Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2861) making appropriations for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry independent agencies, boards, commissions, corporations, and offices for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2861, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to bring before the House today H.R. 2861, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act for 2004.

Prior to proceeding, Mr. Chairman, in discussing the bill before us, I would like to offer my sincere recognition and thanks to my ranking member, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan), for his help in bringing this bill to the floor. He and I have forged a strong relationship over the last 5 years working on this bill. I feel the result reflects most of our shared priorities. We consulted during hearings during the formation of the bill, during markups, and his advice has been remarkable and we would not be here if we had not had it.

I would also like to thank and recognize the staff on both sides of the aisle for their hard work and assistance. My personal thanks to Tim Peterson, the clerk of the subcommittee; Dena Baron; Jennifer Whitson; Jennifer Miller; and Doug Disrud on the majority side, and to Michelle Burkette, Mike Stephens, and Jerry Johnson for the minority.

I would also like to express my appreciation to Gavin Clingham and Angela Ohm on the gentleman from West Virginia's (Mr. Mollohan) personal staff, as well as Ron Anderson and Art Jutton on my personal staff for their assistance in getting this bill to this point in the process.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to just sum up briefly the bill. Most of the attention has been focused on the veterans portion, and I will address that at the end. In housing, we have provided an increase of about close to $1 billion to provide for full funding for section 8 housing vouchers. There are no new incremental vouchers, but we have fully funded the existing vouchers that include vouchers that are targeted for housing for people with AIDS. It is also for disabled individuals in our society. So those are dedicated funds, and they will continue to flow.

In the Environmental Protection Agency, we provided approximately $8 billion, and I think we have done a good job in continuing the progress that we have made in protecting the environment; and we do expect several amendments in that area of the bill, some of which we will accept.

In NASA, NASA really is a status quo budget, pending the outcome and the release of the Gehman Commission report. We expect that that report will have profound implications for NASA, and we expect that the administration, once that report is available, will come forward and express their views to us, which may result in additional supplemental expenditures depending on what the report says, but we do await that report.

The National Science Foundation, the Congress is on record as requesting that we double the National Science Foundation in 5 years. We cannot keep that pace, although in the past we have done close to double-digit increases in the past 3 or 4 years in NSF; and I think the subcommittee has shown great leadership in supporting the investment in the new technologies, information technologies and others that this country leads the world in. We will have a 5 percent increase, which I think given our allocation is a remarkable commitment to our scientific community. These are all peer reviewed, non-earmarked funds. So they encourage some of our finest educational institutions across the country and our finest young people.

Lastly, the veterans budget, which has been the focus of most of the discussion so far. Mr. Chairman, we have increased veterans medical care by approximately $1.3 billion over last year. It is about a 6 percent increase in medical care. We have provided about $1 billion increase in the mandatory portion of the bill which is veterans benefits. It is a $2.5 billion increase.

We were asked to provide additional funds to veterans. We were unable to do that, given the allocation that we had. It is an increase, it is a substantial increase, but it is not a record increase similar to what we provided 2 years ago and then again last year. But, in fact, this subcommittee has increased the veterans budget and the medical care side by close to 50 percent in the last 5 years. So since 1998, close to a 50 percent increase in veterans medical care. The difficulty is that the number of customers, the number of patients that we have had at the veterans hospitals has outstripped those increases.

The Congress has tried diligently and this has been the number one priority of the subcommittee to fully fund veterans health care, and we are trying. It is pretty clear by the discussion that Members expect us to provide more, veterans expect us to provide more, veterans service agencies expect us to provide more.

This is not the end of the process. The process continues after this bill is hopefully passed today. We have to go to conference with the Senate. And I pledge to work with the minority, with the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan), with our Republican leadership, the leadership of the House, and with the Senate to find any way we can to improve the funding for veterans medical care and at the same time looking down the road at things that the Congress can do to improve the situation by making administrative decisions to bring veterans in through the process more quickly, to take some of the pressure off the prescription drug problem by passing a prescription drug benefit for all Americans, by looking at the Medicare subvention issue which would allow veterans to use their Medicare payments to pay for going to the veterans hospital.

There are a number of things we can do. We cannot do them all in this bill, but I do pledge to continue to work to try to improve the situation as we go towards the conference.

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Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Mr. Chairman, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. We are prepared to accept the amendment. I thank the gentleman for his diligence, and we think this will help the bill.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My amendment would strike three provisions in the bill which are legislative in nature, and I have been asked to do this by the relevant authorization committee Chairs, and I would ask for the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order against the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve my point of order.

