[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 29, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5005-S5007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING 
                 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 488, 
S. 2648, the emergency supplemental appropriations act dealing with the 
border crisis.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 488, S. 2648, a bill 
     making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, 
the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 12 noon, with 
Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the 
Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the 
final half.
  At 12 noon, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider 
Robert Alan McDonald to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
  The Senate will recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. to allow for 
weekly caucus meetings.
  At 2:45 p.m. there will be a rollcall vote for confirmation of the 
McDonald nomination, followed by several voice votes to confirm the 
Andre, Hoza, and Polaschik nominations.
  Upon disposition of the Polaschik nomination, the Senate will 
consider the Highway and Transportation Funding Act. Senators should 
expect five rollcall votes this evening in relation to Wyden-Hatch, 
Carper-Corker-Boxer, Lee, and Toomey amendments and on passage of H.R. 
5021, as amended, if amended. Senators will be notified when those 
votes are scheduled.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


         Measures Placed on the Calendar--S. 2673 and H.R. 3393

  Mr. REID. There are two bills at the desk due for second readings.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bills by title for the 
second time.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2673) to enhance the strategic partnership 
     between the United States and Israel.
       A bill (H.R. 3393) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 
     1986 to consolidate certain tax benefits for educational 
     expenses, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make 
     improvements to the child tax credit, and for other purposes.

  Mr. REID. I would object to any further proceedings of these two 
matters.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The bills will be placed on the calendar.


                             Veterans' Care

  Mr. REID. Almost 2 years ago, within a few days 2 years ago, we were 
in Las Vegas to dedicate this beautiful new veterans facility. 
Taxpayers' money spent on it was about $700 million. It is beautiful. 
It is the second one we have been able to do in southern Nevada. We 
built a nice little hospital with a joint venture between the Veterans 
Administration and the Air Force.
  But with the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan, we ran out of room to 
accommodate the influx of veterans.
  It became very difficult for veterans. We have a huge veterans 
population in southern Nevada. We have all kinds of military bases 
there that they are stationed in. They come, and they decide they want 
to live in southern Nevada.
  So the veterans in southern Nevada found themselves in a difficult 
situation. When this new hospital was dedicated--it took 7 years of 
work to get this done. I worked hard, as did others, to obtain this 
money. It was a state-of-the-art facility, 100 inpatient beds, a 
nursing home unit, and an ambulatory care center. It was a state-of-
the-art facility. It was unquestionably, probably without exaggerating, 
the finest veterans hospital in the country. It was brandnew. But, more 
importantly, it was a precious resource to veterans throughout the 
State of Nevada.

[[Page S5006]]

  We have a facility in northern Nevada. It has been there for many 
decades. To the credit of Senator Mikulski from Maryland, she came and 
visited it a number of years ago and said: This is wrong. In that 
facility we couldn't get the modern equipment down the halls and into 
the bedrooms. We had to renovate, so it is in good shape. So the 
veterans in northern Nevada had a facility long before southern Nevada.
  But in spite of all this happy talk about what a wonderful facility 
this is, veterans depending on VA care have been stunned. Why? Because 
they are waiting 50 days. If you are a new patient, you call and they 
say: Well, we will see you in a couple of months. Come on in. About 
2,000 patients have been waiting 90 days in order to even get an 
appointment. This is unacceptable.
  It is not a problem only in Las Vegas, it is all over the country: a 
nationwide, systemic problem where these combat veterans and other 
veterans have been languishing on some nonexistent waiting list.
  When I learned that Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Congressman 
Miller had worked out something, I was stunned. I was so happy. I got a 
call from Senator Sanders on Saturday telling me: I think we have got 
it done. That is wonderful. That is truly remarkable, what they have 
done.
  I don't need to go through the bill, what it does, but it provides 
billions of dollars for emergency funding to hire new doctors and 
nurses. It will authorize 27 new medical facilities around the country, 
allowing the VA to grow as it needs to grow.
  That is wonderful news. That is the way we should be legislating. We 
couldn't find two more politically different people than Bernie Sanders 
of Vermont and Chairman Miller. They are very different people; they 
have very different views. But they know we have sent hundreds and 
hundreds of thousands of people to Iraq and Afghanistan, when these 
veterans come home, they need help. We took care of the war efforts, 
and rightfully so. The military needed every penny they have to fight 
these wars, but we haven't been as generous in taking care of these 
people when they come home from these wars.
  The main point I want to make is that Chairman Miller and Senator 
Sanders understand we owe America's veterans.
  It is good we are talking about this, rather than an impeachment of 
the President or suing the President. Look in the papers today. The 
American people are totally opposed. We shouldn't be off on these 
tracks of impeachment, suing the President. We should be legislating. 
An exemplary standard of that is what I hope will be completed this 
week when the conference report comes to us from the House to complete 
this legislation. It is truly a good day for the American veterans and 
the American people.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.


