[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10349-10354]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3230, PAY OUR GUARD AND RESERVE ACT

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 628, 
I offer a motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Miller of Florida moves that the House insist on its 
     amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3230 and request a 
     conference with the Senate thereon.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida is recognized for 
1 hour.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this motion is to authorize a 
conference to combine our two bills into something that is focused on 
the access

[[Page 10350]]

and accountability crisis that exists at VA.
  I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question 
on the motion.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Florida.
  The motion was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.


                           Motion to Instruct

  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Ms. Sinema moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill 
     H.R. 3230 (an Act to improve the access of veterans to 
     medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 
     for other purposes) be instructed to recede from the House 
     amendment and concur in the Senate amendment.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the 
gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Sinema) and the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Miller) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Arizona.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I offer this motion to instruct because 
veterans in Arizona and across the country need action from Congress 
and from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  Our motion instructs House conferees to accept the bipartisan bill, 
drafted by Senator John McCain and Senator Bernie Sanders and 
overwhelmingly approved by the Senate, so that we can immediately send 
a bill to the President's desk that will provide relief for our 
Nation's veterans.
  The revelations that veterans at the Phoenix VA and veterans at other 
VA facilities across the country were placed on secret lists and had to 
wait months before seeing a doctor are immoral, irresponsible, and un-
American. That veterans who served our country honorably may have died 
while waiting for care is unconscionable.
  Ongoing audits by the VA and the VA Office of Inspector General 
revealed systemic problems with wait times, with the scheduling 
process, and with the honesty and integrity of the system. Those 
responsible for this disaster must be held accountable.
  Many dedicated VA employees, many of them veterans themselves, work 
tirelessly to provide the best care to our veterans, but they are 
limited by this broken system, which is failing millions of our 
veterans.
  The first priority of the VA and Congress must be to provide our 
veterans the care they need. This challenge does not need a Democratic 
or a Republican response. It demands an American response, and I 
appreciate the bipartisan leadership and work of Chairman Miller and 
Ranking Member Michaud. In fact, I cosponsored and voted for both of 
Chairman Miller's bills.
  I supported bipartisan legislation to give the Secretary of the VA a 
greater ability to hold underperforming senior executives accountable 
and to fire managers, like those in Phoenix who manipulated wait times 
and put veterans at risk.
  I also supported bipartisan legislation directing the VA to use non-
VA community providers to cut those wait times and increase the 
capacity and capabilities of the VA health care system.
  In Phoenix, we have established a working group of community 
providers, veterans service organizations, and the local VA to work 
together to improve access to services.
  We joined with the American Legion to establish a veterans crisis 
center to provide service to our veterans, and I would say thank you to 
the American Legion for moving so quickly and working with our 
community.
  We have also started to fully utilize programs, like the Patient-
Centered Community Care contract, which cuts into wait times for 
specialty and mental health care at the Phoenix VA. A new contract for 
primary care should be in place by the end of this month, but more 
action is required.
  This conference should move quickly to accept the Senate language, 
which passed 93-3.
  In addition to the good provisions in the House bill to improve 
access and accountability, the Senate language directs the VA to hire 
more doctors and nurses. It invests in 26 new VA facilities.
  It provides for instate tuition for veterans, regardless of their 
home concept, a concept that the House overwhelmingly supported earlier 
this year. It extends post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits to surviving 
spouses of veterans who died in the line of duty. It improves access to 
health care for military sexual assault survivors. It was scored as 
costing less than the House bill.
  Both Republicans and Democrats want to provide the best possible care 
for our veterans and their families, and we want to move quickly to 
provide this care. That is why I urge my colleagues to accept this 
motion to instruct, so we can move a bill to the President's desk 
quickly, and we can provide the care and services our veterans have 
earned and deserve.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
might consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to instruct.
  As our committee works in a bipartisan fashion in an ongoing 
investigation of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we have continued 
to work and will continue to work in that bipartisan manner through 
legislation and aggressive oversight.
  Veterans are not a partisan issue and must remain as such. That is 
why I am a little bit confused about the motion to instruct that has 
been offered by my colleagues across the aisle today.
  With the vote that was just held to authorize us to go to conference, 
it would really not be prudent to prematurely direct our conferees to 
already recede to the Senate position before we even sit down and 
discuss whatever the matter that we may have with the Senate is.
  The House amendment contains the text of H.R. 4810 and H.R. 4031, 
which have both passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan 
majorities and could be taken up right now by the Senate and sent to 
the President today.
  Since it is clear that the Senate doesn't intend to do that, our only 
option is to go to conference so that both Chambers--the House and the 
Senate--can work together to smooth out the differences.
  I want to caution my colleagues that what we are dealing with right 
now is a very technical provision, a provision that will have a long-
lasting effect on VA and the manner in which veterans throughout the 
country receive the needed care that they have earned.
  The gravity of the issues before us and the differences in how we 
solve them does require that the House Members be given an opportunity 
to sit down face to face with our Senate colleagues, so that we might 
make sure that we get this right for our veterans and their families.
  I agree with a lot of the intent of many of the provisions in the 
legislation, but I do have some concerns. First, as the Senate bill is 
currently written, it provides an expedited appeal right for Senior 
Executive Service employees at VA who are fired by the new removal 
authority that is authorized by this bill.
  The House has already passed similar provisions in H.R. 4031, with 
appeal rights that follow exactly what we, as Members of Congress, have 
in regards to our congressional staff. While I am open to discussing 
appeal rights, I am concerned that the Senate bill really doesn't 
change the status quo and could, in fact, limit the Secretary's 
authority to remove poor-performing employees. In short, without 
accountability, reform will not be possible.
  Secondly, another major provision of the Senate bill would be to 
provide the authority for VA to hire additional doctors, nurses, and 
other medical personnel to provide and improve access.
  The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has heard multiple times, 
during the course of our investigation,