Mr. Chairman, I make a point of order against the amendment because it is in violation of section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The Committee on Appropriations filed a suballocation of budget totals for fiscal year 2004 on July 22 of this year. This amendment would provide new budget authority in excess of the subcommittee suballocation made under section 302(b) and is not permitted under section 302(f) of this act.

I ask for a ruling of the Chair.

Mr. Chairman, we have reviewed the amendment, we think it helps the bill, and we are prepared to accept it.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment adds another bureaucratic arm to the Veterans Administration by creating a new assistant secretary. This function, the function of emergency preparedness, is already under the Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning. Emergency activities are well planned, managed and executed under the current arrangement.

Another part of this amendment takes money away from regular medical care. We just heard some debate about the cost of medical care and the need for additional funds for medical care. This would take money out of medical care to create these new crisis centers.

I believe the money should be prioritized to treating sick veterans. That is the mission of the Veterans Health Administration, and the focus should remain there.

Emergency response and research centers and activities are already funded under the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and Health and Human Services, where they rightly belong. I would urge a strong ``no'' vote on this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and a combat veteran.

Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in reluctant opposition to my good friend and colleague and classmate, the gentleman from Florida's amendment. This is a small amount of money, but I think it would be significant either for AmeriCorps or for VA research. There are a lot of really tough choices in this bill. The gentleman from Florida has created for us another. But I would urge that we resist the temptation to move this money from AmeriCorps into veterans. We are talking about a program in AmeriCorps that has had its problems; but I think it is pretty clear, in the discussion that we had in committee and on the floor of the House regarding the supplemental, that there is broad support for AmeriCorps. These are young people who are idealistic, altruistic, energetic. They want to serve their country, too. I think we owe that to them. I think it is something the government should be involved with, in supporting that activity.

The discussion has been somewhat about the fact that they are paid volunteers. What they are paid is minimum wage. They often live in communities outside of their home so they have to pay rent. They have to pay for food. The only way that they can meet their obligations is by getting paid. But clearly they are volunteering their time and that year of their life to serve their country. I think that should be continued and rewarded. The program AmeriCorps is a priority program for this Congress. We have said that time and time again. It is a priority for the President of the United States. He has asked us to increase funding. We have increased funding in the 2004 request. I would urge Members to give this some thought. We are talking about a very difficult choice between veterans health and AmeriCorps, but this money is needed in AmeriCorps.

I would urge Members to vote ``no'' on the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I again urge a ``no'' vote on the gentleman's amendment. I respectfully disagree. I urge that the House oppose the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. Chairman, we would be happy to accept the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

I yield to the distinguished gentlemen from New York (Mr. Boehlert), my neighbor and colleague, for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, yes, I agree. NSF needs to make implementation of the Cybersecurity Research and Development Act a priority.

Mr. Chairman, I concur.

Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his leadership in the Committee on Science.

Amendment No. 15 Offered by Mr. Sanders

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlemen from Pennsylvania and Vermont for the amendment, and we are prepared to accept the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. We have looked at the amendment. We compared it to what EPA's position is. We are very confident that the EPA has made it very clear that it will not use statistical analysis that devalues the lives of older people, that that was the right decision.

The gentleman's language is perfectly acceptable, and I have no objection to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

We do agree. It is a good amendment, it helps the bill, and this is a worthy goal for the Veterans Administration; and we endorse the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this Member offers his strong support for H.R. 2861, the Veterans Affairs (VA)/Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Appropriations Act for FY2004. This Member would like to thank the chairman of the VA/HUD appropriations subcommittee, the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) and the ranking member of the subcommittee, the distinguished gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan) for their dedication to crafting this measure.

1. Department of Veterans Administration (VA)

This measure provides $60.7 billion for veterans programs including $27.2 billion for veterans health care. Although H.R. 2861 does not provide veterans funding equal to the levels authorized in the FY2004 congressional budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 95), the funding levels in H.R. 2861 exceed not only FY2003 appropriation levels by 5 percent but also the Administration's budget request. (This Member would remind his colleagues what he reminds his constituents about the congressional budget process--the levels in the budget resolution are a framework as Congress determines actual funding levels. Of course, the actual funding levels are determined through the annual appropriations process.)

