Appropriations Bills

Obey Motion Instructs Interior Conferees to Include $1.5 billion for Veterans Healthcare

WASHINGTON –
Today, Rep. David Obey, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee pushed the House to fund $1.5 billion the Department of Veterans Affairs needs for veterans healthcare this year.

Last month the Bush Administration admitted they had not requested sufficient funds for veterans healthcare. The Senate attached $1.5 billion for veterans healthcare to the Interior Appropriations bill. Obey offered a motion to instruct House conferees to the Interior bill to agree to the Senate number. Conferees meet later today. Obey’s motion passed by a vote of 426 to 0.

Rep. Obey, delivered the following statement on the House Floor:

“Mr. Chairman, for the past three years a number of us on this side of the aisle, including Mr. Edwards from Texas, myself and several others, have tried to bring the Administration to the realization that we needed many more dollars in the veterans’ healthcare fund than they were requesting each year. Each year we have been able to drag them a little bit toward that goal, but we have not been able to drag them far enough.”

“As a result we have heard many, many horror stories.”

“We have heard that thousands of patients have had to wait more than three months for appointments in California. We have heard that in states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the VA has stopped scheduling appointments for many veterans who are eligible for care. We have heard of six month delays for emergency surgery in Oregon. We have heard that facilities have had to erect scaffolding to protect patients and staff from falling bricks in Maine. We have heard that a medical center in Vermont has major shortfalls in their prosthetics budget.”

“We have been told that doctors have had to pilfer supplies from neighboring hospitals to carry out routine procedures in Illinois, and we have been told that the life safety improvements, like replacing fire alarms, have been postponed as the funds are being used to cover operating expenses in states like California.”

”And yet, in the face of stories like that, in April, the VA secretary, Secretary Nicholson, told the Congress that no additional funds would be needed for fiscal year 2005. But by the end of June he had to admit that there was a big problem, and he then testified that an additional $975 million dollars was needed. Two weeks later, the problem in their eyes got even bigger, OMB asked for yet another $300 million for fiscal 2005, so they are admitting a $1.3 billion shortfall right now.”

“And the numbers look worse for the coming fiscal year. The VA has already amended their $20 billion medical care budget request for an additional $1.7 billion. That doesn’t count the additional $500 million they will need, because I doubt that many members want to go along with the Administration’s proposal to raise the veterans’ healthcare fees and co-op pays as has been suggested by the Administration.”

“I would hope that by now every member realizes that we have a VA healthcare crisis and we have to deal with it right now.”

“The other body did the right thing in the Interior bill. They provided $1.5 billion of emergency money for the VA. That would cover the immediate $975 million shortfall and provide an additional $525 million that could be distributed among the VA regions to take care of the sorts of problems that each of us have been hearing about.”

“In my view some members of this House have paid a very high price for speaking out on behalf of our veterans. We saw earlier this year news stories that reported that the Majority Caucus removed the member who chaired the committee in charge of veterans’ funding because he had been too insistent in agreeing with those of us on this side of the aisle who had kept insisting that we needed more funding for veterans’ healthcare. I would hope it will be recognized that he was right, that we were right, not just about yesterday’s problems, but about today’s and tomorrow’s with respect to Veterans’ healthcare.”

“I would simply urge each and every member of this House to vote for this motion.”

“This money is going to be provided, it is just a question of how many times we have to hit the House along side the head, before, like a stubborn donkey, they finally recognize that something needs to be done.”

“The reality is here, it would be nice if we faced up to it.”

# # #