[[Page 10351]]

that one issue with VA's current policy on capacity and scheduling is 
that VA doctors do not see nearly enough patients in one day compared 
to doctors in the private sector.
  We need to ensure that VA health care staff and technology are used 
efficiently first, then address new hiring. Therefore, before Congress 
authorizes new funding for a whole new slew of medical personnel, I 
believe that VA managers must reexamine their current policies and see 
if they can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the personnel 
that are already in place.
  Finally, the Senate bill essentially gives the VA a blank check to 
fund the requirements of this bill. Again, in hearing after hearing, 
the committee heard from VA about their wasteful spending on IT 
programs, poorly managed contracts, large bonuses, extravagant 
conferences, and bloated bureaucracy.
  In short, this is not an agency for which Congress should be cutting 
a no-strings-attached blank check. It is imperative that Congress 
follow a more methodical, yet quick approach to funding new 
requirements which preserves Congress' oversight responsibility to 
protect taxpayer resources provided on behalf of America's veterans. 
This is the House position, and we ought to fight for it.
  Now, look, I don't doubt my colleague's sincerity to quickly and 
efficiently pass legislation to help address the countless issues that 
are facing the Department of Veterans Affairs today. However, the best 
way to do this and to ensure that all of the issues are on the table to 
work out our differences with the Senate is with a conference 
committee.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose the motion to instruct, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from 
Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick).
  Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the motion 
to instruct the conferees and ask that the conferees agree to the 
Senate amendments to H.R. 3230, the Veterans' Access to Care through 
Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014.
  I also ask that the conferees work with urgency to resolve the 
differences between the House and Senate bills. Veterans cannot 
continue to wait. They have already waited too long. We have a duty to 
do our job and act now.
  I introduced H.R. 4841, the companion legislation to the Senate-
passed legislation, because it addresses several of the issues that 
currently plague the VA health care system.
  This bill, sponsored by Senators Sanders and McCain, is good for 
veterans in my district, in Arizona, and veterans across this country. 
It contains provisions that are nearly identical to the House-passed 
legislation that I supported, including the expansion of non-VA care to 
veterans that cannot get timely appointment and granting the VA 
Secretary the authority to immediately fire high-level officials who 
are not doing their jobs.
  H.R. 4841 does more. It will provide for an expedited hiring of more 
doctors, nurses, and medical staff at understaffed VA medical hospitals 
and clinics across the country. It will allow the VA to lease 26 new 
medical facilities.
  It calls for an independent commission that will work to improve 
appointment scheduling, and it will improve access to health care for 
military sexual assault survivors. These additional measures are vital 
to address the access to care crisis in the VA health care system.
  In addition to addressing the VA's access to care crisis, Sanders-
McCain ensures that veterans using their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits 
receive instate tuition at public colleges and universities, and it 
extends post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to surviving spouses.
  Comprehensive legislation is needed to help our veterans. I think we 
can all agree that we must do everything we can to help those who have 
fought and sacrificed for us. Let's work together to get this 
legislation to the President as soon as possible.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Enyart), a veteran colleague.

