[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 27235-27237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY H.R. 2528

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 
1 hour of debate equally divided between the two managers in relation 
to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2528, the Military Quality 
of Life and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. I further ask consent 
that following the use or yielding back of time, and when the Senate 
then receives the conference report, it be immediately considered, and 
the conference report be adopted, with the motion to reconsider laid 
upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I believe what we bring before the 
Senate today is a product worthy of our support. The conference report 
has been crafted under two different approaches. What I believe has 
emerged is not only a good compromise but also makes strides in both 
oversight and policy. What has emerged is a solid recommendation.
  I thank my chairman, Senator Cochran, for his leadership. This 
subcommittee faced some extreme budgetary shortfalls, and without his 
leadership, and basically allocating more resources to this committee, 
we would not be able to bring this conference report to the Senate 
today.
  I also especially thank my ranking member, Senator Feinstein, for her 
constant support and willingness to work together. I thank her staff as 
well: Christian Evans, B.G. Wright, and Chad Schulken for their hard 
work and professionalism, along with my great staff, Tammy Cameron, 
Dennis Balkham, and Sean Knowles. It has been a team effort and I 
appreciate that so much.
  The military construction portion of our bill provides $6.2 billion 
for military construction, $5.1 billion of which is for Active 
Component construction, and $1.1 billion for Reserve Component 
construction. It also includes $4 billion for family housing. There is 
$1.75 billion for BRAC implementation and cleanup for both 2005 and 
prior rounds. The conference agreement also provides necessary services 
for our service men and women and their families, not

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only enabling them to effectively do their jobs, but also providing an 
improved quality of life in our military communities. This is important 
for many reasons. Of course, it is the right thing to do for our 
military. It is also the smart thing to do with our tax dollars. In 
this time of war and frequent deployments, recruiting and retention, 
maintaining a ready and available workforce is very much on the minds 
of our military leaders. We often say, in this era of an All Volunteer 
Force: You recruit individuals, but you retain families. The quality-
of-life improvements that make our military communities great places to 
live are crucial in the retention of military families. Within this 
conference report before you, we fund projects that will improve the 
lives of those families. We fund 11 family housing privatization 
projects, which will provide high-quality, market-standard housing for 
nearly 15,000 military families; 39 barracks projects that will get our 
single soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines out of substandard living 
conditions, or, in some cases, off ships and into first-rate 
facilities; and schools, child development centers, and family support 
centers that will ensure our servicemembers' children and spouses are 
cared for, are included in this bill.
  These improvements make it easier for troops to deploy, to focus on 
their day-to-day jobs, while giving them the peace of mind that comes 
with knowing their families and homes are taken care of, so they can 
give their attention to the job we are asking them to do--protecting 
America. The conference report provides the first piece to the most 
recent BRAC round. With the funds provided, it places priority on those 
funds which are critical to carrying out BRAC, while providing the 
necessary financial oversight of the resources provided.
  For our veterans, we have fully funded the President's request for 
veterans benefits and health care. This has not been easy. House and 
Senate conferees have provided $22.547 billion for medical services, 
which includes $1.225 billion in emergency funding to fully meet the 
President's amended request for medical care for the country's 
veterans. This conference has strongly responded to the VA's recent 
budgetary shortfall by putting in place stringent financial reporting 
requirements in an effort to avoid the repeat of budget crises 
witnessed this summer in VA health care.
  We have fully funded the request for medical facilities and 
infrastructure, totaling $3.3 billion for fiscal year 2006. We have 
created three Centers of Excellence for mental health care, while at 
the same time fully funding health care for post traumatic stress 
disorder and other mental health care throughout the VA.
  The conference has funded medical and prosthetic research at $412 
million, which is $19 million more than the President's request. This 
is important because we know many of our troops coming home from Iraq 
and Afghanistan are suffering from loss of limbs, to a greater extent 
than we have seen before. So we want the research to make sure the 
prostheses they have make them fully ambulatory and able to function in 
the rest of their lives.
