[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 173 (Thursday, October 26, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6834-S6836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Veterans Choice Program

  Today, Mr. President, I rise to express my serious concerns on behalf 
of our Nation's veterans. This is a huge problem in Wyoming. Wyoming is 
the least populated State in the Nation. If it is a huge problem there, 
it has to be even greater in States across the country, and I am sure 
it is a problem in all of them.
  In 2014, we learned that several veterans died in Arizona--a lot of 
veterans died in Arizona while staff at the Phoenix VA medical center 
entered false information about their wait times and appointments. They 
kept getting delayed. Later that year, we found that such scheduling 
manipulation was widespread, including in my home State of Wyoming. 
Congress responded by creating the Veterans Choice Program to help 
veterans get care in their communities and to get it promptly.
  Unfortunately, Wyoming veterans are continuing to experience delays 
and limited access to care. I have heard from many Wyoming veterans who 
have been unable to receive the care they need and many providers who 
have been unable to get reimbursed for medical services. Some doctors 
and facilities have ended their participation in VA Choice because it 
is taking too long to get reimbursed or they are unable to get 
reimbursed at all and they are having to do a tremendous amount of 
paperwork in order to even get to that final reimbursement. Sometimes 
when they finally get payment, the check is made out to the wrong 
provider. Time and again, I hear reports of how difficult it is to get 
simple answers, let alone care or provider reimbursement, from the VA 
and the contractor administering the program in Wyoming.
  The consequences of this poorly run program are ultimately borne by 
the veterans. In a frontier State like Wyoming, losing access to one 
specialist can mean losing access to the only specialist in the area.
  Sadly, Wyoming veterans continue to tell me about these problems 
because the situation isn't getting any better--that is in spite of my 
having the Secretary in my office and then having him bring his staff 
in, who had provided the terrible statistics that they were working 
from.
  One such veteran was waiting for a surgery followup and cancer 
screening and can't go to the same doctor now because VA Choice never 
paid them. Another veteran was not able to access vision care. Another 
could not access necessary neurological care because of reimbursement 
issues. I have even been contacted by veterans who are worried that 
they will go into collections because of claims that have not been paid 
by the Choice Program--not by them but by the Choice Program.
  Without improvements to the program, our veterans will have to 
continue to wait for needed care, and their quality of life will 
continue to be negatively impacted.
  I mentioned before that we are the least populated State in the 
country, and we have so many problems that I send a weekly list to the 
Secretary. I can't imagine what it is like in a high-population State.
  We created VA Choice to better serve the healthcare needs of 
veterans, not to create a new source of uncertainty about whether they 
will be able to get the care they need. That is unacceptable. It 
defeats the entire purpose of the program. Until Congress steps in to 
improve the program, more providers will drop out of the program and 
more veterans will be harmed. These men and women have given our 
country so much, and they deserve quality care in an efficient manner. 
Their providers need to be paid on time so our veterans can get the 
treatment they need. When

[[Page S6835]]