                              {time}  1345

  Mr ENYART. I thank the gentlewoman.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a veteran and 35-year military member in 
support of swift action to remedy our veterans' health care concerns.
  As former commanding general of the Illinois National Guard, I have 
seen firsthand the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make each 
day, sacrifices that affect not only themselves, but their families, as 
well. That is why it didn't come as a surprise to me to see so many 
family members standing beside their veterans at the Marion, Illinois, 
VA hospital 2 weeks ago.
  I stopped by two facilities--one scheduled and one a complete 
surprise to the staff and administrators, a lesson learned from my days 
in the military. I wanted to see the true nature of the problem for 
myself. I didn't want to speak to administrators or to managers. More 
importantly, I wanted to speak to patients and to frontline workers.
  Although most of the veterans I spoke to received quality care, far 
too many spoke of burdensome paperwork and of delays. Although the 
southern Illinois facilities I visited have better-than-average wait 
times for patients, even one patient on a waiting list is too many. And 
although most of the staff that report daily to our Nation's VA 
facilities are competent, caring individuals, there are some who are 
not.
  That is why I support the two main goals of H.R. 3230, the Veterans 
Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 
2014. This act will ensure that administrators at VA facilities can be 
removed from power in a timely and swift manner if they are not doing 
their jobs. It will also provide veterans the opportunity to seek care 
at private health care facilities as needed.
  Join me in support of our veterans and the dire need to reform our VA 
health care system.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance 
of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Nevada (Ms. Titus), my colleague on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
  Ms. TITUS. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Democratic motion to instruct 
conferees. As a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I 
am working hard to ensure that veterans in Las Vegas and around the 
country have access to high-quality health care in a timely fashion.
  I believe the Sanders-McCain compromise bill that passed the Senate 
93-3 makes great strides towards meeting this goal. Specifically, I 
would like to highlight two provisions of the Sanders-McCain compromise 
that should be passed as soon as possible. Both pieces are legislation 
that I have introduced to help veterans and their families.
  The first is H.R. 3441, the Spouses of Heroes Education Act. This 
legislation amends the post-9/11 GI Bill to expand the Fry Scholarship 
by making surviving spouses of members of the armed services eligible 
for the benefit program. This scholarship provides full in-State 
tuition, fees, a monthly living stipend, and a book allowance to 
children of servicemembers who have died in the line of duty. And for 
the first time, this change would extend to spouses the same benefit.
  The second is H.R. 2527, the National Guard Military Sexual Trauma 
Parity Act, which would include extended counseling and treatment to 
servicemembers who have suffered sexual trauma while serving on 
inactive duty training. This legislation recently passed the House with 
unanimous bipartisan support.
  Other provisions addressing the claims backlog, access to non-VA 
health care, and reform of scheduling and personnel problems are also 
critical to include.
  So, as the conferees begin their work, it is important that we 
continue to keep the best interests of our Nation's heroes and their 
families in mind, that

[[Page 10352]]

