[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15167-15168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--VETERANS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate 
receives from the House the emergency supplemental bill for veterans 
health care, the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that if 
the bill is less than $1.5 billion, all after the enacting clause be 
stricken and the text of the amendment as authorized earlier today by 
the Appropriations Committee to include the full $1.5 billion as passed 
by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 96 to 0 be agreed to; that the 
bill as amended be read a third time and passed and motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me take 
a moment to review where we are. On Wednesday afternoon, on a 
bipartisan unanimous basis, we passed the Santorum amendment to address 
the funding shortfall, the surprise funding shortfall, of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs. Based on the very best information we 
had 48 hours ago, the amendment was passed at an appropriated $1.5 
billion to address the critical health care needs at the Department 
that had been underfunded as a result of some erroneous calculations of 
the use and need by our veterans. This money is available to be spent 
in this fiscal year as well as the next.
  In the interim, the administration, working aggressively, refined 
that estimate for the Department in this fiscal year, fiscal year 2005, 
and this morning or about 12 hours ago, Thursday morning, informed the 
House of Representatives that it would be best to appropriate $975 
million for these veterans' health care needs for this fiscal year now 
on an emergency basis.
  Tonight, not too long ago, the House passed that request, which was 
one of the quickest actions on a spending need since the Budget Act 
became law now 30 years ago. However, and this is important, the 
administration has not yet been able to adequately define and hone the 
specific estimate of the extra need for the year 2006.
  I have been informed that this work for ensuring an accurate report 
for Congress for money in fiscal year 2006 is ongoing right now by the 
Department and by OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. Therefore, 
it is my expectation that within the next few weeks the administration 
will give us, will transmit a budget amendment to Congress, which will 
accurately detail the precise amount of money that the administration 
needs, or believes that they need, for funding these veterans' health 
care needs for fiscal year 2006. That request, I understand, is likely 
to be large and could be even larger than what we approved now on 
Wednesday.
  Once we have that information in hand and know that it is accurate, 
we can call up the House bill which contains funding for this fiscal 
year and then add that necessary funding for the next fiscal year and 
then send it back to the House. That would be a very quick course of 
action. Or we could take that accurate number, once determined, and in 
conference with the House, adjust the amendment that we passed 
yesterday. Finally, we could take that accurate number, incorporate it 
into the appropriate subcommittee fiscal year 2006 legislation.
  I mention these options--and there may be even other options as 
well--to cure the problem. I look forward to working with the 
distinguished chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee to ensure 
that the administration gives us accurate information for next year, as 
well as the appropriations subcommittee chairman, as well as the 
leadership of the House and the administration.
  So before the Chair asks again if there are any objections to the 
unanimous consent, let me just turn to the chairman of the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee to see if there is a comment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, first let me say that I am surprised that 
the distinguished majority leader is surprised at what the Veterans' 
Administration and the administration has talked about today of what 
they need. We have been, for months, talking about the shortfall with 
the Veterans' Administration, months--not weeks, not days but months. 
We have had three votes, two in committee and two on the Senate floor, 
where we, the minority, have begged for more money for our veterans.
  It seems somewhat unusual to me that approximately 24 hours ago, the 
Senate unanimously passed a $1.5 billion supplemental for veterans for 
health care. We just did it. The House Republicans have again 
shortchanged our veterans by reducing this number by over $500 million. 
We will insist on a right to amend the bill to bring it to the full 
$1.5 billion mark. This is the same amendment which the Senate 
Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan basis, unanimously authorized 
the chairman and ranking member to offer to the House supplemental, 
should it arrive here below the $1.5 billion mark. This is the real 
world we are in.
  Now, I also say this: We are depending on the Office of Management 
and Budget and the Veterans' Administration at this late hour? Would it 
not be terrible, would it not be awful, if the veterans got a little 
too much money? What is this, some game that we are playing? We are 
playing with the lives of people.
  In Las Vegas, we have people waiting as long as 11 months to get into 
a hospital to have some of the radiology work done. We learned 
yesterday that they are literally borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, 
they are robbing the capital accounts with the Veterans' 
Administration.
  As we speak, we have about 140,000 troops in Iraq. They are being 
worked back all the time, and these people who come home need help, in 
addition to World War II veterans who need help.
  Why don't we have the House Republicans meet their responsibilities? 
And why at this late hour are we trying to protect the White House when 
this body voted by a unanimous vote, everybody in the Senate voted for 
this? Yet we had a unanimous vote in the Appropriations Committee 
authorizing the chairman and ranking member to do the exact thing that 
I have asked to do.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield for a question.
  Mr. DURBIN. Through the Chair, I would like to ask the Senator from 
Nevada a question.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will suspend. The unanimous 
consent request is pending. Is there objection?
  Mr. CRAIG. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, at this late hour it is interesting to me 
that, having had the House and the Senate speak in two different voices 
on the same issue in less than 24 hours, we would stand here and 
determine exactly the right thing to do.