Mr. Chairman, it is simply not true that, as often recently alleged by numerous sources, the Federal Government is cutting back on financial support for veterans' health care or that Congress or recent presidents are not supportive of veterans. Each year, Congress sets new records on the amount of appropriations for veterans' health care, not only because of higher health care costs but also due to a huge bulge of WWII and Korean War veterans who are understandably making larger demands for health care because of their age, plus a very large number of Vietnam War and other veterans who require medical care. During 2002, approximately 4.7 million individual veterans received VA medical care. Outpatient visits are increasing rapidly, with 43.8 million visits last year. Both the general VA inpatient caseload and acute care cases are also increasing, with the daily inpatient caseload projected to be over 57,000 and the acute care up 2,700 over last year. Yet thousands of veterans are on waiting lists for medical care, after waiting months for appointments to see medical staff.

Between FY1998 and FY2003, the appropriation has increased 4 percent, an increase nearly six times greater than the average increase of federal domestic programs. The appropriation for VA medical care in fiscal year 2003 jumped to $23.8 billion--$1.1 billion more than the President's request. Each year, the President asks for a far larger increase than in almost any other domestic program, and each year the Congress exceeds that request. In his budget request for FY2004, for example, the President has requested $25.2 billion for VA medical care.

Mr. Chairman, the health care needs of military veterans must be met to the fullest extent possible, and this Member is committed to continuing to see that veterans receive the benefits they deserve with the resources available. Veterans fought to protect our freedom and way of life. As they served this nation in a time of need, the Federal Government must remember them in their time of need. The people of the U.S. owe veterans a great deal and should keep the promises made to them. Voting for H.R. 2861 is an important step in keeping those promises.

2. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Economic

Development Initiative

This Member is pleased and appreciative that $450,000 is appropriated in this bill as a HUD Economic Development Initiative (EDI) for Falls City, Nebraska. This appropriation, which could be used for economic development and job creation, represents a continuation of my efforts for Falls City. In the FY2003 appropriations bill, $526,500 was earmarked as a CDBG EDI for the renovation of a Falls City business industry incubator building which is necessary for job creation.

Falls City is a community in extreme Southeast Nebraska, an area of the state with serious economic needs. For example, 51 percent of Falls City's population is categorized as either low or low-moderate income. Moreover, continuing a forty-year trend, the population of the City again has declined by 3.2 percent from 1990 to 2000. In addition, in July of 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated Richardson County, of which Falls City is the county seat, as a county in severe economic distress. As a result, this funding request for infrastructure is needed to help maintain the economic viability of Falls City.

This is the largest community and employment center in a four-county region that needs economic stimulation: very recent job losses have accentuated the problems; and this community and area really needs the help.

3. Missouri River Sanitary Sewer Connection Between Nebraska and Iowa--

$400,000

This Member greatly appreciates the inclusion in the bill of $400,000 toward the construction of a sanitary sewer connection across the Missouri River which is the boundary between Nebraska and Iowa. This new connector is a very immediate need for the community of South Sioux City, Nebraska, and a much more cost-effective approach than adding to a separate sewage treatment program in this Nebraska suburb of Sioux City, Iowa.

The existing connection is 40 years old and early last year, the trunk sewer carrying sewage between South Sioux City to the treatment plant in Sioux City, Iowa, broke, For several weeks, about 1.6 million gallons of raw sewage each day was dumped into the Missouri River. The sewer connector was eventually replaced, but the incident highlighted the need for a second connector. The new trunk line connector proposed is to be located south of the city. It would provide a more direct link to the regional sewage treatment plant in Sioux City.

Since the original sewer pipe was installed in the early 1960s, South Sioux City's population has increased more than 60 percent. Also, the community's industrial base (with difficult treatment requirements) continues to grow, which places an additional burden on the sewer system. In an effort to meet the growing needs for an improved sewer system, the city's residents have seen significant rate increases over the past several years, including a 27 percent jump in 2001 and a 37 percent jump in 2002. It is now clear that Federal assistance is necessary to assist this municipality meet this unusual and expensive infrastructure project.

4. Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Program

This Member commends the support for the Section 184, American Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Program. An amount of $5.3 million is appropriated for FY2004 for the Section 184 program which, it is estimated, would guarantee up to $197.2 million in commercial loans for Indian families who would otherwise be unable to secure conventional financing due to the trust status of Indian reservation land. As the author of the Section 184 program, this Member strongly supports this innovative program.

This Member is particularly supportive of this funding level in light of the Administration's inadequate request of $1 million for the Section 184 loan guarantee program for FY2004 . Unfortunately, the Administration's request for FY2004 is projected to only guarantee up to $27.5 million of commercial home lands for American Indians.