we put aside partisan differences, and that we work expeditiously to 
try and solve the problems that we have discovered at the VA.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Castro).
  Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Thank you, Congresswoman.
  Mr. Speaker, my time is short, and so I want to cut to the chase. The 
United States of America should honor its veterans and stand up for 
them in the same way that they stood up for us during their time of 
service.
  Mr. Speaker, I had a chance, as have many other Members of Congress, 
to visit with the Acting Secretary of the VA about a week ago in San 
Antonio and also to meet with some of the veterans who were being 
served there at Audie Murphy. These are folks who served during the 
Vietnam war, Korea, and other times of conflict. These are folks who 
are very proud people who don't ask a lot from their country but who 
are there for care.
  Too often in Congress, we have been Monday morning quarterbacks 
rather than leaders on this issue. It was mentioned a bit earlier that 
veterans are not a partisan issue, and I agree with that. The problem 
in Washington these days is too often only partisan issues are the ones 
that get talked about. We have to take action as soon as we can to 
support our veterans and to make sure that the VA has the funding that 
it needs to do its job properly.
  There was a story that the Acting Secretary told about his visit to 
Phoenix. If I recall it right, he said that there was a neurosurgeon in 
the meeting that he had with staff who mentioned that, as he was about 
to go into the room for surgery, there were two X-ray machines that 
were not working in Phoenix, and those were the conditions that these 
folks were trying to work under and to serve our veterans. We need to 
make sure that small government inefficiency is not an excuse for doing 
right by our veterans. And so I support this legislation.
  I want to commend not only Chairman Miller on that committee, but 
also the Senators, Senators McCain and Sanders, who have come together 
to put aside party politics, and also thank my Democratic colleagues, 
Beto O'Rourke in Texas, and many fine people here in Congress who are 
working on this issue.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think the question that needs 
to be asked is why in the world, with an almost $160 billion budget, 
would there be two nonfunctioning machines inside a VA medical center? 
It just goes to show the incapability for the current bureaucracy that 
exists out there to do what they need to do.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Garcia).
  Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona.
  As a nation, we have a debt of gratitude to our veterans, a debt that 
will be very difficult to repay; but, nonetheless, we must make every 
effort to do so.
  Mr. Speaker, I spent the last few weeks meeting with veterans in my 
district and getting firsthand accounts of their experiences at the 
hospital as well as its supporting clinics in south Florida.
  While secret wait lists and months-long waits are inexcusable, it has 
become clear that the problems are much deeper than that. So many of my 
veterans felt that their concerns weren't being heard--and they were 
absolutely right. On top of the long waits for appointments with 
doctors, we heard about the need for better transportation, greater use 
of technology, reduced wait times and more convenient hours.
  Just this week, we held our first working group meeting in my 
district with local veterans as well as the director of the hospital 
and his administrative staff. It is an important step to a dialogue 
that is sorely needed.
  While we in Washington can wait and bicker about this issue and the 
ongoing relationship between us and the hospital system and the 
Veterans Administration, what there is no question about is that the 
time has come to solve this problem. We as a nation must renew our 
commitment to serve our veterans with the same dignity and respect with 
which they served us. It is the absolute least we can do. By 
instructing House conferees to accept the McCain-Sanders compromise, we 
can quickly get the bill to the President and get on with the business 
of ensuring every veteran gets the care and need they deserve.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think what is very curious is 
that if people would look at the bill that they are referring to today, 
that 80 percent of the text in that bill is already House-passed 
language. The Senate could pass that--could have passed that some time 
ago--and they have refused to do so. And now, all of a sudden, because 
it is wrapped up with a tiny little bow, it is the perfect piece of 
legislation.
  I don't believe that my colleagues are trying to imply that the 
bickering that takes place is not supporting the veterans. The House 
Committee on Veterans' Affairs has held 90 hearings in the 113th 
Congress. Over 50 of those are oversight hearings. The Senate has only 
held six oversight hearings. The House has been doing their job and has 
been doing it in a bipartisan fashion.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Miller, just know that folks on both 
sides of the aisle are very, very grateful for his leadership, in 
particular the research that was done to uncover the tragedy that 
occurred in the Phoenix VA in my district. So know that folks on both 
sides of the aisle here in the House are very, very grateful for the 
bipartisan nature in which the Veterans' Affairs Committee has 
conducted its affairs during his tenure, and we appreciate his 
leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Takano), my colleague who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
  Mr. TAKANO. I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona.
  Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to give praise to the gentleman from 
Florida, Chairman Miller, for the way in which he has conducted the 
hearings and conducted the business of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. 
In no way do we wish to imply that the House has not done its due 
diligence.
  As my colleagues have mentioned, the motion before us to instruct the 
House conferees to accept the bipartisan McCain-Sanders bill--and I 
want to emphasize it is a bipartisan bill--that passed the Senate by 93 
votes, would allow veterans to seek care outside the VA health care 
system if they face long wait times or if they live far from a VA 
medical facility. It also allows the VA to hire more doctors and nurses 
and authorizes leases for 26 new major VA facilities, which I do not 
believe the House language contains. It improves access to health care 
for military and sexual assault providers. Finally, it includes several 
nonhealth-related provisions, such as the provision of in-State tuition 
for all veterans at public colleges and universities. This is a 
provision that was authored by my friend, Mr. Miller.
  The revelation that numerous VA facilities manipulated data with 
respect to wait times is disturbing. It is even more disturbing to 
learn that those practices may have resulted in the deaths of dozens of 
our veterans.
  Our veterans have sacrificed so much, and we owe it to them to make 
sure that they receive the best possible care from a system that is 
accountable and transparent. I urge my colleagues to support the motion 
to instruct conferees.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to remind 
the Members here on the floor that H.R. 357, the in-State tuition and 
bonus elimination bill, passed the House by 390-0; H.R. 4031, the VA 
accountability bill, passed this House in a wide, bipartisan fashion, 
390-33; H.R. 4810, the access to care bill, passed this House 
unanimously, 400--we are hearing about 93-3? How about 426-0? Why don't 
we fight for what the House believes in once in a while around here 
instead of