[[Page 15168]]

  The $1.5 billion that we voted on yesterday is a figure I and my 
staff came up with. I happen to be the Republican chairman of the 
Veterans' Affairs Committee. But, having said that, the ranking 
Democrat Member, Danny Akaka, agreed with that. Senator Patty Murray 
had been out front on it early on. I told her at the time I didn't know 
if our figures were right, and if we were wrong we would correct them.
  We can point a lot of fingers, but here are some realities. We have 
increased the veterans budget nearly 10 percent every year for the last 
4. I said on the floor yesterday and I will say it again tonight, 
because it cannot be disputed, whether it was a Democratic President or 
whether it was a Republican President, the fact is they almost always 
underfunded veterans. It was the Congress in a bipartisan vote that 
funded it accurately and adequately. For those percentages of increase 
over the last several years, Democrats and Republicans alike stood 
together to do it and we produced a high-quality health care system.
  No veteran who is qualified today is being denied. No veteran 
tonight, with the now shortfall, is being denied. The reason they are 
not being denied is quite simple. We are borrowing interagency accounts 
to address the immediate shortfalls. And as we do that at the 
administration level, the Congress, the Senate, the House, are seeking 
to replenish those funds.
  There is a difference of opinion here, not between Democrats and 
Republicans, but between the Congress and the administration. We are 
working that out.
  I hope, and many of my colleagues on the other side agree, that when 
we return from the July 4 break, with a request of OMB to have those 
figures accurate, we can address this in an accurate way. I believe we 
are right. I believe the $1.5 billion is an accurate figure. But we 
agreed in a bipartisan way to say that those moneys shall be spent in 
2005 and 2006, that there would be carryover money passing through in a 
seamless way from those two fiscal years.
  If we do what the minority leader, the Democratic leader asks that we 
do tonight, it is a political expression. It is not something that will 
become a functional, operative bill.
  The House is out. We are about to go out. There will be no 
conference. We will be back to visit this again a week from now. The 
reason we will be back a week from now with or without action on the 
floor of the Senate tonight is we do not have answers to this problem. 
We are asking for those answers because this time I have told the 
Secretary, I have told OMB, and as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee--Senator Hutchison is chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee and made it very clear, and my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle are backing us on this--we will get the right figures and 
we will do it right.
  Now, with the new progressions, now with the growth rates understood, 
now with the incoming out of Iraq and Afghanistan and those numbers 
clearly understandable, we will serve them as we have been serving them 
and no veteran so qualified will be denied.
  That is what this Congress has done responsibly year after year and 
that is what this Congress will do. The Senate has acted. But in this 
hour there is nothing we can do, nor in this instance should do. In 
that time, no veteran will be denied service.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. It is interesting to hear the description given by the 
Senator who is the chairman of the veterans' committee. It is also 
interesting to put it in the context of where we have come over the 
last few days.
  The amendment on the floor just a few days ago when the shortfall was 
noted on a bipartisan basis from Senator Murray was an amendment less 
than the one adopted. It was $1.4 billion. The Senator, the chairman of 
the committee, as well as others, came together on a bipartisan basis 
and said, That is not enough. That is not enough, $1.4 billion will not 
meet the shortfall. By our best estimate, they said 24 hours ago or 
whenever we debated it, we need more, we need $1.5 billion. And we 
acceded to your knowledge of the agency and your knowledge of its need 
and came together on a bipartisan basis--I believe the vote was 96 to 
nothing--and said that is exactly what we will do, $1.5 billion.
  Then while we barely finished this work, the House came back and said 
no, the figure is $975 million or whatever number they came up with, 
dramatically less than what we had approved.
  It strikes me as interesting that we are going to back off of our 
best estimate and say let's err on the side of less money for the 
Veterans' Administration. Why wouldn't the Senate be holding fast to 
its position? Why wouldn't the Senate be holding fast to its position 
and say we believe $1.5 billion is the right number still, as we 
believed 24 hours ago when we voted on it? Why do we want to back off 
at this point and say it must be that much less?
  It strikes me, unless there has been a dramatic infusion of new 
information and knowledge, that we are acceding to the House of 
Representatives because they have decided to go home.
  Mr. REID. Regular order, Mr. President.
  Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Regular order has been called for. Is there 
objection?
  The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Reserving the right to object, and I will be brief, just 
listening to the conversation, I ask the minority leader's unanimous 
consent agreement be modified to simply clear the House legislation for 
975, and that the House bill be considered read three times, passed, 
and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator so modify his request?
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
  Mr. REID. 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. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, with all due respect to the distinguished 
majority leader, my friend, I will not agree to the modification. I am 
standing on the unanimous consent request I offered a few minutes ago.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. FRIST. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the original request by the 
minority leader for the unanimous consent.
  Mr. FRIST. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, for the short term, we have a problem that 
we will resolve when we return a week from now. By then I hope we have 
accurate figures, so that we can do as I think the Senate wants to do, 
and as the unanimous consent of the Senate expressed the other evening. 
At this late hour, all we could do is make a political expression. We 
could not resolve an issue. I think we are all intent on resolving a 
very important issue for the sake of our veterans. We hope to have 
those numbers, and I think we will. Those requests have gone to OMB, to 
see what their figures are, as I work with the Veterans' 
Administration, as appropriators do to make sure we have those accurate 
figures. I think all of us this time want to get it right. I know this 
Senator does.
  I yield the floor.

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