Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1538) to amend title 10, United States Code, to improve the management of medical care, personnel actions, and quality of life issues for members of the Armed Forces who are receiving medical care in an outpatient status, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 274 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings). All time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only.

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

(Ms. CASTOR asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 274 provides for consideration of H.R. 1538, the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour and 20 minutes of general debate with 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Armed Services, and 20 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

The rule waives all points of orders against consideration of the bill except clauses 9 and 10 of rule XXI. The rule provides that the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Armed Services shall be considered as an original bill for the purpose of amendment and shall be considered as read. The rule waives all points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended.

The rule makes in order only those further amendments printed in the Rules Committee report accompanying the resolution; in this case, eight Democratic amendments and four Republican amendments. The amendments may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against the amendment except for clauses 9 and 10 of rule XXI are waived.

The rule provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions. Finally, the rule permits the Chair, during consideration of H.R. 1538, to postpone further consideration to a time designated by the Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the American people and this new Congress demand, through this rule and this legislation, that the executive branch move beyond the rhetoric of ``support our troops'' to concrete actions that sustain our brave men and women in uniform and their families by providing the quality health care they deserve when they return from the battlefield.

Supporting our troops does not mean that you simply salute as you send them off to war, ask them to serve in sacrifice for our great country, but it also means that they are supported when they come home, their families are respected, and our wounded warriors receive superior health care for their physical injuries and mental scars.

This might sound familiar from the Washington Post: ``The conflict in Iraq has hatched a town of desperation and dysfunction, clinging to the pilings of Walter Reed. The wounded are socked away for months and years in random buildings and barracks in and around the military post. Mostly what the soldiers do together is wait: for appointments, evaluation, signatures and lost paperwork to be found. `It's like,' one military wife said, `if Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will.' While a part of Walter Reed has a full bar, there is not one counselor or psychologist assigned there to assist soldiers and families in crisis-- an idea proposed by Walter Reed social workers but rejected by the military command that runs the post.''

To the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I say what a shame that the American people had to have their eyes opened by two dedicated Washington Post reporters as to the treatment of our veterans, the incompetence and the profound disrespect. These reporters spent hundreds of hours documenting the intimate struggles of the wounded warriors who live at Walter Reed. Their stories triggered others from across the country, like in my hometown paper, the Tampa Tribune.

The Tampa Tribune last week told the story of soldier John Barnes who was injured by a mortar in Iraq just last year. Barnes was fortunate, he had a mother who was a dedicated nurse who stood by him during his days at Walter Reed.

Barnes, now 23, was frequently left unattended, his mother, Valerie Wallace said, even though he had a severe brain injury. He fell repeatedly. Orderlies failed to arrive on time to wheel him to appointments. Medicines were given in the wrong doses; paperwork was lost or never filed.

`` `I don't think anybody planned this war far out,' said Wallace, an energetic woman who looks younger than her 45 years. `If you are going to invade a country and you are expecting to be there for years, you've got to know there are going to be thousands of casualties,' she said. `How are you going to take care of them? Where are you going to put them?'

``Wallace is a registered nurse who has worked for more than a decade at Tampa General Hospital. She wasn't intimidated by the staff at Walter Reed, and she knew what questions to ask. Still, the layers of bureaucracy were overwhelming. The need to remain constantly vigilant was exhausting. Trust quickly evaporated.

`` `Nobody tells you anything,' Wallace said. 'Nobody prepares you for anything. You're very much on your own in a world you don't know or understand, and you are so overcome with grief and worry that you can't think straight anyway.' ''

Well, these and other stories emboldened military families across the country and all Americans to stand up and demand better treatment for our troops and families who have sacrificed so much.

As Speaker Pelosi reminds us often, the support provided to our troops by the Bush administration has not matched their sacrifice, and, Mr. Speaker, we will rectify that today.

I wish, back in late 2003, when an Army specialist from Tampa named Corey Magee contacted my office, because I was a county commissioner before I was elected to Congress. His family contacted me and said Corey has been shot in the fire fight in Fallujah after an IED blew up his tank. He was shot in the neck and paralyzed and eventually flown to Walter Reed. In some God-given circumstance, I happened to be traveling to Washington that weekend and was able to assemble a care package from his family to deliver to Corey. But they couldn't find out what his situation was. We called and called. We enlisted the help of a United States Senator at the time who was on the Veterans' Committee. We

still couldn't get through the bureaucracy.