[[Page 10353]]

giving up to the Senate? H.R. 3521, the VA clinics--27 clinics are 
authorized in our bill. That was a 347-1 vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Brownley), my colleague who serves on the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee and the ranking member on the Health Subcommittee.
  Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Speaker, thank you to the gentlewoman 
from Arizona.
  I rise to support the motion to instruct conferees. I grew up in a 
military home. I personally understand the sacrifices our 
servicemembers and their families make in service to our Nation. My 
father was the proudest marine, my brother was a P-3 pilot for 20 years 
in the Navy, and my uncle served in both World War II and Vietnam.
  When I was elected to Congress, I asked to serve on the House 
Veterans' Affairs Committee to represent our future veterans at Naval 
Base Ventura County and throughout our country to represent our current 
veterans that live in Ventura County and throughout the country, and to 
represent our military families who also commit to serve our Nation.
  One of the greatest pleasures of working on the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee is addressing the issues at hand in a bipartisan way, and I 
want to thank Chairman Miller for his leadership and Ranking Member 
Michaud because this committee has remained in a bipartisan mode to 
address these issues. Every week, we discuss innovative ways to improve 
access to good-paying jobs, how to strengthen education opportunities 
for our veterans, to reduce wait times for critical and fundamental 
health care, and much, much more.
  I was deeply honored when my colleagues elected me to serve as the 
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health to ensure our veterans' 
health needs are properly addressed, including improving access to 
traditional and mental health care.
  As my colleagues know, there is a lot of improvement that needs to 
take place at the VA. We have a sacred responsibility to those who 
serve our country in uniform. Just as the military leaves no one behind 
on the battlefield, we must leave no veteran behind when they come 
home.

                              {time}  1400

  The motion to instruct is the best path to completing a conference 
agreement to fix the long-term problems at the VA. Let's ensure we are 
serving our veterans as well as they have served us.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I remind my fellow colleagues in 
the Chamber today that there are 12 pieces of legislation that have 
passed our committee and this full House that await action in the 
United States Senate, and they continue to languish.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Brown), who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of the first words 
of the first President of the United States, George Washington, whose 
words are worth repeating at this time:

       The willingness with which our young people are likely to 
     serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly 
     proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier 
     wars were treated and appreciated by their country.

  I want to thank the chairman for his leadership. Those 90 hearings, I 
was at most of them. I know the House has done their work, whether it 
was here in Washington, D.C., or in the field and around the country. I 
am the senior member on the committee, having served on the committee 
for over 22 years.
  I have to remind the committee and this House that the problems with 
the veterans did not start today. They are long-term problems. I am 
pleased with the fact that I was on the committee when we passed the 
largest VA budget in the history of the United States.
  In addition to that, forward budgeting--which I thought would never 
happen, but the veterans have not caught up with the whims of the 
House, not passing this appropriation or not passing this 
authorization, so we know today what kind of veterans benefits that we 
are going to get.
  Many other veterans--in fact, over 99 percent of them say that they 
are very satisfied with the system. They love their VA system, but the 
key is that there are some problems, and we need to work in a 
bipartisan and bicameral fashion with the Senate to make sure that we 
address these challenges.
  I really do believe to whom God has given much, much is expected, and 
we have to make sure that the veterans get the care that we have 
promised them.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I remind my friends here that the 
whims of the Congress to not pass appropriation bills blows very strong 
over on the Senate side because the House passes its Military 
Construction-VA bill year in and year out. It was the Senate that chose 
not to pass any appropriation bills last year.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins of New York). The gentlewoman 
from Arizona has 9\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank all Members who have come to speak on this very 
important matter. This should be a bipartisan matter, and it has been 
in our committee and certainly in this entire House.
  I am still wondering why in the world we would just now vote to go to 
conference with the Senate on 80 percent of the bills that have already 
passed the House, and then we would turn around, and we would have a 
motion to instruct the conferees to just forget what the House said, 
take up the Senate bill.
  It doesn't make sense that we would do that. In a normal course of 
legislative business, this is the way the process works: the House, the 
Senate get together, and we work out the issues that concern all of us.
  I would ask the minority--or I would request the minority to not use 
this motion to instruct in one single political ad. I hope that I don't 
see this vote used in any political ads because our committee does 
things in a bipartisan fashion. Congressman Michaud and I have worked 
together diligently to keep the votes from becoming partisan.
  I cannot see any other reason to have the vote today on the motion to 
instruct conferees to accept the Senate-passed legislation after we 
have done the same thing in the House, passed the same bills in the 
House that they could take up on our side, yet we are going to cede to 
the Senate position.
  With that, I urge defeat of the motion to instruct.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member 
Michaud for their tremendous leadership and the work that they have 
done over the years to provide veterans with the best possible care, 
holding multiple hearings and passing a multitude of bipartisan bills. 
By working together, I know we can address this crisis and create a VA 
system that our veterans deserve.
  I urge our colleagues to support this motion to instruct, so we get a 
bill to the President's desk quickly. This is not the end of our work, 
but it is an important step forward to meet the needs of our veterans.
  I trust that Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, and the members 
of the conference committee will represent the interests of veterans 
very well in our conference committee.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is 
ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.

