[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 19176-19177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       GAO REPORT CLAIMS VETERANS ADMINISTRATION WASTES MILLIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, all of us know that here on the Republican 
side we are trying to fight to increase the amount of money we give to 
the Veterans Administration because the President's budget was a flat 
line budget which did not provide enough money and particularly the 
fact that there are many more cases of hepatitis C. And we hope to 
increase cost of living for a lot of the employees, but I wanted to 
call my colleagues' attention to a GAO audit that was performed on the 
Veterans Affairs on July 22 that found over the next 5 years as much as 
$20 billion could be wasted. And I think that is a concern for all of 
us here in Congress.
  The Veterans Health Administration is spending one of every four 
medical care dollars just caring for buildings that are old and 
obsolete. They spend it to operate and maintain these major delivery 
locations, but these locations have very low occupancy and a lot of 
unused space. So as I mentioned earlier, there is $20 billion that 
could be saved over the next 5 years.
  I think many of my colleagues know that the Veterans Health 
Administration hospital utilization plan has been dropping because the 
number of patients has gone down. That is right, it has gone from 
49,000 patients a day in 1989 to 21,000 in 1998. Almost half of this 
decline has occurred over the past 3 years. Not only has the hospital 
utilization dropped but the number of hospital admissions has decreased 
from over 1 million in 1989 to about 400,000 in 1998. So that is about 
a 40 percent drop, Mr. Speaker.
  By the VA's own estimates, the veteran population is now 25 million 
and will drop to about 16 million in the year 2020. So I am concerned, 
I think all of us should be concerned, about those facilities that cost 
so much to operate. More than 40 percent of the VA health care 
facilities are over 50 years old and we are just not getting a good 
bang for the buck for the taxpayers. It cost as much as $1 million a 
day to run these underutilized and unused facilities, according to the 
GAO; and I do not think we should continue to do that. That is why 
myself and my colleague, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Everett), who 
is chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, have 
held hearings to discuss this and try to correct this egregious use of 
taxpayers' money.
  Let us not forget, of course, that veterans pay taxes themselves, so 
we want

[[Page 19177]]

to make sure that the taxes they pay are effectively used also.
  The GAO found that the Veterans Health Administration has made 
limited progress over the past 4 months in implementing a realignment 
process. They also found that the VA contains a diverse group of 
competing stakeholders who oppose plan changes in the areas I have just 
talked about. The GAO has made suggestions. They suggested more 
independent planning by those with no vested interest in geographic 
locations. They also recommend that the VA consider consolidating 
services, developing partnerships with other health care providers, and 
replacing obsolete assets with modern ones that address the health 
needs of today's and future veterans.
  I have a bill, Mr. Speaker, that addresses part of these concerns. It 
is H.R. 2116. I am hoping that this bill will come to the floor. One of 
the major components of my bill, called the Veterans Millennium Health 
Care Act, contains elements targeted at capital asset management 
issues, in fact, what I like to call enhanced stakeholder involvement 
for all of the veterans.
  My bill offers a blueprint to help position the VA for the future. 
The point is that VA has the closure authority. The administration can 
take those facilities that are obsolete and not being used and close 
them, but it does not seem to want to. I think what we need to do is 
allow a new process to get this started. So my bill calls for a process 
to be sure that decisions on closing hospitals can only be made based 
upon comprehensive planning with veterans' participation, and that is 
very important and very appropriate.
  The bill sets numerous safeguards in place and would specifically 
provide that VA cannot simply stop operating a hospital and walk away 
from its responsibilities to veterans. It must, quote, reinvest savings 
in a new, improved treatment facility or improve services in the area.
  I think the bill responds to the pressing veterans' needs. It opens 
the door to an expansion of long-term care, to greater access to 
outpatient care and to improved benefits, including emergency care 
coverage.
  So in turn, Mr. Speaker, I think it provides the reforms we need for 
the next millennium that could advance the goals of the GAO, and I 
think it is another important feature towards getting better efficient 
use of the money.

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