The Administration's inadequate request for the Section 184 program is also inconsistent with the Indian Lands Title Report Commission which was authorized into law in year 2000. In some parts of the country and on some Indian reservations, the Section 184 program is bringing results, while on others it is stymied. This can be attributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) apparent inability to oversee and track the leases and the rights in trust-held land which continues to inhibit mortgage loans on American Indian reservations.

To help solve this problem, the Indian Lands Title Report Commission was authorized to study the system of the BIA for maintaining land ownership records, title documents, and title status reports. Subsequently, Congress or the Executive Branch will be able to use the findings from this one-year commission to eliminate any BIA/HUD national or regional problems or barriers remaining to the use of Section 184 Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Program on American Indian reservations.

5. Rural Housing Efforts by HUD

This Member also would note his disappointment with the fact that the $25 million which is appropriated for the Office of Rural Housing and Economic Development in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in this appropriations bill. This Member testified earlier this year and also last year before the Veterans, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, that HUD should not be the source of funding rural housing and rural economic development projects. Although this Member has been and remains a strong and long-term advocate of rural housing and rural development during my tenure in the House, he believes that we need to avoid inappropriate duplication in the efforts of the Federal Government in rural housing and economic development. This Member supports the full funding (and even larger funding) of rural housing and economic development programs through the Rural Development offices of the United States Department of Agriculture. This is the agency that has the real interest and expertise to make such programs work in the more rural parts of non-metropolitan America; HUD doesn't.

6. AmeriCorps Funding

This Member is concerned about AmeriCorps funding. The bill provides a 25-percent increase in funds over FY2003. Indeed, including the $64 million in the first supplemental appropriation passed in April, there is still a slight increase over last year. However, this amount is still inadequate to deal with the results of the bad management decisions that have occurred possibly since the very beginning of the program.

As a long-time AmeriCorps supporter and one of 19 original Republican cosponsors which created this program in 1993, this Member is disappointed to say that the administrative incompetence at the national level of AmeriCorps is largely responsible for creating the current situation. For example, it is amazing and totally unacceptable that AmeriCorps could not even provide an accurate count of the number of participants when asked. Instead, a very faulty and under-estimated count was provided to the Congress which then was used to establish what seemed a reasonable employee cap of 50,000 participants. A basic requirement of proper program administration, at least, is to know the number of people employed by the organization. Another problem is that the AmeriCorps drop-out rate was grossly over-estimated in allocating sufficient educational trust funds.

Real reforms must happen in this program that provides such excellent opportunities for thousands of people around the United States. This Member is hopeful that significant improvements can be made in a reauthorization bill before the end of the year.

Mr. Chairman, in closing, this Member urges his colleagues to vote in support of this important bill.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

It is the medical care amendment. I have two, Mr. Chairman, and this would be the first one.

Since they are very similar, Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent they be considered en bloc with the time allotted. We could dispose of both of them at the same time.

Never mind, do them one at a time.

The amendment would seek to add $1.8 billion to the medical care budget.

I offered two amendments last night, Mr. Chairman, or asked that two be made in order at the Committee on Rules, and I submitted 50 copies of each to the Committee on Rules, so there should be at least one copy.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, despite significant and sustained efforts by Secretary Principi and the VA to boost effectiveness and efficiencies in the VA health care delivery; despite enhanced DOD-VA sharing of resources, individual facilities, administration, and pharmaceuticals; despite improved collections from individual veterans' insurance companies, and as a matter of fact my committee passed legislation that will boost that even further, and collections are up 70 percent since fiscal year 2001; despite an ongoing crackdown of waste, fraud, and abuse by the VA, and I point out that PL 107-103, one of my bills, goes after fugitive felons and we expect to glean about $209 million per year by recapturing those dollars; despite all of this and increases in the VA health care funding over the past few years, there remains what President Bush's 15-member task force calls a serious mismatch between need and resources.

After 2 years of vigorous investigation and analysis, President Bush's task force, and I would invite every Member to read the Bush task force report, it was co-chaired by Dr. Gail Wilensky and John Paul Hammersmith, the former ranking member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and before then by Congressman Solomon, who has regrettably passed away, but was an outstanding man and lawmaker, and he was co- chair before passing away. This task force found, and I quote, ``that funding provided through the authorization in the appropriations process for VA health care

delivery has not kept pace with demand.''

There are reasons for it, of course. Since 1996, we have seen some 600 new outpatient clinics created. So there are feeder points. Our men and women, either in their wheelchairs or by their feet, are walking into VA health care facilities and getting the kind of care they need; we have seen a 70 percent increase in unique users, new patients since 1996.

