Early Access to Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to thank also not only you but also in particular Ms. Herseth Sandlin and Mr. Michaud for their work on this bill.

I'm pleased to support H.R. 1470, the Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act, that would require a phased implementation to provide chiropractic care in all VA medical centers by December 31, 2011.

Under a policy guidance that I gave under the House Republican alternative budget resolution for fiscal year 2008, we provided an additional $100 million for veterans medical services to support the hiring of doctors of chiropractic care at all 155 VA medical centers. I have history dating back to the 106th Congress for supporting chiropractic care.

The Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee worked to include chiropractic care services as a benefit in the military health facilities and through TRICARE.

VA is currently offering chiropractic care in 30 VA medical centers and provides chiropractic care on a fee-for-service basis for veterans who are geographically distant from a VA medical facility. In fiscal year 2006, the VA paid over $1 million to fee-based chiropractic providers to treat roughly 3,000 veterans, and I support the passage of this bill.

I would also note, Mr. Speaker, that I'm very concerned because the chairman just spoke that the reason, words to the effect, that he's brought these seven bills to the floor is to represent what a grateful Nation bestows. But what I'm concerned about the seven bills being considered today under the suspension of the rules, only one, H.R. 2199, is being considered with a bill report having been filed.

I believe this is yet another way in which the majority of this Veterans' Affairs Committee is breaking with past practices. When you do not file a report with a bill that comes to the floor, you are essentially denying Members of the minority the opportunity to file supplemental, minority and additional views on legislation under House rule XI, clause 2(i).

Since the time of Sonny Montgomery, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has filed bill reports with every veterans bill other than resolutions such as H. Res. 392 or a facility naming bill; which is what I'm asking for Mr. Filner to do to honor the recipient of the Medal of Honor with regard to the naming of the VA medical center in Albuquerque, NM, and the minority has thus had the opportunity to file views.

The veterans bills being considered by the House today, H.R. 67, H.R. 1660, H.R. 612, H.R. 1470 and H.R. 2239, were all ordered favorably reported, with the exception of H.R. 1470, ordered reported from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs with amendments. However, the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs has filed no bill with reports on any of them. Not only does this deprive the minority of the opportunity to file views, but it deprives veterans and the rest of the interested public from having important legislative history which discusses the background of legislation and explains the committee's intent as well as the amendments.

All of this is compounded by the fact that most of these bills were ordered reported without hearings that would have provided an historical record for legislation. The majority also has not bothered to obtain the position of the administration on most of these bills.

There is no reason for taking such shortcuts. I would have filed additional views on H.R. 1660, in particular, if the opportunity had been available. These are not expedited pieces of legislation involving an emergency situation. There has been ample time to follow the customary regular order and do that which is right.

We will now be at a disadvantage when conferring with the Senate. I fully expect the House to pass these bills overwhelmingly, but it is not a good way to legislate on behalf of our Nation's veterans.

I understand all the committees operate under the suspension of the rules to bring legislation to the floor. I wish that there were a collegial relationship between the chairman and the ranking member. It does not exist, unfortunately.

If, in fact, he would confer and work with us, we wouldn't have to work these things out or make an attempt to work these things out on the House floor.

Once again, I will make an attempt, and I will ask Chairman Filner if he would call up Heather Wilson's bill and allow us, when we return after the Memorial Day break, to have Heather Wilson's bill, H.R. 1474, brought to the House floor under the suspensions.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to you.

Parliamentary Inquiry

I would yield to the chairman for a parliamentary inquiry and respond to the question.

Mr. Speaker, once again, reclaiming my time, the American people get to see the abuse of power that I have to deal with.

Rather than working collegially with us, with regard to filing reports, it's just, well, we don't have to do it. We'll just bring it to the floor. It doesn't matter. Really? Is that how we're going to legislate? We're just going to be sloppy about the Nation's business? I don't think that's a proper way of paying respect to our Nation's veterans, and it's very unfortunate.

I yield to my colleague, the chairman of the committee, to respond to my question that will you permit, under the suspension of the rules, to consider H.R. 474 when we return after Memorial Day break so that we may honor Raymond Jerry Murphy and rename the Albuquerque VA Medical Center after him.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to you.

I do not yield for a parliamentary inquiry. I think the purpose of my yielding to the chairman was to get a good response, whereby we have criteria, before the committee, with regard to how we name VA medical centers.

There is an individual, all the criteria have been satisfied, and I asked a very simple question of the chairman, if he would suspend the rules and bring it to the floor. I have written him twice. He doesn't respond to the letters. It has passed the Senate. A bill lays upon the desk, and I asked a very simple question.

All he wants to do is a parliamentary inquiry. So maybe we will be enlightened if I let him do a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to you for a parliamentary inquiry.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Thank you. I would yield back to the gentleman, since he did not address a parliamentary inquiry during his question. I yield to him, if you would like to have a statement.

Pardon? I yield to the chairman.