I had to travel with the Senator's staff to Walter Reed Hospital, and track down the doctor to find out what brave Corey Magee's prognosis was. He was a brave young guy, and really in his condition couldn't ask for help on his own. And do you know, after that he thanked us profusely for contacting his family and filling them in. He said, ``I am sure we won't have to call you again. They are going to take good care of me.''

He returned to Tampa, and I was surprised a few weeks later to get a phone call from this brave Army specialist because he was having trouble getting his physical therapy appointments at the Veterans Hospital.

So this bill, though it is a step in the right direction today, comes a bit too late. I wish this bill and I wish the attention had been focused earlier and the respect paid to these families by the Bush administration.

As I visited the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg just a few weeks ago, you see there are a few brave soldiers there who are very symbolic of soldiers across the country that are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

One of the soldiers was in his early 20s, had served in Iraq, come back, trying to get his life together, but it was too much. The mental scars were too much. The post-traumatic stress set in. His young marriage faltered. He lost his job, meaning he eventually lost his home, and ended up as an alcoholic, a homeless alcoholic in his early 20s because of post-traumatic stress disorder.

What he explained to me was what he needed when he came out of the service was a helping hand. He needed someone proactively to say, are you all right, son, rather than to give him a checklist to check off to make sure he was okay.

These are tough guys. They are not going to own up oftentimes to the fact that they cannot sleep at night and they want to drink their sorrows and memories away.

Fortunately, I think the American people can be very heartened today to know that this is a bipartisan effort. Under the leadership of our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, I am very fortunate to serve on the Armed Services Committee under the leadership of Chairman Ike Skelton, and I salute him and the ranking member for moving this legislation quickly. We salute the Veterans' Affairs Committee and Chairman Bob Filner but, mostly, the leadership of the American people who have cried out for change.

Through this rule and this bill, we are going to improve the health care and mental health for our wounded warriors. We are going to tackle the bureaucracy on their behalf. We are going to establish a toll-free hotline so that families and soldiers and anyone who cares about them can report deficiencies in our system. We are going to require expedited action.

Thanks to the leadership of subcommittee Chair Vic Snyder, now Members of Congress that have desired information about the soldiers returning to their districts are going to be notified. Members of Congress oftentimes can be the best advocates for these returning soldiers, and now it will be a requirement in the law.

We are going to provide medical advocates to these soldiers. We are going to improve support services to families; and, rather than mismanage resources, we are going to turn the White House's privatization initiative around and require accountability.

Coming from Tampa, the home of the Haley VA Center and one of the four polytrauma centers in the country, I am especially heartened by the provisions in this bill that improve veterans health care by providing more physician residents in those polytrauma centers. ABC's News anchor, Bob Woodruff, brought this to life in his hour-long expose a few weeks ago. He visited the Haley Polytrauma Center in Tampa. These are where the most critically injured soldiers are sent for their health care, the brain injuries, the spinal cord injuries.

What Dr. Robert Scott, the medical director at that medical facility, told me a few weeks ago is, even though the polytrauma center is directly across the street from the University of South Florida College of Medicine, they cannot get the physician residents in training. The Feds are not providing enough. We need these doctors in training to learn and train about these critical war injuries and the physical therapy that our soldiers need.

So, Mr. Speaker, I urge this new Congress to chart a new direction today and to erase the moral stain on our Nation's conscience.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Arcuri), a member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio and distinguished member of the Rules Committee, Ms. Sutton.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Mitchell).

Mr. Speaker, 4 years after the start of the war in Iraq, and less than 100 days since the swearing in of this new Congress, this Congress will act today.

I urge my colleagues to support this rule and this legislation so we can pass the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007. Let's send a message, let's stand up for our brave troops in the field, not just when they are serving on the battlefield, but when they return home. Let's give the families the respect they deserve and make sure that we are providing superior health care whether it's a physical injury or a mental scar.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

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

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to bring forward for consideration this bill, H.R. 1538, the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007. This bill is the House Armed Services Committee's first step to address the challenges and the obstacles that wounded and injured servicemembers face during their recovery at Walter Reed Medical Center, and at all military medical facilities around the world.

