[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 132 (Thursday, August 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4791-S4792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Veterans Legislation

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise for a moment to reflect on what 
was a great night for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Government, for the 
population of our country but most importantly for those who served as 
veterans in the military.
  Last night, the Senate agreed to significant legislation on three 
fronts to make the VA better and more responsive to our veterans.
  Ranking Member Tester and I have spent the entire year working toward 
making sure we dealt with the needs the VA has so all these stories we 
see on the front page of papers, stories about there being unsafe 
conditions, stories about people being mistreated, stories of people 
having to wait so long for their appointments--we want to put an end to 
all this, and we have given the Secretary the tools to do exactly that.
  I was telling the ranking member this is called ``no excuses day.'' 
Secretary Shulkin will have no excuses for any mistakes to be made. 
Every tool he needs in his toolbox to see that the Veterans' 
Administration is responsible to the veterans of the United States of 
America passed in this Senate, passed in the House. There were six 
major bills the first 7 months of this year, a remarkable achievement, 
a testimony to teamwork, to staff, and to the leadership of the 
Republican and the Democratic Parties. The majority and minority 
leaders of this Senate made it possible for that to happen last night. 
I am eternally grateful to both of them for their support and help.
  I am not going to read all the names of the staff now because we are 
in limited time.
  I ask unanimous consent that the names of every staff member who 
worked with the VA Committee to make it the best year ever be printed 
in the Record.
  Credit is given to captains, Presidents, and people with titles. 
Senator Tester and I have the titles, when it comes to the VA 
Committee, but the reason the VA Committee was successful in 
accomplishing every single goal, was because of every ranking file 
member, Republican or Democratic. We took our labels off, we put our 
armor on, and we plowed ahead. We didn't say no to problems that looked 
like they were too hard. We said yes to solutions that looked like they 
made sense.
  Veterans of the United States of America have better healthcare, 
better educational benefits, and a modern VA to deal with in the years 
ahead. I am proud to have been a part of it. I want to commend Senator 
Tester for his contribution.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Staff on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
       Tom Bowman, staff director, soon-to-be Deputy Secretary of 
     VA; Amanda Meredith, deputy staff director, soon-to-be judge 
     on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; Leslie 
     Campbell; Gretchan Blum; Maureen O'Neill; Adam Reece; David 
     Shearman; Jillian Workman; Kristen Hines; Thomas Coleman; 
     John Ashley; Mitchell Sylvest; Joan Kirchner; Trey 
     Kilpatrick; Jay Sulzmann; Ryan Evans; Salvador Ortega; and 
     Amanda Maddox.

  Mr. ISAKSON. I yield to Senator Tester.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. TESTER. Thank you, Mr. President.
  I want to thank Chairman Isakson for his work on the VA Committee. We 
have gotten a lot of work done the first part of this Congress because 
we communicated. We haven't put up artificial barriers. We sat down and 
all realized taking care of our veterans is the cost of war. We need to 
do it and live up to the promises of these folks when they signed up. 
We have done pretty good work.
  It is not only Johnny. It is not only myself. It is also the people 
who have served on that committee, many in the Chamber right now. I 
want to thank them for their commitment to making sure we live up to 
the promises we made our veterans, but it is about working together. It 
is about talking to folks. It is about compromise. It is about not 
digging in but moving together. This is a great country, and it was 
built by people working together.
  The VA Committee is a prime example of people working together. We 
set aside our differences. We listened to the veterans service 
organizations. We let them drive the bus, to an extent. We worked with 
Secretary Shulkin and other leaders within the VA. We have been 
transparent. We have been honest when we disagreed. We haven't 
embarrassed one another. Quite frankly, this is the way it can work in 
this body when we start from a point of agreement rather than 
disagreement.
  We have two bills already signed into law: an accountability bill, 
which holds VA employees accountable to the veterans, fires bad 
employees, protects whistleblowers; and the Veterans Choice Improvement 
Act, which makes VA the prime payer and reduces out-of-pocket expenses 
for veterans. Then, the bills passed last night to take care of the 
disability appeals, some 470,000--we are going to expedite that process 
and bring it down from 3 years to 1 year.

[[Page S4792]]

The VA will do that. We will give them the tools to do that. It will 
simplify it and cut the redtape.
  Veterans Choice funding is a fix to allow the private sector to fill 
in the gaps where the VA can't provide healthcare. It will help recruit 
and retain more doctors and nurses, critically important, and it 
expands the capacity in the VA, which is critically important.
  Then there is the ``Forever'' GI bill which eliminates the 15-year 
limit. It breaks down educational barriers and helps veterans 
transition into civilian life.
  We have done some good work. We have done some good work for this 
body. We have done some good work, more importantly, for the veterans, 
and we need to continue on that line as we continue to address 
healthcare and we continue to address important issues like tax reform. 
It is about working together. It is about finding common ground. It is 
about taking everybody's opinion into context and then drafting up 
bills.
  Chairman Isakson and I have done that, and we are going to continue 
to do that. We have some more tough issues to deal with over the next 
year and a half, but we are going to work together to make sure we do 
it and we do it right. With help from the committee and help from the 
Senate, we could have more successes.
  I thank the chairman of the committee and thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, we are considering the nomination of 
Dan Brouillette to be the Deputy Secretary for the Department of 
Energy. Mr. Brouillette has a long history of distinguished service to 
our Nation. He is a veteran. He has served in the Department of Energy. 
He has been the staff director for the House Energy and Commerce 
Committee. More recently, he has held high-level posts in the private 
sector--first, as vice president at Ford, currently as senior vice 
president at USAA.
  He has strong experience and thorough knowledge of the Department he 
has chosen to return to. He understands the work that its thousands of 
scientists undertake and the importance of maximizing their research 
efforts, especially in a time of constrained Federal budgets.
  He recognizes the importance of our 17 National Labs and the 
Department's responsibility for environmental management, including the 
cleanup of Cold War-era legacy sites. As second in command to Secretary 
Perry, Mr. Brouillette will oversee programs critical to our Nation's 
cyber security, energy innovation, and scientific discovery.
  Based on his hearings before the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee, I am confident he is up for the challenge and ready for this 
role. I would urge all of my colleagues to support the nomination of 
Dan Brouillette to be the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy.
  Mr. President, I yield all time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the 
Brouillette nomination?
  Mr. RUBIO. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from North Dakota 
(Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), and the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 79, nays 17, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 186 Ex.]

                                YEAS--79

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schumer
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Strange
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Warner
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--17

     Booker
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Heller
     Hirono
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Van Hollen
     Warren
     Whitehouse

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Burr
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     McCain
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________