  The conference takes the unprecedented step of providing $15 million 
specifically dedicated to Gulf War Illness research for this year and 
the next 4 fiscal years, fulfilling the Research Advisory Commission's 
recommendations on Gulf War Illness. This is a disease for which we 
must determine the cause so we can treat the one in six who returned 
from the Gulf War with these symptoms and protect future service men 
and women from contracting this disorder.
  The conference report before you today establishes a new account 
within the VA dedicated to information technology systems. Not only 
does this new account provide for increased oversight and consolidated 
information technology efforts within the VA, it codifies the new 
position of a VA Chief Information Officer and subsequent 
reorganization. I believe this is a critical step toward helping the VA 
achieve success in medical recordkeeping and medical record 
availability. Its HealtheVet-electronic patient records project paid 
great dividends during the recent hurricanes.
  In fact, the conference report has also responded to the recent 
hurricanes by providing the VA authority to establish an Assistant 
Secretary for Disaster Preparedness, something which will enable the VA 
to better respond to future disaster situations.
  Finally, we have provided $1 million over the President's request for 
the American Battle Monuments Commission for an environmental study to 
save the eroding monument at Normandy Cemetery.
  All in all, I believe the conference report before the Senate 
provides much-needed resources and does so while maximizing our limited 
resources in meeting the greatest needs of our military, their 
families, and our veterans.
  On a personal note, I want to say I have worked very closely with 
Secretary Jim Nicholson of the VA, and I know of his dedication to 
doing what is right for our veterans, something we all wish to do. I 
appreciate his leadership. We owe our active-duty military, our Guard 
and Reserves, who stand ready to serve, and our veterans, who have 
served, the care of our country. We have achieved these goals in the 
conference report today.
  Therefore, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this conference 
report.
  Mr. President, I yield to my ranking member, Senator Feinstein.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join my chairman, 
Senator Hutchison, in recommending this 2006 Military Construction, 
Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies appropriations conference report 
to the Senate. This is the first year that MILCON has added 
dramatically to its portfolio, and I want to compliment the chairman of 
our committee, and I want to compliment her staff for what has been, I 
think--on what could have been a very difficult bill--a very 
bipartisan, constructive, team-like, problem-solving effort. I only 
wish we had more of it in the Senate. But I want the chairman to know 
how much I am grateful to her for her leadership, and I want her staff 
to know that as well.
  I also thank Chairman Cochran--what Senator Hutchison said was right 
about the amount of money--and also Senator Byrd for their leadership 
and diligence in getting this bill through conference and to the Senate 
floor.
  As the chairman said, the conference report before us today is a 
first. It provides for the infrastructure needs of our military and the 
health care and other needs of our veterans.
  The bill is a big one. It is an $82.57 billion bill. It includes 
$12.167 billion for MILCON, family housing, environmental cleanup; 
$70.25 billion for veterans' benefits and health care--that is the big 
addition--and $157.6 million for several related agencies.
  Of the many vital programs the Senator elucidated as funded in this 
conference report, none is more important than the funding we provide 
to meet the medical needs of our Nation's veterans. As a Senator from a 
State with the largest population of veterans in the Nation, I cannot 
overstate the importance of this issue. We have to support our veterans 
to the fullest extent possible.
  The conference report before us today provides $22.547 billion for 
veterans medical services. Included in that level is $1.225 billion in 
contingent emergency funding to make up the projected shortfall in the 
President's original budget request. The Senate had sought a higher 
level of funding, and it was my sincere hope that the House, which had 
zero emergency funding for veterans in its version of the bill, would 
have agreed to our position and accepted the full amount provided in 
the Senate bill. That did not happen. But given the huge disparity 
between the House and Senate funding proposals, the level of funding 
provided in the conference report is a good start. I commend, again, 
the chairman for her hard work--for the cooperation of Senator Cochran, 
chairman of the Appropriations Committee--in bridging the enormous gap 
between the two bills and ensuring that the conference report did not 
shortchange our veterans. I do not believe it does shortchange our 
veterans.