The Bush task force pointed out, and I think it needs to be underscored, that there is a significant core underfunding. And you have to read this report because it talks about doing everything humanly possible, realizing every synergy, every efficiency; but when all is said and done, there is still this significant shortfall that needs to be breached by appropriated dollars.

And, of course, one of the outcomes of not having sufficient money is that many of our veterans wait unconscionably long periods in order to get the care they need. The task force found a snapshot in January: 236,000 veterans waiting 6 months or longer to get a first visit or a follow-up visit to their doctor.

An individual can get awfully sick and awfully diseased waiting that long to get health care. And I would respectfully submit that our veterans get sicker and more diseased by that inattention. We can close that gap by providing the proper amount of money.

Let me just say to my colleagues, as well, that last night I went to the Committee on Rules, joined by my good friend, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), the chairman of our Subcommittee on Health; the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), the two ranking members of the full committee and the Subcommittee on Health, and asked that this amendment be made in order to add back $1.8 billion.

What are we talking about? That is the number that was in the House- and Senate-passed congressional budget resolution, $27 billion for medical care, so that we meet the needs of our veterans for fiscal year 2004. Sadly, we were turned down.

What is the predictable outcome? I would respectfully submit it will be an awful outcome if we do not provide these resources. The VA has given us an indication, a blueprint, if you will, of 1.2 million veterans being disenrolled. 1.2 million, every State of the Union, men and women currently enrolled will no longer be enrolled. Five thousand nursing home beds for the spinal cord injury patients and others who have very highly skilled needs will be idled, will be done away with if we do not add back this $1.8 billion.

This is a very significant need, I would say to my colleagues, especially at a time when we are at war in Iraq. The war is over, but we have deployments and people are still getting injured and even killed. We need, in a bipartisan way, to step up to the plate and provide this necessary money.

And I would say to my colleagues with regret and with respect for the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member, that I will be voting ``no'' on final passage of this bill, and, hopefully, we will go back to committee, get this funding problem solved there and do this right.

I yield to the gentleman from Vermont.

Mr. Chairman, parliamentary inquiry.

Earlier on the amendment I called up regarding the $1.8 billion add-back, there were two amendments. I asked that they be considered en bloc. It was objected to by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) so they stayed separate, but we were allocated only 5 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I would ask unanimous consent for those additional 5 minutes to hear from a few Members who were precluded from speaking.

Mr. Chairman, further on my parliamentary inquiry, it is my understanding, especially after a consultation with the Chair, that the time was improperly accorded us. It was not a matter of seeking unanimous consent of any kind. We asked that they not be en bloc, so if they were not en bloc, I do call up the other amendment.

And only 5 minutes was allocated?

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment would strike section 114 of the bill to remove a provision that would bar the VA from using funds to implement provisions of Public Law 107-287, the Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Preparedness Act. This vital veterans legislation would create new research centers to help protect future veterans and current ones from the effects of weapons of mass destruction.

For the benefit of my colleagues who are not familiar with this law, the VA Emergency Preparedness Act was designed to give the VA health care system better tools and information to prepare for the possibility of injuries and illnesses to servicemembers caused by weapons of mass destruction.

Dr. Susan Mather, the Chief Public Health and Environmental Hazards Officer, is ready to move forward to let these kinds of programs go forward so the research will be done, so if the unthinkable happens to our men and women in uniform with regards to biological, radiological or chemical, that we will have a more adequate response than we do right now.

Let me point out that the VA excels in establishing Centers of Excellence. It does it on a myriad of fronts, including for combat and war-related injuries that are suffered on the battlefield. Two recent centers were established for that purpose.

The VA is ready to go, and Dr. Mather made the point to the Under Secretary of Health that the VA health care system is ``more likely than any large, small, private or public health care system to be required to identify and respond to threats of chemical and biological or other threats to public health or safety.'' Thus, the Medical Emergency Preparedness program will facilitate the best medical care and services to veterans.

The VA is ready to go. This provision in the bill that precludes that, I think, is unfortunate.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Renzi).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones).

Mr. Chairman, who has the right to close?

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

This amendment that has been made in order is not the amendment to add back $1.8 billion, and I say that with great sadness on behalf of our veterans.

What this amendment would do is lift a prohibition in the underlying bill that would prevent the VA from establishing already authorized medical preparedness centers, Centers of Excellence, to work the issue on weapons of mass destruction.

