in the House, H.R. 3441, the Spouses of Heroes Education Act, which
would expand this scholarship.
As a university professor at UNLV for more than 30 years,
Congresswoman Titus understands the importance of education and has
been a strong leader in education issues both in Nevada and here in
Washington, as a former member of the Education and Labor Committee.
Ms. TITUS. I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of a provision that has been
highlighted by my colleague from Arizona in his motion to instruct and
was also discussed by the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
As a member of that committee, I am working hard to ensure that our
veterans in Las Vegas and throughout the country have access to high-
quality health care in a timely fashion. So it is critical that this
conference committee quickly finishes its work so we can send a reform
package to the President for his signature.
The gentleman from Arizona's amendment highlights a critical piece of
the Senate proposal, which is identical to the legislation I introduced
along with Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon just last year, H.R. 3441,
the Spouses of Heroes Education Act. Our important legislation amends
the post-9/11 GI Bill to expand the Fry Scholarship, which you have
heard described most eloquently by the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Barber), by making surviving spouses of the members of the armed
services eligible for this education benefit program.
The scholarship provides full instate tuition, fees, a monthly living
stipend, and a book allowance to children of servicemembers who have
died in the line of duty. Our change would allow spouses to receive
those same benefits.
When a servicemember tragically loses his or her life on the field of
battle, we owe it to their spouses to do all we can to support them and
their families--not just in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, but
going forward. We can ensure that they have all the educational
opportunities they need because this will enable them to further their
careers and increase the financial stability of that family.
I was pleased that the Senate included this bicameral, bipartisan
legislation in the McCain-Sanders agreement that passed 93-3, and it is
very important that our conferees continue to fight to maintain that
provision. I was also very glad to hear the chairman say that he is so
supportive of our looking at that provision here in the House as a
stand-alone bill, and I hope to see that move also. So I thank them for
their work on this important issue.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, next I would like to yield 3 minutes to my
colleague from Arizona, Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema. If you know
Congresswoman Sinema, you know that when she gets her dander up, she
fights like hell for whatever the issue is, and that has certainly been
true in the fight that she has waged on behalf of our veterans.
As you know, the first evidence of corruption and misdeeds was
discovered in Arizona at the VA in Phoenix, and from the very
beginning, Congresswoman Sinema has been on that issue. So I am very
proud and pleased to yield to her to speak on this bill.
Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Arizona (Mr.
Barber) for offering this motion to instruct and for his leadership and
work on behalf of veteran and military families in Arizona.
This motion urges conferees to expand the Marine Gunnery Sergeant
John David Fry Scholarship to include spouses of fallen servicemembers.
Currently, the scholarship covers the children of servicemembers who
are killed in the line of duty. After their tragic loss, the surviving
spouse is frequently left to provide for her or his family. It is
important that Congress take action to expand this benefit to spouses
and to help these military families begin to rebuild.
It is also important that Congress and the Department of Veterans
Affairs take action to get veterans the care they need. Veterans in my
district, which is home to the Phoenix VA, are still waiting for
Congress to produce a bipartisan VA reform bill to send to the
President's desk. But in Arizona, we are not waiting idly for
Washington to take action; we are doing it ourselves.
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 also recently cohosted our
Veterans First Clinic, which brought together community providers, the
Phoenix VA, and over 20 veteran-serving organizations to help veterans
in a variety of ways. Approximately 400 veterans and their families
attended and got the care that they earned and that they deserve.
These are examples of the good that results when we set aside
partisanship and focus on putting veterans first to help meet their
needs, but more action is required.
I appreciate the bipartisan leadership and work the House--especially
Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud--has done on this issue, and
I call on the conferees to move quickly to produce a bipartisan bill
and get it on the President's desk. By working together, we can address
this crisis and create a VA system that our veterans deserve.
Let's get this done for our veterans.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire as to whether or
not the gentleman from Arizona has any further requests for time?
Mr. BARBER. I have no further requests for time, but I do have some
closing remarks.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, again, I would urge my colleagues
to not support this motion to instruct. And I would also remind my
colleagues that even though the number 93-3 has been used for the
passage of the Senate bill, the House bill, itself, which was much more
narrowly tailored to actually deal with the crisis that exists today,
with access to care, passed unanimously, 426-0, in this House. Just
prior to the final vote, there was a motion to recommit that did, in
fact, want the House to recede to the Senate amendment.
The problem is, again, the goalposts are changing. The House has been
working with the Senate. We have made an offer on our particular side.
We are waiting for the Senate to return a counter. Things changed
yesterday, unfortunately, because of the additional $17.6 billion that
was brought forward by the Department themselves.
So we continue to stay focused. Our intent is to complete this bill
and get it to the President's desk before we leave in August.
I appreciate my colleague's comments today.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, could I ask for the balance of time
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arizona has 13\1/2\
minutes remaining.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, let me just close with these thoughts.
I came here, as you well know, following the resignation of
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, for whom I worked, when she was a
Member. Her commitment to veterans was complete and deep. I am pleased
to have picked up that mission and have tried to move forward with it
in every way possible.
I also came here in the spirit of bipartisanship, looking for
partners on both sides of the aisle to move important legislation for
our country, and I am very pleased to say that I have found
bipartisanship in full measure in the manner with which we have worked
together to ensure that our veterans are properly served. Now I call on
my colleagues, the conferees, to move quickly to bring our two bills
together, to strike now while the opportunity presents.
Back home, when I meet with veterans, they say, What are you waiting
for? We need you to act, and act now.
I urge our colleagues to adopt the motion to instruct so that we can
get this job done expeditiously and in full measure.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
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.
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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