June 10, 2009
Veterans Committee Approves Legislation; Buyer Perfecting Amendment to Advanced Appropriation Bill Included
For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence (202)-225-3527
Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approved the following eight bills and reported them all favorably to the House for consideration.
H.R. 1016, as amended, would provide for two-year advanced appropriations for certain Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) health care accounts. A perfecting amendment offered by Ranking Member Steve Buyer to include accounts for information technology and medical and prosthetic research was accepted by a vote of 17 to 8.
“I am pleased that this perfecting amendment was accepted,” said Buyer. “The impetus was the testimony of the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, who pointed out that VA’s information technology account is intertwined with the medical care accounts, and that funding them separately could create complications. My amendment also ensured medical and prosthetic research accounts were included, so that all VA health care accounts would be funded in the same manner.”
Buyer also proposed an amendment to authorize an advance quarterly appropriation of $15 billion, to provide discretion and flexibility to the Secretary for all discretionary accounts, including operating costs for benefits claims adjudication. This Buyer amendment was defeated by voice vote.
The Committee also approved the following bills by voice vote:
H.R. 952, as amended, the COMBAT Act, would broaden the definition of combat for purposes of establishing service-connection.
H.R. 1211,as amended the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act, would require VA to study the barriers and services for women veterans, provide staff training to better treat sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); establish a child care pilot program for certain veterans receiving care; and allow VA to provide care for a newborn of a woman veteran receiving VA maternity care.
H.R. 1172, as amended, introduced by Subcommittee Ranking Member John Boozman, requires VA to post a list of organizations that provide scholarships to veterans and their survivors on its website.
H.R. 1037, as amended, the Pilot College Work Study Programs for Veterans Act of 2009, would establish a five-year pilot project to test the feasibility and advisability of expanding the scope of veterans’ work-study activities.
H.R. 1098, as amended, the Veterans’ Worker Retraining Act of 2009, would increase the amount of VA educational assistance payments to individuals pursuing an apprenticeship or on-the-job training.
H.R. 1821, as amended, the Equity for Injured Veterans Act of 2009, would extend the period of eligibility for service-connected veterans to use vocational training and rehabilitation.
H.R. 2180 would exempt service-connected veterans from paying housing loan fees.
For more news from House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans, please go to:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/
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