As I said earlier, the VA is ready to go. We already have their time line. It is in print. They are ready to go. They want to do this. I would say to my colleagues that if we are saying we do not have the $5 million approximate in start-up costs, let us grow this budget. That is what we have been saying in this entire debate. I hope my colleagues will vote for this. I would again remind my colleagues that the VA already operates dozens of specialized research centers, the center for limb loss, the center for spinal cord injury, the center for brain rehab, the center for wheelchair and related technology; in May of 2001, two new centers to study war-related illnesses. We are not breaking new ground here; we are moving in a direction that heretofore has not been addressed and that is weapons of mass destruction. I would hope my colleagues would vote for this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce), my colleague from the Committee on Rules, who has helped us to guide this bill through the Congress the last three years. She does a great job and knows the bill very well and is very capable at this.

I would like to first of all, Mr. Speaker, talk a little bit about the rule. This rule provides for the customary protections usually afforded all appropriations bills at this stage of the process. It is an open rule but it waives points of order against unauthorized appropriations because so much of this bill is unauthorized.

The Appropriations subcommittee is appropriating funds for NASA, much of which is unauthorized; EPA, much of which is unauthorized; HUD programs, National Science Foundation, and we have heard a lot about veterans, and we will continue to hear more about veterans.

But there are a lot of items in this bill that are of critical importance to these Departments; and this would, in effect, provide the authorization required for this current year.

Most of the focus has been on veterans issues in this bill, and rightly so. It is the priority for the subcommittee each and every year that we provide for funding for this area. But I would like to talk a little bit about some of the other aspects of the bill, the other Departments that are funded in this bill.

HUD is the Department that provides for housing for all Americans. We have fully funded the section 8 housing voucher program, which allows individuals to live where they would like and take their housing vouchers with them to help pay for their rent. It is a very popular program. It is fully funded. Of our allocation, which was only about a $3 billion increase over last year, a billion of that goes just to fund the cost increases in the section 8 housing voucher program. No new vouchers, but it is fully funded. And I would remind my colleagues that thousands of American veterans live in section 8 housing, and they benefit substantially from that portion of the bill, as all other Americans do.

In the AmeriCorps program, which has had a lot of discussion and debate of late, the subcommittee provides them with about a $100 million increase over last year's budget. We raised the cap. We allow AmeriCorps to put on an additional 5,000 volunteers, which is something the President wants. We go from 50,000 to 55,000. Our only hope is that they will hire that many, as opposed to last year when they had a cap of 50,000 and they put on 67,000 volunteers. So there are problems over at AmeriCorps and National Corporation that they are working on trying to fix. We are going to provide them with additional funds this year; and, hopefully, we will get it right this year.

The Environmental Protection Agency. We provide for about $8 billion in funding for that agency. We maintain the level of enforcement that we maintained last year, which was an increase over the prior year. We have added back about $.5 billion in funds to the EPA to provide for clean water, wastewater improvements, and combined sewer overflow conversions so that we can help clean up our Nation's water. There is a tremendous demand out there. This will not cover the problem; but of our $3 billion increase in allocation, about $.5 billion of it went to clean water SRF and State and tribal assistance grants.

NASA is really a status quo budget because we are waiting to hear what happens with the Gehman Commission. They will be reporting back to the Congress probably in August, and we expect that that will have some major ramifications for NASA. The administration will have to weigh in on that, and possibly we could be dealing with that in a supplemental later in the year. I do not know. I do not know what the administration will want us to do. But we did not deal with those issues in this bill. As I said, it is a status quo budget for NASA.

National Science Foundation. The Congress has asked us to double National Science Foundation over a 5-year period. We could not do that with this allocation. We have provided for in the last several years almost double-digit increases in the National Science Foundation. Everybody agrees these are important investments for the country, but we provided for about a 5 percent increase in National Science Foundation.

That brings us to veterans. And I describe this bill, the VA-HUD and independent agencies bill, as a train, and the engine that pulls the train through the Congress is the veterans funding. It is the most important priority of the subcommittee. It has the largest advocacy group. It has the broadest support within the Congress.

Now, as I said, we had about a $3 billion increase in our allocation over last year's enacted level, and $1.3 billion of that goes toward the veterans medical care. There is also a $1 billion increase for veterans mandatory programs for veterans benefits, so a $2.3 billion increase just for veterans out of the about $3 billion that we got as an increase. Actually, the mandatory is separate, but an overall increase in veterans, counting discretionary and mandatory, is about a $2.5 billion increase.