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  The proposed funding for VA medical services is equal to the level of 
funding the administration has said it needs for fiscal year 2006. That 
is clearly a good start. But it offers--and it has to be pointed out--
no safety net to our veterans, should the VA's budget once again prove 
to be wrong. This is a worrisome prospect. Hopefully, the 
administration got it right this time and the funding will be 
sufficient, but everyone should know that we will be watching. 
Additionally, there is much talk floating around the Capitol of an 
across-the-board cut to discretionary programs. I would like to be 
clear to everyone, any across-the-board cut to VA medical services will 
mean cuts in health care for veterans. There is no other way around it. 
We can't allow it to happen.
  As I noted earlier, the medical services proposal includes the $1.225 
billion in contingent emergency funding. This means the administration 
will have to designate the funding as an emergency before it is 
apportioned to the VA. I want to send this message loud and clear to 
the administration: Do not sit on this funding and force the VA to have 
to begin rationing health care. We will not stand for that.
  The MILCON portion of the report provides $12.17 billion to fund 
state-of-the-art facilities. The Senator has mentioned some of them--
barracks, housing for military families, and other vital infrastructure 
for servicemembers around the world.
  Army projects were increased by 19 percent; Air Force, by 18 percent; 
and the Navy, by nearly 8 percent. When enacted, this bill will fund 
Active-component MILCON at $5.1 billion. We were also able to provide 
significant increases in funding for Reserve-component MILCON. This is 
important at a time when our Reserve Forces are being asked to do more 
than ever before and, in many cases, are being deployed to combat zones 
overseas multiple times. Ensuring that these troops have adequate 
facilities in which to train and maintain their equipment is crucial to 
the success of their mission. To that end, the conferees agreed to 
increase funding for Army Guard projects by 60 percent, a substantial 
amount; for Air Guard projects by 83 percent over the President's 
budget request. In fact, overall funding for Reserve components was 
increased by 52 percent over the President's budget request, dedicating 
$1.1 billion for new facilities for our Reserve bases. That is 
important, and it means that this committee has done an excellent job 
in recognizing the need.
  In summary, I once again thank my chairman, Senator Hutchison. I not 
only enjoy her collegiality but her friendship as well. I want her to 
know that that means a great deal to me. I thank Chairman Cochran and 
Senator Byrd for their leadership. And I would like to thank our staffs 
who really worked in what I like to believe is a hallmark, sometimes, 
of this great body, which is bipartisanship. They have shown an 
unfailing spirit of cooperation. So thank you, Tammy Cameron, Sean 
Knowles, and Dennis Balkham for Senator Hutchison, and Christine Evans, 
B. G. Wright, Chad Schulken, and Chris Thompson of my staff.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, collegiality and bipartisanship is a 
two-way street. You can't do it if only one person wants to do the 
right thing. I have worked with Senator Feinstein. She has been 
chairman of our committee, and I have been ranking member. I have been 
chairman, and she has been ranking member. We have always come together 
to do what is right for the military personnel who are defending our 
country as we speak today. We both believe in quality of life, good 
housing, good health care facilities, good childcare facilities, and 
all the things that we can provide in the purview of our bill. And now 
we have the veterans, which has been added to our bill this year, which 
is a great opportunity for us to continue to say thank you to those who 
have preserved the freedom for our generation.
  We have come together on the goals, and I could not ask for a better 
partner.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I so appreciate that we can do this in the Senate, 
which is what we ought to be doing in every committee. I hope by our 
ability to do this--frankly, the Appropriations Committee, in general, 
does so--we will be able to create a better America for all of our 
constituents.
  I thank the Chair and yield back all of my time.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I do, as well, Mr. President.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, we have already passed the resolution. 
When it comes from the House, we have deemed that it would be passed 
here.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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