Mr. Chairman, I am glad this bill is a product of a strong bipartisan effort to support our troops. While recognizing the ranking member of the committee, Duncan Hunter, and the House Veterans Affairs Chairman, Bob Filner, and Steve Buyer, the ranking member, for their support and contributions to this bill, I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the substantial contributions of the Military Personnel Subcommittee chairman, Vic Snyder, and John McHugh, the ranking member, for their considerable help during the development of this bill in committee.

Their knowledge and insights and understanding of the complex medical and disability systems that our servicemembers and their families are undergoing help to ensure that the bill before us today will have an immediate and positive impact on the lives of the wounded servicemembers as well as their families.

Mr. Chairman, the committee moved expeditiously to make changes that can be adopted fairly quickly after hearing what our wounded soldiers and their families are continuing to face at Walter Reed Hospital. However, these soldiers were not alone. The committee has heard of similar challenges that other soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines that are experiencing the same type of treatment across the country.

Sadly, what happened at Walter Reed was more than just a leadership failure in the Army. It is symptomatic of the enormous and complex factors that affect military medicine.

Yet while those in military medicine provide outstanding quality health care to wounded and injured soldiers, other factors brought to bear on this system also contribute to the state of affairs at Walter Reed Hospital as well as other medical facilities throughout our Nation.

Over the past several years, military medicine has been forced to convert thousands of military medical positions to civilian positions. One could ask how this could have an impact on our wounded forces, and the answer is clear and simple; fewer uniformed medical providers means fewer providers left at military hospitals back home treating injured and treating the wounded servicemembers. It also means that those in uniform who do remain will continue to face a high and sustained operational tempo, greater deployments and more time away from home. And yet the Navy, for example, has proposed for fiscal year 2008 to cut an additional 900 medical providers, including, Mr. Chairman, 100 doctors that provide needed health care to servicemembers as well as their families. That is why the committee chose to move quickly on this bill that will provide quick and immediate help to our troops.

It is clear that continued and persistent problems that were highlighted at Walter Reed Hospital require closer inspection and may demand a significant and comprehensive overhaul of the entire process.

As the Armed Services Committee continues to work on the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill, we will continue our efforts to examine greater comprehensive reforms to ensure that our forces receive the high quality care that our Nation has an obligation to provide for those wonderful young people in uniform.

However, H.R. 1538 is vitally needed now to provide immediate support for our wounded warriors.

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

Mr. Chairman, I think our country was shocked at the revelation as to what the conditions were at that certain part of Walter Reed Hospital, and I am pleased that we, on a very bipartisan basis, have addressed this through the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Chairman, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to my friend, my colleague, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).

Mr. Chairman, I am very, very pleased that this bill will directly address the transition between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration with the actual physical hand-off that is provided and required in this.

I yield now 2 minutes to my friend, my colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).

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

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague, my friend, a member of the Armed Services Committee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

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

Mr. Chairman, as the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews) stated about the disparity between the treatment regarding the disability ratings made by the Department of Defense on the one hand, and the Veterans Administration on the other, we hope that disparity will be done away with by the legislation that we pass today.

I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Shea-Porter), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hare) 1 minute.

Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services.

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

Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining on each side?

Parliamentary inquiry.

As soon as the gentleman from California and I finish our allotted time, is it not correct that the Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman and ranking member will assume leadership on this bill?

Thank you.

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

The sad situation of Walter Reed hospital regarding the outpatients has alarmed all of us, whether we be in Congress or not, and this bill has some excellent provisions. It is truly a bipartisan effort. I thank Mr. Hunter and Dr. Snyder, our chairman of our Subcommittee on Personnel, John McHugh from New York. All have done superb work on this bill.

It makes some improvements to the medical and dental care for members in an outpatient status.

It establishes a toll-free hotline for reporting deficiencies in medical-related support facilities.

It requires Members of Congress to be notified of combat-wounded servicemembers who have been hospitalized.

It creates an independent medical advocate for members undergoing a medical evaluation board.

It improves the training and reduces the workload for Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officers.

It standardizes the training program and curriculum for the Department of Defense Disability Evaluation System.

It enhances the training for health care professionals.

It would improve the transition for servicemembers between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It provides a $50 million fund to support programs and activities related to medical treatment and care.

It would create an Oversight Board for Wounded Warriors.

It requires an annual report of the state of military medical facilities.