[[Page 10354]]


  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 198, 
nays 220, not voting 13, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 316]

                               YEAS--198

     Barber
     Barrow (GA)
     Bass
     Beatty
     Becerra
     Bera (CA)
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Blumenauer
     Bonamici
     Brady (PA)
     Braley (IA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brownley (CA)
     Bustos
     Butterfield
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardenas
     Carney
     Carson (IN)
     Cartwright
     Castor (FL)
     Castro (TX)
     Chu
     Cicilline
     Clark (MA)
     Clarke (NY)
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Connolly
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costa
     Courtney
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Cummings
     Davis (CA)
     Davis, Danny
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delaney
     DeLauro
     DelBene
     Deutch
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Doyle
     Duckworth
     Edwards
     Ellison
     Engel
     Enyart
     Eshoo
     Esty
     Farr
     Fattah
     Foster
     Frankel (FL)
     Fudge
     Gabbard
     Gallego
     Garamendi
     Garcia
     Gibson
     Grayson
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hahn
     Hanabusa
     Hastings (FL)
     Heck (WA)
     Higgins
     Himes
     Hinojosa
     Holt
     Honda
     Horsford
     Hoyer
     Huffman
     Israel
     Jackson Lee
     Jeffries
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Kaptur
     Keating
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kilmer
     Kind
     Kirkpatrick
     Kuster
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Lee (CA)
     Levin
     Lewis
     Lipinski
     Loebsack
     Lofgren
     Lowenthal
     Lowey
     Lujan Grisham (NM)
     Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
     Lynch
     Maffei
     Maloney, Carolyn
     Maloney, Sean
     Matheson
     Matsui
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCollum
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McIntyre
     McNerney
     Meeks
     Meng
     Michaud
     Miller, George
     Moore
     Moran
     Murphy (FL)
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Negrete McLeod
     Nolan
     O'Rourke
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor (AZ)
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Perlmutter
     Peters (CA)
     Peters (MI)
     Peterson
     Pingree (ME)
     Pocan
     Polis
     Price (NC)
     Quigley
     Rahall
     Richmond
     Rooney
     Roybal-Allard
     Ruiz
     Ruppersberger
     Rush
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sarbanes
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schneider
     Schrader
     Schwartz
     Scott (VA)
     Scott, David
     Serrano
     Sewell (AL)
     Shea-Porter
     Sherman
     Sinema
     Sires
     Slaughter
     Smith (WA)
     Speier
     Stockman
     Swalwell (CA)
     Takano
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tierney
     Titus
     Tonko
     Tsongas
     Van Hollen
     Vargas
     Veasey
     Vela
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Walz
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters
     Welch
     Wilson (FL)
     Yarmuth