the system fails those who never failed us, trust degrades. We can do 
better than this. We must do better than this.
  I know my colleagues on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs are 
working hard to solve these issues. I am working with them to make sure 
that any new version of community care for our veterans takes into 
account the unique challenges that rural and frontier healthcare 
networks face. We hold the highest debt to our veterans. Let's repay 
that honor and honor their selfless service by providing them with the 
care they deserve.
  The veterans program was considered to be one of the best-run 
healthcare programs anywhere, and I heard nothing but compliments about 
it until the problem in Arizona, and then we found that the system had 
changed. That might be an indication of what could happen if we went to 
Federal healthcare for all, but this is one area that needs to be 
straightened out. It was a prime example of good care, and it isn't. We 
have to get it restored for our veterans.
  I yield the floor.
  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. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, we have a very significant couple of votes 
coming up. One is the nomination of Scott Palk to be a district judge 
for the Western District of Oklahoma. We have been working on this for 
about 2 years now. He is one of the highest qualified individuals.
  I thank the leader for moving forward on his nomination this week. I 
know judicial nominations are a priority of the leader's, and I share 
his belief in the importance of filling the many vacancies we have with 
judges who will uphold the rule of law, not predetermine outcomes and 
not legislate from the bench. Scott Palk fulfills and embodies this 
philosophy, and I have full confidence that he will be a judge whom 
Oklahoma and the Nation will be proud of.
  This nomination is of great need to the Western District, located in 
Oklahoma City, which has a very heavy caseload. In fact, we have three 
vacancies on the bench there. One vacancy goes back over 4 years and 
another over 3 years, so this nomination is desperately needed.
  Mr. Palk was nominated in the last Congress--so it was not this 
Congress--during the previous administration. He made it through the 
Judiciary Committee by voice vote before we ran out of time at the end 
of the 114th Congress. We would have had this done, but we just flat 
ran out of time. He had bipartisan support in the last Congress and has 
in this Congress, with there having been a 17-to-3 vote in the 
Judiciary Committee. It is not very often that happens.
  He also has bipartisan support back home in Oklahoma. He comes highly 
recommended by David Boren. Everyone here knows who David Boren is. The 
Presiding Officer remembers David Boren. He was my predecessor in this 
seat. He was the president of the University of Oklahoma but is retired 
now. He is a Democrat. Actually, he and I were elected to the House of 
Representatives in Oklahoma on the same day, so we go back a long way. 
David Boren knows Mr. Palk very well because Scott Palk has worked at 
the University of Oklahoma College of Law for about 15 years now after 
his having left a successful career in both the U.S. attorney's office 
and as a county district attorney.
  David Boren said of Palk--now, this is a Democrat talking about Scott 
Palk--``He would make an excellent judge,'' would be ``balanced and 
fair in his approach,'' and has ``an excellent reputation for complete 
honesty and integrity.'' I don't know what more you could want in a 
judge.
  That is David Boren talking, my predecessor in the Senate.
  Again, I thank the leader for his commitment to fulfilling our 
judicial vacancies, and I ask that my colleagues support the 
nomination, as I am sure they will, with a ``yes'' vote for Mr. Palk.
  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. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LANKFORD. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, we are about to vote on a gentleman 
named Scott Palk, who was nominated by President Trump to serve as a 
U.S. district court judge for the Western District of Oklahoma on May 
8.
  On June 15 of this year, he passed the Judiciary Committee with 
bipartisan support. It has taken us this long, from June 15, going 
through the committee process, to finally getting this to the floor in 
the last days of October.
  This is the issue we face as a Senate right now. We have an opening 
with a judge who has already gone through the committee process, who 
has already been approved--who will be confirmed, I hope, with wide 
bipartisan support--but because of the ongoing delay of every nominee, 
of everything in the process, this is slowing down the wheels of our 
government across the country. Whether that be judges or whether that 
be individuals in the executive branch working in the agencies, we are 
seeing a constant slowing. We have to be able to correct this.
  I would state that Americans will be very pleased when they get a 
chance to see Scott Palk on the bench. He will be a fair judge. He 
comes from a great family and has a great passion to serve people, both 
as he served in the U.S. attorney's office in the past and at the 
University of Oklahoma, working at the law school there. He will make 
the Nation proud. I am glad we have finally gone through this extremely 
long process to finally get him on and to get him seated on that bench.
  In the days ahead, I look forward to the other positions in 
government being filled as well with other well-qualified individuals. 
I look forward to seeing this done. I look forward to seeing Scott Palk 
not as Scott Palk but as Judge Palk.
  With that, I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). All time has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Palk 
nomination?
  Mr. COTTON. 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 legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), 
the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from New Jersey 
(Mr. Menendez), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 79, nays 16, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 251 Ex.]

                                YEAS--79

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

[[Page S6836]]


  


                                NAYS--16

     Blumenthal
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hirono
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Stabenow
     Van Hollen
     Warren
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Booker
     Graham
     Heinrich
     Menendez
     Whitehouse
  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.

                          ____________________