It requires an evaluation and report on the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Evaluation Systems.

It requires a study of the support services available for families of recovering servicemembers.

And at the behest of Mr. Ortiz, it places a 1-year moratorium on A-76 studies at any military medical facility.

It is clear, Mr. Chairman, that the continued and persistent problems that were highlighted at the Walter Reed Hospital require closer inspection and may demand a significant and comprehensive overhaul of the process.

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

On our time, I have no more speakers, and I would judge that any further speakers would be on the time of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of the Armed Services time.

Mr. Chairman, may I confirm the fact that when I yielded back a few moments ago, that I have 8 minutes remaining?

I understand. I do ask that I be able to reclaim the time, the 8\1/2\ minutes.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from Arizona (Ms. Giffords).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner).

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

I wish to mention Mr. Buyer and I have had this discussion about there is more work to do. We will do it. We will do our very best I know in the Armed Services Committee as well as in the Veterans' Affairs Committee; and I appreciate your mentioning the fact that this is a step, although in my opinion, it is a major step. We still have a great deal of work to do regarding the wounded warriors.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I have mentioned the positive work done by Duncan Hunter, by Vic Snyder, by John McHugh, by Bob Filner, by Steve Buyer, but I would be remiss if I didn't brag on and thank the wonderful staff that we have on our Armed Services Committee and also in the Veterans' Affairs Committee. They have worked long and very efficiently, and the product before us is a work of art by the members of our staff, and I certainly thank them for their tremendous professionalism.

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

Mr. Chairman, the amendment before us is an excellent one. Those of us who live in the rural part of this country, as well pointed out by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran), will certainly appreciate this. If you look at the statistics, a disproportionate number of people in uniform come from a small town in rural America, and your change in the reimbursement rate will be a great deal of help to those young men and women as well as those who retire in their traveling to and from their hometown to receive the medical care from the designated facilities. And I compliment you and certainly approve of this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a simple one that makes technical changes in section 101 to clarify the qualification of military officers who may supervise medical care case managers and also in section 107 to require that the tracking system for reports to medical authorities regarding wounded warriors' symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder or suicidal tendencies be developed not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this legislation.

I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

We discussed this issue and this proposed amendment in the committee. At that time, we said we would work with you, and I compliment you on it. I support it. I think it is an excellent amendment and I wish to move forward and vote for it.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend from Rhode Island, Mr. Kennedy, for this amendment and for the fact that it is a clarifying amendment that makes all of us, as well as those within the medical community, understand that mental health is included in the term ``medical care.'' I thank you for that, and I fully support it.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. Chairman, I compliment the gentlelady on this excellent amendment, and certainly support it.

Mr. Chairman, I have examined this amendment. I think it is an excellent one, and I compliment you. It is certainly acceptable on our side.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. Chairman, I want to add my voice to the eloquent voice of the chairman, Mr. Skelton. I want to thank him, and thank also Dr. Snyder and John McHugh, the chairman and ranking member of Personnel, for their hard work on this bill. And for all the other Members who worked on this, I know Mr. Filner and Mr. Buyer were also architects of this bill. But especially our chairman, who has a heart

for the military and perhaps is the most adept custodian of the history of military personnel matters in the Armed Services Committee; a guy with a great eye and ear for history and for the sense of tradition that kind of brings us together on the Armed Services Committee to find common ground on important issues to the folks that wear the uniform. This is one of those issues, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, young people right now are serving this country in far away places like Ramadi and Fallujah and Mosul and Kabul, and many other places around the world where the war against terror brings them face to face with danger every day. Some of those, the great members of the U.S. military, give their last full measure of devotion. Some of them are wounded and come back through Landstuhl and then to Bethesda and Walter Reed.

And, Mr. Chairman, I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's speech in 1981, when he stood on the west steps of the Capitol and he gestured out to the west and he said, There's the Washington Monument, dedicated to the Father of our Country, and beyond that, the Lincoln Memorial, dedicated to the man who saved the Union. But beyond those monuments are thousands of monuments with crosses and Stars of David, dedicated to Americans who gave that full measure of devotion to the same degree that the Founding Fathers did, and that's Arlington Cemetery.

And he mentioned that under one of those markers lies a man named Martin Trepto, who was killed in World War I. He had gone to fight with the Rainbow Division in France, and after a few months or a few weeks in country, he was killed. When his friends found his body, they found that he kept a diary, and he had written these words, and I am paraphrasing: I must fight this war as if the success or failure of America depends on me alone.