                          Veterans Health Care

  Mr. McCONNELL. America makes a promise to every man and woman who 
puts on the uniform. In exchange for their service, our country pledges 
they will be well trained, well equipped, and treated with the dignity 
and respect they deserve.
  It is the least we can offer to the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, 
and marines who put everything on the line so we can live in freedom. 
It is a solemn pact, and that is why the American people were so 
shocked to read some of the headlines we have seen over the past few 
months, headlines such as: ``Veterans languish and die on a VA 
hospital's secret list.'' Then, as the Obama administration tried to 
cover its tracks, a headline such as: ``Veterans Affairs spies, 
stonewalls on people investigating it.''
  It is a national disgrace, ailing veterans being put off for months 
by a hospital system that should be rushing to their aid, and veterans 
dying while waiting for care.
  According to the government's own report on these failures, we also 
know these problems were so systemic that they spread to more than 
three-quarters of the VA facilities surveyed, literally to every corner 
of the country, including Kentucky.
  Kentuckians heard shocking news stories such as the one about a 
Harrodsburg veteran who was being treated at the VA facility in 
Lexington. The staff there declared him dead. Yet when the veteran's 
wife came to say her final good-byes, she found her husband breathing--
with a pulse.
  I was glad to hear this veteran is now back home with his family and 
recovering. But no veteran and no spouse should ever have to go through 
such a horrific ordeal. Yet I continue to receive letters from Kentucky 
veterans who have been denied the care they deserve, such as this one 
from a disabled veteran in Gradyville. This is what he had to say:

       I have had some of the most frustrating of times trying to 
     receive the quality of health care that anyone deserves.
       Not only has it taken me months to be seen, but I have been 
     told by a primary care physician that ``He did not need to 
     see me until my 6 month checkup''. . . . I simply no longer 
     have the time and money to invest in the run around I receive 
     in trying to make an appeal. . . . I gave up 4 years of my 
     life and proper use of my right arm in this nation's defense. 
     I would have given my life without question to protect a 
     country that I love. It breaks my heart to no longer be a 
     part of an institution I so lovingly became a member [of]. 
     Our nation's veterans deserve so much more.

  Well, he is certainly right. Thousands of Kentuckians have had to 
wait for more than a month at VA facilities in Louisville and 
Lexington.
  So the Obama administration needs to use every tool available to 
address the systemic failures of the VA, and it needs to work with 
Congress on reforms that can help address these challenges too.
  Initially, the Obama administration was slow to respond to the 
crisis. The White House tried to treat it as some PR predicament to get 
beyond rather than the true tragedy that it was--a tragedy that 
required bipartisan action to investigate and address.
  Ultimately, pressure from Republicans and revulsion from the American 
people forced the White House to take this crisis seriously. Audits 
were conducted. Management changes were undertaken. And the necessity 
of serious reform was accepted--eventually.
  I was proud to support bipartisan VA reform legislation that passed 
the Senate last month, and I am encouraged by the progress of the 
conference committee toward completing a final compromise that can pass 
Congress and be signed into law. The compromise legislation would 
introduce some much-needed accountability into the VA system and help 
increase patient choice. In fact, the compromise appears to include two 
initiatives I specifically pressed with the President's nominee to head 
the Veterans Affairs Department when I recently met with him.
  One, I said we need to make it easier to fire VA bureaucrats who fail 
our veterans; and, two, I said we need to allow veterans to seek care 
outside the VA if they face long wait times or if they do not live near 
a VA facility.
  The conference report, fortunately, appears to include both. I thank 
Senators Burr, McCain, and Coburn for steadfastly fighting for the 
veterans choice part of the conference agreement that will allow our 
deserving veterans the option of accessing care in hospitals when VA 
facilities are not available.
  As for the President's nominee to run the VA Bob McDonald, we all 
know he has a tough job ahead of him after his confirmation. I made 
clear my expectations for dramatic change when I met him. But if Mr. 
McDonald is willing to work in a collaborative and open manner with 
Congress--and I expect he will--he will find a constructive partner on 
this side of the aisle.
  Look, we know there is much we can and should do to address this 
crisis together. So I am hopeful because when veterans are denied care, 
it is a priority deserving of bipartisan attention, and the government 
needs to start living up again to the promises it made to our veterans. 
We certainly owe them no less.