                               NAYS--220

     Aderholt
     Amash
     Amodei
     Bachmann
     Bachus
     Barletta
     Barr
     Barton
     Benishek
     Bentivolio
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (UT)
     Black
     Blackburn
     Boustany
     Brady (TX)
     Bridenstine
     Brooks (AL)
     Brooks (IN)
     Broun (GA)
     Buchanan
     Bucshon
     Burgess
     Byrne
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Cantor
     Capito
     Carter
     Cassidy
     Chabot
     Chaffetz
     Coble
     Coffman
     Cole
     Collins (GA)
     Collins (NY)
     Conaway
     Cook
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crenshaw
     Culberson
     Daines
     Davis, Rodney
     Denham
     Dent
     DeSantis
     DesJarlais
     Diaz-Balart
     Duffy
     Duncan (SC)
     Duncan (TN)
     Ellmers
     Farenthold
     Fincher
     Fitzpatrick
     Fleischmann
     Fleming
     Flores
     Forbes
     Fortenberry
     Foxx
     Franks (AZ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gardner
     Garrett
     Gerlach
     Gibbs
     Gingrey (GA)
     Gohmert
     Gosar
     Gowdy
     Granger
     Graves (GA)
     Graves (MO)
     Griffin (AR)
     Griffith (VA)
     Grimm
     Guthrie
     Hall
     Harper
     Harris
     Hartzler
     Hastings (WA)
     Heck (NV)
     Hensarling
     Herrera Beutler
     Holding
     Hudson
     Huelskamp
     Huizenga (MI)
     Hultgren
     Hunter
     Hurt
     Issa
     Jenkins
     Johnson (OH)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jolly
     Jones
     Jordan
     Joyce
     Kelly (PA)
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kinzinger (IL)
     Kline
     Labrador
     LaMalfa
     Lamborn
     Lance
     Latham
     Latta
     LoBiondo
     Long
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     Lummis
     Marchant
     Marino
     Massie
     McAllister
     McCarthy (CA)
     McCaul
     McClintock
     McKeon
     McKinley
     McMorris Rodgers
     Meadows
     Meehan
     Messer
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Mullin
     Murphy (PA)
     Neugebauer
     Noem
     Nugent
     Nunes
     Olson
     Palazzo
     Paulsen
     Pearce
     Perry
     Petri
     Pittenger
     Pitts
     Pompeo
     Posey
     Price (GA)
     Reed
     Reichert
     Renacci
     Ribble
     Rice (SC)
     Rigell
     Roby
     Roe (TN)
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Rohrabacher
     Rokita
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Ross
     Rothfus
     Royce
     Runyan
     Ryan (WI)
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Scalise
     Schock
     Schweikert
     Scott, Austin
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Smith (MO)
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Southerland
     Stewart
     Stivers
     Stutzman
     Terry
     Thompson (PA)
     Thornberry
     Tiberi
     Tipton
     Turner
     Upton
     Valadao
     Wagner
     Walberg
     Walden
     Walorski
     Weber (TX)
     Webster (FL)
     Wenstrup
     Westmoreland
     Whitfield
     Williams
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Wolf
     Womack
     Woodall
     Yoder
     Yoho
     Young (AK)
     Young (IN)

                             NOT VOTING--13

     Crawford
     Goodlatte
     Hanna
     Kelly (IL)
     Lankford
     McHenry
     Miller, Gary
     Mulvaney
     Nunnelee
     Poe (TX)
     Rangel
     Ryan (OH)
     Waxman

                              {time}  1441

  Messrs. LUCAS, JORDAN, BUCSHON, LATTA, UPTON, LaMALFA, TERRY, POSEY, 
SIMPSON, SESSIONS, ROSKAM, and FLEMING changed their vote from ``yea'' 
to ``nay.''
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California and Mrs. BEATTY changed their vote 
from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
  So the motion to instruct was rejected.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.


                          personal explanation

  Mr. HANNA. Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, I was absent and 
missed rollcall votes Nos. 315 and 316. Had I been present, I would 
have voted: rollcall 315--``yea,'' rollcall 316--``nay.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Webster of Florida). Without objection, 
the Chair appoints the following conferees on H.R. 3230:
  For consideration of the House amendment and the Senate amendment, 
and modifications committed to conference:
  Messrs. Miller of Florida, Lamborn, Roe of Tennessee, Flores, 
Benishek, Coffman, Wenstrup, Mrs. Walorski, Mr. Michaud, Ms. Brown of 
Florida, Mr. Takano, Ms. Brownley of California, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, and 
Mr. Walz.
  There was no objection.

                          ____________________