I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, in going out to the warfighting theaters, that standard is the same standard that is carried by the young men and women of America's Armed Forces. And because of that, it is all the more compelling that we do everything possible to make sure that they have good care when they come home, and when they are wounded and when their families similarly are wounded by their wounds; and to make sure that we have a government which is friendly to them.

A lot of this problem at Walter Reed and Bethesda and the rest of our medical care apparatus is this; we need to have a system that is friendly, friendly to that 22-year-old marine wife who drives a couple hundred miles, maybe leaves the kids with the mother-in-law while she goes with her husband to undertake therapy at one of our hospitals. To be able to get in and get out without having to get bogged down in a mass of bureaucracy. It is toward those ends that we dedicated this bill.

And again, I think the chairman has done a great job, as have Mr. McHugh and Mr. Snyder. And let me tell you a couple of the highlights here.

I like the idea that you have got a limitation on 17 cases per case manager. That means that each case manager is going to have a lot of time to spend with each case, with each individual. And you also have the family advocate who will help with housing and transportation and all those things. That is almost as important as the case manager, because that helps a family to be with their loved one while they are undertaking their treatment.

I also like this handoff between the VA and DoD. We now have a physical meeting where you don't have the bureaucracy finally telling us after 3, 4 or 5 months that the records have been lost, that they have been misplaced or that there are some missing. And lastly, when we do the evaluation, to have experts who will assist the servicemember in making sure that his or her file is complete when they go for disability. That means if you've got that frag wound in your left leg, you make sure that you've got a record of that in that disability packet when you go before the board.

Now, there are lots of other good language in this bill and good provisions in this bill that will accrue to the benefit of the servicemember and their family, but I think those are especially important.

Lastly, I think the hotline is important, Mr. Chairman, where people can call in and let the system know that it's messed up and that it's not serving them well. And I know that the wonderful men and women who serve our U.S. military will respond to that and will make things right.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for letting me speak for a couple of minutes about this bill.

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

I would like to yield 4 minutes to Dr. Gingrey, the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) as much time as he desires. And I would just note that Mr. McHugh, along with Dr. Snyder, are chief architects of this legislation; and Mr. McHugh is the guy I like to refer to as the guy from the 10th Mountain Division in New York, a guy with enormous dedication to the men and women who wear the uniform.

I just want to take a second, Mr. Chairman, to thank the gentleman who just spoke as one of the finest members of our committee and to point out, too, and he went over a number of the high points in this bill, and this idea of having an independent medical officer who helps the service personnel, making sure that they have got in their files when they go before that evaluation board, making sure they have got that record of that shrapnel wound to the calf or to the side, that in cases in times past you would have service personnel who were highly frustrated because they have been wounded, they knew where the wounds were, and yet somehow the paperwork had disappeared. So having that professional to help prepare it is very, very important; and I thank the gentleman for his great service and work on putting this thing together.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) 4 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I yield as much time as he might consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), who has done an excellent job on this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I would yield the balance of my time to any other Members that would like to speak on the majority side, and if there are not, Mr. Chairman, give the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee the option of us simply yielding back our time or if he would like to have some of our time, giving that to him.

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

Mr. Chairman, if we could ask unanimous consent that on Armed Services we could reclaim our time that we yielded back, we would like to yield it to the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

I would ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from California.

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

I just want to mention that in 2005, and working with Mr. Buyer and working with Mr. Skelton and other Members of the Armed Services Committee and Veterans' Affairs Committee, we put together this Disability Claims Commission with an eye toward trying to make the evaluations that are arrived at in DOD and the VA system consistent. In this bill that we are passing today, we are directing DOD and VA to go back and, as this commission meets and continues to work, to focus on their work product and what they are doing; and, hopefully, we can have some value added as a result of their focusing on the commission that currently is in place.

I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. Chairman, if I have got a couple of minutes left, if any member of the Veterans' Affairs or the Armed Services Committee would like to use the rest of the time, I would be happy to yield to them.

Appearing that there isn't anybody, I yield back at this point, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that I think this is an excellent amendment from our side. I want to thank the gentleman for offering it, and we have absolutely no objections to this amendment. We support it very strongly. Good work.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend on the great work he has done being the chief architect on this bill. And I have absolutely no objections to the gentleman's amendment. I think it is good and I support it.