Well, this is pretty interesting. It's pretty hard to run the Nation's business if the chairman will not even respond to somebody on the House floor.

It's also very disappointing if, in fact, this is the way we are supposed to honor America's veterans whereby the chairman of the majority party is acting like this.

I suppose what I should do is work with my good friend Mr. Michaud, who is the chairman of the Health Subcommittee, who has the ability to call this bill up and to mark this bill up. Obviously, even though he were to mark this up in the subcommittee, it would still be held at the full committee, if the chairman wants to continue to play politics.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1470) to amend the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement Act of 2001 to require the provision of chiropractic care and services to veterans at all Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

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

We are continuing with a packet of seven bills from the Veterans' Affairs Committee that is really a thank-you in prelude to Memorial Day, a thank-you to our Nation's veterans. Memorial Day is a tribute to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

What we are saying is we're honoring them and all our veterans who are living with us in the United States. And as I said earlier, no matter where we are on the current debate on the war in Iraq, we are united in saying that every young woman, every young man who returns from that battle gets all the care, the attention, the love, the honor, the dignity that a grateful Nation can bestow. And that's what we are saying in these bills today.

We have already passed a bill which extends from 2 years to 5 years the ability of any returning servicemember in combat to access the VA health care system. Two years was not sufficient for those who might have brain injuries, who might have PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder. These are, in many cases, hidden diseases. You don't know that you have it. A doctor may not diagnose it at first, and so as time goes by, you may feel the need to access the VA health care system. So we have extended that from 2 years to 5 years.

In addition, we have passed a new outreach program to meet especially the needs of rural veterans, and we will continue this package in the hour ahead.

Veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be able to depend on medical services that they want being available in the system of health care that was built to take care of them and their unique needs.

For those returning veterans seeking care in a VA health care system, we know that the most common health problems are under the category of musculoskeletal ailments, principally joint and back disorders. We hear a lot about brain injury and PTSD, and those we have to give a lot of resources to, but 42 percent of veterans coming to the health care system have been presented to the VA with the needs of joint and back disorders.

This bill, the Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act, requires

that chiropractic services be made available in not fewer than 75 VA medical centers by the end of December 2009 and all the health care centers by the end of 2011.

Undoubtedly the returning servicemembers will be able to benefit from this care. I speak from experience as I have had chiropractic care a good part of my life. I am confident that with expansion of these services within VA, many veterans will be able to find relief from their pain.

Since the creation of the VA health care system, the Nation's doctors of chiropractic have been kept outside and all but prevented from providing proven, cost-effective and needed care to veterans. So we are grateful that access is becoming wider and wider.

The support for VA chiropractic service is bipartisan. Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi released a policy directive before his departure several years ago regarding the true and full integration of chiropractic care in the VA.

Secretary Nicholson and I have developed a solid working relationship, and chiropractic care is an area where we will be working closely together. Both Republican and Democratic Members have supported the inclusion of chiropractic care in the VA.

I have worked very closely with chiropractic patients, particularly our veterans, as well as with various associations dedicated to the profession such as the American Chiropractic Association.

Veterans are returning home from combat expecting to receive needed services. Let us not disappoint them. Expansion of chiropractic services is the right thing to do, and it is the least we can do for our returning heroes.

I urge support of H.R. 1470.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth Sandlin).

Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. Speaker, is it a requirement that committees have to file reports with legislation that is very straightforward?

I thank you, and I hope the ranking member heard that.

Mr. Speaker, am I required to engage in political debate with the ranking member when we are discussing a bill very important to veterans?

I would inform the ranking member that I am not going to respond to political debate.

It's your time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may need to the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown), who has now for 15 years fought side by side with me on behalf of our Nation's veterans. She is a fighter, and we are proud of her. You have the floor, Ms. Brown.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 1470.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2239) to amend title 38, United States Code, to expand eligibility for vocational rehabilitation benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as amended.

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

This bill, the Early Access to Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act, was authored by my good friend from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), and we appreciate his efforts over many years on behalf of our veterans. I was glad that we could get this bill to the floor today. It is the last of seven that say thank you to our Nation's veterans as we come up on Memorial Day.

This would extend vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits to members of the Armed Forces who are

determined to have a disability incurred while on active duty of at least 10 percent and likely to be discharged from service due to that disability. The servicemembers would still have to qualify under usual vocational rehabilitation and employment criteria of at least 20 percent, with an employment handicap of 10 percent with a serious employment handicap.

H.R. 2239 will help veterans begin their rehab earlier and will be very beneficial to those veterans in extended convalescence which could be over a year. This is the ideal time, as veterans will still be on active duty, continuing to receive their military pay, making it easier to support his or her family. One of the factors that leads to servicemembers dropping out of vocational rehabilitation and employment is the need to support their families.