                  Emergency Supplemental Appropriation

  Mr. President, Israel's military campaign against the terrorist 
organization Hamas has a clear-cut objective: to restore Israel's 
security by eliminating rockets, shut down these infiltration tunnels 
from which Hamas is launching its attacks against Israel, and, indeed, 
to demilitarize Gaza. That is Israel's objective.
  This is clearly justified in the face of more than 2,300 rocket 
attacks into

[[Page S5007]]

Israel from Gaza since early July. I strongly support Israel's recent 
efforts through Operation Protective Edge to defend itself and to end 
the threat of additional rocket and infiltration attacks by Hamas. 
Operation Protective Edge also serves a larger purpose, and its 
resolution has broader implications for the future of the Palestinian 
people.
  If Hamas declares victory by keeping its weapons stockpile, by 
continuing to undermine Israel's security, and by turning away from 
Egypt's efforts to forge a reasonable cease-fire, the net result will 
be a relative weakening of the Palestinian Authority and of those in 
the West Bank who have worked toward a peaceful resolution of the 
overall conflict.
  So I support any effort which brings this campaign to an end in a 
manner that increases Israel's security. That means specifically that 
Hamas cannot be left with a large stockpile of missiles and rockets and 
cannot be left with infiltration tunnels. They must be destroyed. Hamas 
cannot be allowed to aggressively rest, refit, and build up a weapons 
stockpile. That weakens Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
  Here is what I oppose. I oppose any efforts--any efforts by the 
international community, especially the United Nations--to impose a 
cease-fire on Israel that does not meet these military objectives and 
that therefore risks actually rewarding Hamas for a campaign of terror 
and that seeks to make additional concessions to Hamas such as easing 
security along the borders of Gaza.

  An unfavorable settlement, especially one that left the terrorist 
group Hamas with a stockpile of weaponry, would create incentives for 
Hamas to continue smuggling arms from Iran and, of course, to return to 
violence. An unfavorable settlement would also undermine the leadership 
of the Palestinian Authority, which has attempted to negotiate with 
Israel through peaceful means.
  So let's be clear. The terror tactics employed by Hamas show contempt 
for human life, whether Israeli or Palestinian. By employing rockets 
and mortars as weapons of terror against Israel's civilian population 
or by using its own schools within Gaza as weapon depots, Hamas has 
shown a gross disregard for civilians.
  The Prime Minister of Israel put it very well when he said: 
``[Israel] uses missiles to protect our people. They (Hamas) use their 
people to protect their missiles.''
  There is no moral equivalency--none whatsoever. These tactics should 
be loudly and widely condemned, and Israel's right to defend itself 
should be affirmed.
  As I noted last week, Secretary Hagel wrote to the majority leader 
seeking urgent funding for components of the Iron Dome missile defense 
system. I and others support this request, as Iron Dome has afforded 
Israel some real protection from these indiscriminate rockets.
  This morning some of my colleagues will further explain the 
importance of Iron Dome and the need for the Israeli Defense Forces to 
press on and finish the job in destroying the infiltration tunnels and 
weapons stockpiles. Republicans are united in our support of Israel's 
defense, and this morning my colleagues will explain our opposition to 
any effort to force a cease-fire on Israel that does not further its 
security objectives.
  In a situation such as this, Israel only has one dependable friend. 
The United States should not be trying to pressure Israel to make a bad 
deal that leaves Hamas in a position to continue these attacks against 
Israeli civilians.
  No one has been more active on this issue than my colleague from 
South Carolina. I see him on the floor now. Therefore, I yield the 
floor.

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