Mr. Chairman, I wanted to thank the gentleman for yielding. And, you know, the Marine motto is ``Always Faithful,'' and once again, the gentleman, who is a great former marine, is being always faithful, not just to the men and women of his service, the Marine Corps, but those of all services who have been wounded in the war against terror. I want to thank the gentleman. I support this amendment very strongly.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend, a former member of the committee, for his work. We support this amendment strongly.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlelady, and we support the amendment on this side. I thank her for her contribution.

Mr. Chairman, as the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I rise in strong support of the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act; and I yield to myself what time I might consume.

I want to thank Congressman Skelton and Congressman Hunter. This is a great bill. As a Nation and as a Congress, we were faced with a test, a real challenge, whether we can respond to the conditions of our Nation and of our veterans and our active duty troops. The revelations of what happened at Walter Reed presented us that challenge, gave us that test, and I say with confidence that this Congress is meeting that test.

This is step two in meeting that test. Step one was to make sure we had sufficient resources in the budget of this Nation to meet the needs not only of our existing veterans who have more and more need, whether they are from World War II or Vietnam or the first Persian Gulf war or the great influx of veterans that we are going to have from Iraq and Afghanistan. We already have over 700,000 returning troops who are now veterans, and we are going to get hundreds of thousands more.

In the so-called continuing resolution that was passed by this Congress a few weeks ago, the Veterans Administration was the only agency that got a significant increase from last year's budget; and this Congress added $3.6 billion to veterans in that one continuing resolution.

The supplemental for war that passed this House last week, led by Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Skelton, Chairman Obey, and Chairman Edwards, we said that the supplemental for war has to also have a supplemental for the warrior--for the health care of our returning veterans. Both in the Defense Department and the VA, we put in almost $3.5 billion; and in the budget resolution that we will be considering today and voting on tomorrow, the Democrats have put in $6.6 billion above the 2007 levels. That, in 90 days, is over $13.5 billion added to last year's budget for the care of our veterans.

George Washington said it very clearly, that the morale of our active duty troops is dependent on the sense of how they are going to be treated when they come home.

The first step of infusion of money, the second step of the Wounded Warrior Assistance bill, says that we are going to meet the challenge, that we understand that the costs of caring for our veterans is part of the cost of war, and that no matter what we think about the war in Iraq, we are united in this Congress and in this Nation that every returning young man and woman gets all the care and love and respect and honor that this Nation can deliver. That is what this bill says, that we are all committed to making sure that the care of these veterans is first in our consciousness.

Both the Defense health care system and the VA system is stretched to its limits. We have underfunded it over the years. We are asking from very dedicated professionals in the VA system to do more and more with less and less resources.

The strain is evident wherever you look. The strain is evident at Walter Reed. The strain is evident when a young Marine shows up at a VA hospital in Minnesota and says, I think I have PTSD and I am having thoughts of suicide, and he was told that you are 28th on the waiting list, come back in a few weeks or a few months, and he went home and he committed suicide. The strain on our system is shown by events like that, and we are committed to making sure that they do not continue.

So we have to live up to our responsibilities, both for the returning Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans and to those who have served our Nation going back to World War II.

In many instances, the problems are exacerbated because of jurisdictional and procedure roadblocks between the Defense and the Veterans Administration. So we have to remove those roadblocks; and, as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I have worked closely with other members of our committee who will speak today, with Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter of the Committee on Armed Services, to make sure we are working off the same page.

This legislation takes important steps in making the servicemember's transition from the Department of Defense to the VA a seamless transition. We have been using that word for a long time, but we still have great cracks in that system. It is not seamless, but this bill would mandate the Department of Defense to provide disabled servicemembers who are being separated or returned from the Armed Forces with a written transition plan, a road map pointing the way to programs and benefits offered to them as veterans.

It would institute a formal process for transmitting reports and other information to the Veterans Administration from the active duty situation.

It would require both the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to establish a joint separation and evaluation physical.

Physicals now are done by two different agencies and with two different standards and with two different bureaucracies. It is sometimes a hellish situation for returning active duty troops. We have to have a fully interoperable medical information system so that two agencies can speak to one another, so that the veteran coming home will have on his record in the VA all the things that occurred to him when he was on active duty in the military.

