[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6166]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SUPPORTING OUR VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Zeldin) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ZELDIN. Mr. Speaker, as a nation, supporting our veterans must 
always be one of our highest priorities. These brave men and women who 
willingly and selflessly put their lives on the line while defending 
our country deserve the highest quality of life and care once they 
return home.
  According to the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency, there are 
83,254 veterans who live in my home county of Suffolk. With the highest 
population of veterans by county in New York State and one of the 
highest populations in the country, there is a significant need for 
increased care options for our veterans in Suffolk.
  There are so many options of quality care for veterans, but too often 
their choices are limited. Quality care can also come at great expense.
  In an effort to expand access to care for our veterans, I recently 
introduced bipartisan legislation in Congress, H.R. 2460, which would 
ensure that 70 percent or more service-connected disabled veterans are 
able to receive adult day health care, a daily program for disabled 
veterans who need extra assistance and special attention in their day-
to-day lives. It comes at no cost to the veterans and their families 
because the program is defined as a reimbursable treatment option 
through the Department of Veterans Affairs. This legislation has strong 
bipartisan support in Congress, with over 45 cosponsors, including the 
entire Long Island congressional delegation. My bill would greatly 
expand this great option of care for veterans on Long Island and across 
the country.
  Just last month, on April 20, 2016, the House Veterans' Affairs 
Committee hosted a hearing of the Subcommittee on Health regarding my 
bill, and on April 29, 2016, the Health Subcommittee held a markup and 
favorably forwarded my bill to the full committee for final 
consideration before being sent to the House floor for a vote.
  Working with my colleagues in the House and various veterans service 
organizations, I will continue pushing to get this bill passed out of 
committee in earnest to allow this bill to come to the House floor this 
year.
  While serving in the New York State Senate, I secured the funding 
necessary to create the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Program, a peer-to-peer 
support program for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress 
disorder and traumatic brain injury. PFC Dwyer, from Mount Sinai, New 
York, received nationwide recognition for a photograph that went viral 
showing him cradling a wounded Iraqi boy while his unit was fighting 
its way up to the capital city of Baghdad. Sadly, after returning home 
and struggling with PTSD, PFC Dwyer died in 2008. Created in his honor, 
the Dwyer Program was initially launched in the counties of Suffolk, 
Jefferson, Saratoga, and Rensselaer. Since 2013, the program has 
expanded to over a dozen counties across New York.
  Earlier this year, I introduced bipartisan legislation in Congress, 
H.R. 4513, that will expand the Dwyer Program on a national level so 
that every veteran in the U.S. eventually has access to a peer-to-peer 
support group. This bill has strong bipartisan support, including the 
entire Long Island congressional delegation. I will continue working 
together with them and others in the fight to expand the Dwyer Program.
  Additionally, on the east end of Long Island, working closely with 
the Peconic Bay Medical Center and VA, I secured an east end healthcare 
facility for veterans and their families at Peconic Bay's Manorville 
campus.
  After so bravely serving our country, this facility provides an 
important new option for veterans, increasing access to care for those 
who live on Long Island's east end, while still allowing them to 
continue receiving other services and ongoing treatment at the VA 
hospital in Northport.

                              {time}  1015

  There is so much more that Congress can do to improve the quality of 
life for our veterans. I will continue working to ensure that my bills 
that previously passed the House are signed into law, including H.R. 
1569, to protect the benefits of deceased veterans, and H.R. 1187, 
which would eliminate the loan limit that the VA can guarantee for a 
veteran.
  Congress also must continue to reform the VA wherever it underserves 
a veteran. A recent series of USA Today articles reported that VA 
supervisors in multiple States instructed employees to falsify wait 
times. They must be held accountable. This is a slap in the face to our 
vets.
  Just last year the House took a step forward by passing the VA 
Accountability Act of 2015, H.R. 1994, legislation that I cosponsored 
that would make important reforms to the VA system, which will provide 
the necessary resources and the flexibility the VA needs to hold poor-
performing employees accountable.
  While I believe that the VA has 99 percent of employees generally 
caring about the work they do and want to help veterans, we must always 
ensure that the other 1 percent of those who are not acting in the best 
interest of veterans are held accountable. Our veterans deserve only 
the highest quality of care at our VA facilities.
  Fighting for our veterans who fought for us always has been and will 
always be one of my top priorities. I will continue my work in Congress 
to improve our veterans' quality of care in any way that I can.

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