Due to the severity of the injury or injuries, most veterans will be expected to experience a drop in pay once they are discharged. However, if a veteran begins their rehab immediately, they may be able to enter the job market much earlier.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2239. It is an important bill. This is the least we can do for these brave men and women. It will ease the transition from the military to civilian employment market. And, again, I thank Mr. Boozman for his leadership on this issue.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the dynamic chair of our Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth Sandlin).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on both H.R. 2199 and H.R. 2239, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, we have come to the end of a day of thanks to our Nation's veterans. We have seven bills, all of which will go to really improve our services, our health care, our sense of commitment to our Nation's veterans. We have had seven good bills today, and I think they will all be approved by this body.

I was a professor of European history before I became a Congressman, and I used to talk about the Roman world. And there was this famous Roman senator named Cato. And Cato would end all his speeches, no matter on what subject, which they might be about the sewer system of Rome or they might be about gladiator games or war against the Parthians or whoever, but he would always end his speech, no matter what the thing was, and everybody would expect it and he sort of became the laughingstock of the senate because they would know he would end all his speeches with ``and we must destroy Carthage.'' And nobody paid any attention to his speeches because they were all waiting for that conclusion no matter on what subject.

So with that little history lesson, I urge my colleagues to unanimously support H.R. 2239.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

H.R. 2239, the Early Access to Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act, implements a commonsense involvement in the speed with which we provide vocational rehabilitation to injured servicemembers. This bill makes it clear that active duty servicemembers are entitled to begin using vocational rehabilitation benefits prior to discharge.

The bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate with the military services to determine the likelihood that a servicemember undergoing hospitalization or outpatient treatment will be discharged or returned to active duty. If the member is likely to be discharged and will likely have a disability rating of at least 10 percent, VA is authorized to evaluate and award the full range of vocational rehabilitation benefits prior to the servicemember's discharge. Such a decision would be made using the current statutory and regulatory processes to determine eligibility.

Mr. Speaker, it makes no sense to delay access to benefits that will speed an injured servicemember's return to productive civilian life. For severely injured servicemembers, these benefits often make the difference between whether or not they are able to live independently. Many of those wounded in the global war on terror spend 2 or 3 years recovering from their injuries and often find themselves with significant free time outside of their therapy sessions. That free time offers an ideal opportunity to make use of their vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits to prepare them for the civilian job market. I am happy to let my colleagues know that CBO has said that this bill ``would have no direct impact on direct spending.'' The bill simply affects the timing of when our servicemembers receive the benefits.

All of us have gone over to Bethesda and Walter Reed to visit injured troops. And, again, this is an effort to give them the best of both worlds, the best that we can offer them being on active duty, but to go ahead and start those vocational rehab services so that we can get vocational counselors in there and then, again, as they pursue their getting stronger and heal physically, to go ahead and direct them in such a way that we can provide a new occupation for them in the future.

So I appreciate Chairman Filner, Ranking Member Buyer, Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin, and especially the chairwoman in the sense that she was instrumental in helping us amend the bill to improve it.

So, again, I would urge that my colleagues support this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

(Mr. BUYER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to urge the passage of H.R. 2239. I appreciate the work of my chairman and ranking member and especially the work of the staff on this bill.

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

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, there are thousands of veterans across this country who could benefit from additional medical care and treatment, and chiropractic care is one form of that care and treatment that we believe can be expanded to meet the health care needs of our Nation's veterans.

It's an honor for me to be here today, just a few days in advance of Memorial Day, in support of legislation that I believe will benefit those veterans.

Mr. Speaker, in the year 2002, I joined my colleagues in an effort to see that chiropractic care became a significant component of the VA health care delivery system, and we have made progress in that regard. And that program has been implemented, but as the chairman indicated, as the gentleman from California indicated, it's only available in a small number of hospitals across the country.

This legislation takes what was a very good idea in 2002 and 2003 and expands it to make certain that, over time, all veterans in this country can access chiropractic care.

A recent VA study indicates that the demand for attention to back pain is only increasing, and we know that chiropractic care can address those issues. Numerous studies have demonstrated that chiropractic care is an effective therapy and would be an effective approach to low back pain, spasms, and other maladies suffered by not only all Americans but by our veterans in particular.

And so, Mr. Speaker, this is a piece of legislation that I think will benefit all veterans across the country, widely supported by those veterans service organizations who speak here in our Nation's Capitol on behalf of veterans. The Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Vietnam Veterans of America, AMVETS, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America all speak in favor of passage H.R. 1470.

Mr. Speaker, I come from a congressional district in which access to health care is a huge issue for all of my citizens. Long distances to travel, attraction of health care providers to rural communities is a challenging task and the more we can expand the number of providers, the type of care that can be provided, the more likely it is that veterans who live in my district and rural America will have access to that care.

So, Mr. Speaker, I'm here on behalf of the veterans of America. I'm here on behalf of members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee to urge my colleagues to approve H.R. 1470, the Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act.

I thank the gentleman from California for his encouragement of the passage of this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the balance of my time? How much time is remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 15 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), former chairman of the committee and the ranking member.

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

General Leave