Mr. Speaker, we have increased veterans spending in the last 5 years by almost 50 percent, 49 percent. I do not believe there is any other Department in the Federal Government that has experienced a 50 percent increase in the last 5 years. This subcommittee has bent over backwards to try to meet the needs of our veterans.

Now, we will hear, and it is accurate, that the number of veterans actually coming into the VA has increased beyond that number. But I would submit that most of the new veterans coming in are coming in for prescription drugs. They are what we refer to as category 7s and 8s.

The Congress has, in its wisdom, dramatically expanded eligibility for access to the veterans health agency. Many of the new veterans that are coming in are not indigent and they are not service connected, but they are eligible under the new broadened eligibility rules that the Congress put in place. That is putting an additional burden on the VA. It is creating long waiting lines.

There are a couple things that can happen that the administration can do. One of the things the Secretary is talking about relates to one of the problems we are experiencing. A category 7 and 8 looking to come in for prescription drugs cannot get them until they have a physical, even if they have had a physical by their own personal doctor. Now, that it is a double cost. It is a cost possibly in Medicare; it is also a cost in the VA if they need to get two physicals. There is some discussion about waiving that initial physical for veterans when they come to the VA if it is just for prescription drugs. So that would reduce the waiting time.

Also, there was in this bill when we first brought it to the Congress a fee requirement, a $250 premium and a $15 copay, which has been stripped from the bill. So those additional fees that were in the bill are no longer in the bill. We just do not have the allocation that some people would like us to have, the amount of funds some people would like us to provide. The budget resolution that we passed required us to raise veterans spending for health care even higher. The problem was we did not have the resources to do that.

There was an assumption in that budget resolution for $7.5 billion more than we actually had. It was supposed to come from mandatory savings, from waste, fraud, and abuse savings; but that was knocked out in the conference so we did not have those additional funds. Now, we went back and rescinded $5 billion from defense to provide the Committee on Appropriations with an additional $5 billion, which we did do, which provided some relief; but we still came up about $2.5 billion less than what was assumed available in the budget resolution. So it squeezed us.

Now, I do not stand back from the commitment that this bill has made to veterans. We have increased mandatory spending. We have increased discretionary spending. It is clearly the priority. We have increased veterans health care 50 percent in the last 5 years. As I said, no other Department, no other agency in the Federal Government has experienced that kind of growth.

This is a bill we can be proud of. This is a bill that maintains its commitment and maintains its promise to veterans, but it also provides the necessary resources to make the investments in our Nation's intellectual and technological future by making investments in the National Science Foundation. On NASA, we are waiting for the report and we will respond to that. Environmental protection, we think this is a strong vote of support for protecting our environment, which is a priority for our party and for all parties in this country, certainly for the President. It provides an increase for AmeriCorps, and it also fully funds our Nation's public housing program, which, to me, is as important a commitment as our commitment to the veterans.

We have an obligation, I think, in this country. This is a very competitive society. Some people do not compete as well as others. There is a need out there for public housing, and this Congress stands behind that commitment to those individuals that, until they can get on their feet and manage their own housing costs, we need to stand behind them.

So it is a very complex bill; we have limited resources, but a full desire to meet our commitments that we have. Mr. Speaker, I am proud of this bill, and I urge its support and support of the rule. It is a good rule. It is an open rule.

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 2861, the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriation Act for FY 2004; however, I do not agree with the rule regarding amendments that was published and allowed to govern the amendment process. H.R. 2861 provides $25.2 billion for the health care of our war heroes, which is $1.8 billion less than the amount promised under H. Con. Res. 95 introduced by the House Republicans and passed earlier this year. Because the rule precluded a bipartisan amendment that was offered by Reps. Evan and Smith, the $1.8 billion for veterans' health care was effectively reneged on the Republicans' promise--at the expense of the lives of those who fought for us.

In providing $25.2 billion overall for veterans' care, the Republicans congratulate themselves for increasing this budget allocation by $1.4 billion from FY 2003. However, a $1.4 billion increase fails to factor in hospital inflation, growth in the number of veterans' enrolled in the programs, and the new costs associated with must needed infrastructure improvements associated with homeland security.

Last week, I supported H.R. 2318, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act of 2003. That legislation proposed to address shortfalls in the FY 2003 budget appropriations for Veterans' health care. Of our 25 million living veterans, nearly 19 million have served during times of war. There are 19 million stories to tell and 19 million histories to preserve. However, time is of the essence. There are only a few thousand World War I veterans left and they are all more than 100 years old. The average age of our World War II veterans is more than 77 and we are losing 1,500 of them a day. We need to preserve their great legacy now.