If we are going to make the handoff in the continuum of care successful, if we are going to make sure there is a seamless transition, if we want to make sure that we don't fumble information that puts at risk the returning servicemembers, we have to take these steps. These steps have are not newly invented. They were first expressed in earlier reports, the President's Task Force, for example, to Improve Health care for our Nation's Veterans, talked about this transition. I hope we are providing both departments with the resources and the tools they need to get that transition right.

Mr. Chairman, our concern is for the health of our fighting men and women when they come home that they get that health care taken care of, both in the Defense Department hospitals and in the VA system. Let's work seamlessly. I urge support for H.R. 1538.

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

Mr. Chairman, I would ask unanimous consent to use 10 minutes that were yielded back from the Armed Services time to be split evenly between the majority and minority.

A point of order, Mr. Chairman, I had understood that they had yielded the time that they had left back to the Veterans' Affairs Committee for use if we needed it, and we do need it. I think Mr. Buyer needs some time, and I do also.

If I could yield to Mr. Hunter for that.

I appreciate that.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. Chairman, we yield 3 minutes to the command sergeant major from Minnesota (Mr. Walz).

Mr. Skelton and Mr. Hunter, your committee, working with the Veterans Committee, has produced an outstanding piece of legislation; and I hope that that cooperation, I know that cooperation will continue, because we have other things to do.

The gentleman from Kansas expressed what is on the minds of many of our colleagues, and that is to make sure that our rural veterans are served, also. We will do that; and I know my ranking member, Mr. Buyer, joins me in that commitment.

As I said earlier, Mr. Chairman, we have a test as a Nation. Are we going to make sure that every returning young man and woman from Iraq and Afghanistan has the best facilities, the best health care, the best treatment, the best love, the best commitment that we, as a Nation, can offer? And are we going to make sure that their predecessors, from World War II to the present, are also given that same care and commitment?

There are 200,000 homeless vets on the street tonight, mainly from the Vietnam era. We cannot allow that to continue.

We have a 600,000 claim backlog for disability payments. We cannot allow that to continue.

We have facilities that need to be repaired and rebuilt. We have needs for Agent Orange veterans and atomic veterans. We, as a Nation, must take up this challenge and must meet it.

We had significant new resources provided in the budget matters that have come before us in the last 60 days. This Wounded Warrior Assistance Act is the next step as we try to make sure that those who faced danger and life-threatening situations in Iraq do not have to face a bureaucracy which threatens to kill them off. This is a step to change that. We are going to have a seamless transition, and I thank the Chair for his commitment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 5 minutes.

I rise in favor of this bill, the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act. For over 15 years, whether it was on the House Armed Services Committee or chairman of the personnel responsible for the military health delivery system or now at the VA, issues on seamless transition have been around. It appears that we can only measure success incrementally. For that, it is also unfortunate, because we deal with bureaucracies with both of these very large Departments and their subagencies.

Mr. Skelton had some challenges in front of him because his leadership rushed him to get this bill to the floor. He also then convinced Chairman Filner to waive the jurisdiction of the VA Committee so that this bill could get here.

I want to thank Chairman Filner for complementing the amendment that I had offered in the Armed Services Committee, and I also want to thank Chairman Skelton. I want to thank Duncan Hunter. I want to thank Dr. Vic Snyder and John McHugh for working with me on the amendment that was offered at the Armed Services Committee that profoundly enhances the seamless transition.

In its original form, the bill required a year-long pilot position on transition. Pilot programs can be useful in exploring new ground. But when it comes to seamless transition, and especially during a war, this is not new ground, and we need to proceed.

Back in 1982, is when Congress directed VA and DOD to work collaboratively together on health care. That was 25 years ago. I believe this collaboration is still being stymied by bureaucrats protecting their respective rice bowls. My amendment replaced the pilot project with system changes. It required a written transition plan for wounded servicemembers.

The bill would require an interoperable electronic exchange of critical medical information between the Departments and the use of the electronic DD Form 214, which DOD would provide to the VA. That allows VA real-time access to veterans' medical history.

There are countless examples of veterans seeking care at a VA facility, only to discover that their paper and military health records are not available. The lack of prior DOD health services is especially critical for badly wounded warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The ability to transmit data between DOD and VA will speed the recovery of these warriors by avoiding duplication of unnecessary treatment or, more importantly, failing to provide lifesaving procedures.

