[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 5993-5994]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 IT IS SILLY SEASON IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Jolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOLLY. Mr. Speaker, it is silly season again in Washington. It is 
that time of year when we have our annual budget debates and when we 
realize that only in Washington can an increase actually be considered 
a decrease.
  Later today, we will vote on a bill to fund the Department of 
Veterans Affairs. That bill increases the Department's funding in real 
dollars from last year by 5.6 percent, and yet, my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle claim it is a decrease, when, in fact, it is 
the highest level of VA funding ever provided to the Department.
  But even worse, we have a Secretary of Veterans Affairs who is 
peddling this same intellectually dishonest line as well, the Secretary 
of a department in which negligence in the past year contributed to the 
deaths of veterans. Those are the words confirmed by the Office of the 
Inspector General.
  And yet, despite the failure of the Department, the Secretary, 
earlier this week, had the audacity to go behind closed doors with 
members of only one party and claim that somehow the 6 percent increase 
being provided by our committee will, in fact, further the VA's 
failures of the past.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, the Secretary has exhibited a level of audacity 
only seen in Washington. If we are honest, it is an audacity that 
reflects a style of leadership likely to fail--fail the VA, but most 
importantly, it is going to fail veterans across the United States 
because, you see, here is the real story.
  We still have hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for health 
care and for benefits. We know there is malfeasance in VA construction, 
and we know the VA continues to declare veterans and dependents dead 
when they are, in fact, alive. But here is the most important and the 
most offensive part of the Secretary's messaging: in the midst of all 
this, this body has actually continued to trust the Secretary.
  You see, when the VA Secretary came before our subcommittee, I asked 
him, point blank: What will it take to clear the veterans' benefits 
backlog? And he said: Resources. We need over 700 more employees. We 
need an increase in resources.
  Now, I question that. I will be honest. I think there is a culture 
that has

[[Page 5994]]

changed. I think we need infrastructure and IT that has to change. But 
he said resources, and so we trusted him. Our bill provides full 
funding for his request to clear the backlog, and yet he continues to 
say that our side of the aisle somehow, in providing the request that 
he made of our subcommittee, is going to fail his administration.
  It is a despicable display of partisanship at the helm of a 
department that has no place for partisanship. And so a department that 
last year was defined not by its successes but by its failures is now 
needlessly defined by its politics.
  And you know the one thing the Secretary did not ask for? Additional 
funding for the Office of the Inspector General, the office that 
uncovered the negligence, that reported to Congress on the negligence. 
Zero increase in funding was requested. So our subcommittee stepped in 
and we provided an additional $5 million for that office.
  Now, very importantly, we have to acknowledge that this gamesmanship, 
this leadership failure, should not reflect on the men and women who 
serve our veterans on the front lines every day. We have great men and 
women who serve in the VHA and the VBA. I have had the opportunity to 
visit with them.
  Just last week, at our local VA hospital, an elderly veteran was 
brought to tears telling me how much he appreciated the loving care he 
was receiving from the employees of the hospital. We must acknowledge 
their service, their contribution, every day, just as we acknowledge 
the failure of leadership in Washington, D.C.
  So you see, this week's dysfunction, this week's intellectually 
creative dishonesty, this week's audacity is just Washington ``small 
ball'' peddled by this administration, but with real consequences that 
undermine the confidence of the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, only in Washington is a 5.6 percent increase actually a 
decrease. It is appropriations season. It is, indeed, silly season 
again in Washington, D.C.

                          ____________________