Republican tax cuts and the shortfalls to the veterans' health plan will have a negative impact on the veteran community and the veteran- service healthcare facilities of Texas. In the State of Texas, there are approximately 1.721 million veterans. Currently, 3,400 veterans are on the waiting list and due to the war in Iraq we will have new veterans in need of services. The Veterans' Administration Medical Center in the 18th Congressional District of Texas has seen an 18 percent increase in its need for its services this year already. There must be additional funding to meet that need. I am adamantly opposed to any efforts that would reduce the accessibility or the extent of health care to our veterans. The House Republican budget cuts veterans' benefits, including health care and education, by $14.6 billion. The Republican budget cuts veterans programs in order to finance additional tax cuts that we cannot afford. To pay for those tax cuts, we will be leaving thousands of veterans who were disabled during their brave service to this country without the medical services they require-- which is an atrocity and a national embarrassment. At a time when our economy is suffering, the Republican Party wants to take from the poor and disabled to give to the rich.

If H.R. 2861 passes without measures to make up for the $1.8 billion lost in the Committee on Rules, a large economic burden would befall thousands of veterans who will then be forced to bear their medical expenses on their limited incomes. We must renew our

commitment to our nation's veterans who have already given to us.

In Congressional District 18, Harris County alone in 1998, total Veterans Administration patient care costs rose to $240,868,665 and $1,071,793,244 for all of Texas. An extrapolation of this figure with inflationary factors gives but a glimpse of the national shortfall for our veterans. This paints a dismal picture in light of the fact that five of the VA's 22 networks have already projected shortfalls in funding for veterans medical care by the year's end.

In a January 2003 letter, the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., Paralyzed Veterans of America and AMVETS, called on President Bush to propose a veteran's medical care appropriation of $24.5 billion. However, the Administration has not heeded this budget advice from our veterans' organizations in any of the appropriations legislation passed thus far.

The Administration's budget emphasizes the need to reduce the huge backlog in claims for benefits submitted by veterans. During the first four months of fiscal year 2002, the number of rating cases awaiting a decision for over 180 days increased from 172,294 to 204,006. Our veterans are waiting for the VA to reduce claims processing time without sacrificing decision-making quality or the shirking of the VA's statutory duty to assist veterans develop their claims.

The budget as drafted in H.R. 2861 needs re-examination of its misguided priorities that will cause us to provide inadequate funding for health care for the men and women who have served our nation in uniform in order to allow tax cuts that will primarily benefit wealthier Americans.

Unfortunately, too often the President is simply unwilling to work with Congress to develop a fair budget. This means veteran's programs consistently fall prey to political considerations that have little to do with veterans. This year, funding lost to the tax cut will have a direct effect upon the amount of funds that remain available for discretionary priorities, like veterans' health care.

Absent protective amendments or other measures would mean there would be no additional funds available to implement the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act to work toward the goal of eliminating chronic homelessness in a decade. Furthermore, the Capital Assets Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) program, a comprehensive planning and evaluation process undertaken by the VA to assess the best use of its physical infrastructure would become a ``de facto'' closure commission with no ability to respond to veterans' needs for primary care, long-term care, and mental health projected by its own models. There would be little money leftover for any of the system's desperately needed construction and improvement projects.

Even more horrifying than the simple health care system problems, the scheduled shortfall for veterans' benefits would carry far-reaching negative implications. The Administration's Budget for 2004 in this bill makes no provision for additional service-connected disability benefits resulting from the present war with Iraq. As we know from the last war in the Persian Gulf, war results in adverse health effects and justifiable claims for service-connected disability compensation. It does acknowledge the expected increase in veteran's claims and an expected worsening of the disabilities of some service-connected veterans. Under these circumstances, cuts in mandatory spending can only be made by cutting benefits to veterans with service-connected disabilities. With a death toll of 153 U.S. Troops since the start of the Iraqi War that is rising on a daily basis, it is incumbent upon our government to plan ahead for expenses that will stem from these deaths--as a courtesy to our fallen heroes at the very least.

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, I thank you for this opportunity I also thank those of my colleagues who supported my amendment to prohibit any funds from being used for ``buyouts''--financial incentives to encourage retirement-until the National Aeronautics and Space Administrator assures Congress that the loss of that employee will not compromise the safety of future shuttle missions or the International Space Station.