Electronic exchange of critical medical information might also prevent bureaucratic intransigence on the part of VA. For example, I recently heard from a former Indiana National Guard member who was wounded in the neck and shoulder by an improvised explosive device. When he eventually filed a disability claim, the VA said the documentation in his military medical record was not sufficient to prove the injury was service connected.

Hopefully this rapid exchange of information will put an end to such bureaucratic injustices. Further, H.R. 1538, as amended, would require the use of a uniformed separation and evaluation of physical by DOD and the VA, but the VA could use more disability ratings. This cornerstone seamless transition eliminates the frustrating requirement for a servicemember to have two physicals, one at the military and one at VA.

I associate my comments with Mr. Filner. Too often, recently discharged veterans filing VA disability claims must undergo a VA physical because their discharge physical failed to address issues affecting the veteran's claim for benefits.

Corporal Murphy, for example, in a hypothetical, gets his discharge physical from Fort Hood, Texas, on June 3. A week later he files a disability claim to the VA for his bad knee. Meanwhile, 90 days later, his physical records at the National Records Center in St. Louis arrive. During that period of time, his medical records are not available to process his claim, and our corporal has already lost 3 months. This is foolishness.

The result is not only costly but also delays the processing of a veteran's claim and possibly entry into life-changing programs, like the VA's vocational rehab program. Finally, the amended wounded warriors bill would collocate VA benefit teams at military treatment facilities and other agreed upon sites to facilitate the transition of recovering servicemembers. Why should a wounded warrior undergo a lengthy period of convalescence and be required to seek out VA benefits counselors at VA offices that are usually far away from the MTF where the veteran is living.

Instead of making Airman Mendez, for example, go to the VA, it is time to mandate the VA to be present where the airman is undergoing treatment. This will give him timely access to VA counselors and benefits that process needed benefits.

These teams would provide preseparation counseling for recovering servicemembers, and records would be transmitted electronically from DOD to VA before the date of separation or retirement, thereby reducing delays, which now bedevil the system. Access to these teams would enable most veterans to leave the treatment facility with their VA benefit in hand.

My own personal experience over the past decade validates the importance of these reforms.

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

Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Was the time yielded to the Veterans' Affairs Committee 10 minutes or 20 minutes?

So we have 20 minutes. So as of right now we are still operating under the Veterans Affairs Committee time, not Mr. Hunter's time, would that be correct?

So to the Chair it doesn't matter, with regard to the utilization. All right. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

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

In the 1990s, Mr. Skelton, you can remember well that we drew down the size of the military. We cut all the divisions and the wings and the squadrons; and then we had to figure out how we could maintain all those military hospitals and the medical treatment facilities, all the forts and bases. And we found out, with limited dollars, we really couldn't do all of that to the level which we wanted, so we created three centers of excellence, at Brooke and at Bethesda and at Walter Reed.

And I do not want this debate today, for anyone who is working at Walter Reed, to feel as though this Congress is not proud of the level of respect and the enduring appreciation that we have of the doctors and the nurses and the technicians that provide the health care at Walter Reed, Bethesda, Brooke or any other medical facility, from the battlefield throughout the entire process.

We are very disappointed that we had single soldiers that were wounded, convalescing, being held in an unhealthy building. But for that to then be interpreted as though bad care was being delivered at Walter Reed is not a factual basis.

It is a curious thing, though, that one of our centers of excellence ended up on the BRAC; and that is an issue, Mr. Skelton, we are going to have to address.

I do want to also extend though a compliment to Mr. Hunter and Mr. Skelton, because you saw this one coming in 2004, because in the 2005 Defense bill you then created the Disability Claims Commission. It has been extended now and will not report until September of this year. So I want to thank you for seeing this one coming; and I wish that we could have gotten to those results much, much sooner.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

What this means, Mr. Chairman, is we still have work to do. And I didn't want to be overcritical about the pressure the leadership gave you to get this bill to the floor. I think you and I both would have liked to have done something more comprehensive. But with this Disability Claims Commission sitting out there, and they have given 2 years now of labor, we are going to have to come back at this one in earnest. And I am most hopeful that you will continue your work with the Veterans' Affairs Committee as we work in this endeavor of a seamless transition.