Urging Americans and people of all nationalities to visit the American Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers.

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 agree to the resolution (H. Res. 392) urging Americans and people of all nationalities to visit the American Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers.

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

Mr. Speaker, we are about to take up a package of seven bills that have come to the floor from the Veterans Committee, a committee which I am very proud of that has worked together over the first 4 or 5 months of this session to keep our contract with our Nation's veterans. And there is no better time than just before Memorial Day to say thank you. Memorial Day celebrates those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation's freedom. We are here on the floor today to say thank you to those, and to those who are still deployed, and to veterans from past wars.

In the recent election, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats promised to do more for our Nation's veterans. We said we had a President who was saying, support the troops, support the troops, support the troops; but when they came home, where was that support? Walter Reed ripped off the veil of our incompetency of dealing with veterans and showed that so many were not getting the care they were promised and people thought they were getting.

We have had story after story in the Nation's press about how returning veterans with PTSD or brain injury have not been getting the care which this Nation has promised at the highest quality medical system in the world. So we have to do better.

We have a system that is really about to break and collapse. What we saw as the majority party is that the first thing that had to be done was give the VA the resources to carry out the job; secondly, we had to have accountability for the spending of those resources.

Well, in the first three spending bills that went through this House, we were able to add $13 billion for the health care of our veterans. That is an unprecedented increase from one year to the next, an increase of 30 percent in the health care budget.

We have put in the resources to clean up the backlog of claims for disability pensions that have built up to 600,000. We have put in the money to open up new Centers of Excellence for traumatic brain injury, to finally give the mental health care that the tens of thousands of veterans who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan need.

We call it PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, but virtually every soldier subject to at least five blasts that would give them brain injury, seeing their buddies shot and killed in front of them, maybe having to kill even by accident some innocent people in Iraq, they come back with tremendous mental issues. They have to be worked out. They need medical care, and too many have been falling through the cracks.

So we have said we will provide the resources to make sure that does not occur. We have provided the resources to meet these needs. Now we have to have accountability for their spending. The Veterans' Affairs Committee of this Congress has pledged to do that.

So we have a collection of bills on the floor this afternoon to say thank you to our Nation's veterans, thank you for your efforts in this war, thank you for your efforts in past wars, and we honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice on Memorial Day.

This resolution before us now, H. Res. 392, comes to us under the leadership of the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn), and I thank him for his activity on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. This resolution encourages people to visit the cemeteries, memorials, and markers overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission. I am sure many people who hear this say, what is the American Battle Monuments Commission?

In 1923, Congress created the Battle Monuments Commission to control the construction of military cemeteries, monuments and markers erected to honor American servicemembers killed on foreign soil. Host countries provide the necessary lands for these sites to the United States in perpetuity and free of charge.

The Commission cares for 24 military cemeteries and 25 memorials, monuments and markers in 15 nations around the world. These sites serve as the final resting places for almost 125,000 Americans who fought in the Mexican-American War through World War I and II. The Commission takes special care that all cemeteries under its supervision are maintained to the highest standard attainable.

The Battle Monuments Commission extends an open invitation to all to visit these splendid shrines and go beyond the most well known, like Normandy, and venture into others. Each site has its own sense of history, sacrifice and beauty; each offers a different and unique experience. No two have the same garden or architecture. Perhaps only the spiritual qualities are similar.

In less than a month from now, on June 6, the Battle Monuments Commission will commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day landing by opening a new Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center. Under construction since 2002, the center will tell the story of the American servicemembers memorialized at Normandy.

I encourage everyone to visit this new D-Day center and any of the other sites under the jurisdiction of the Commission.

Overseas American cemeteries are lasting reminders of America's willingness to come to the defense of others. These tangible symbols of American values endure long after the fighting is over.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for bringing this resolution to us.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a germane issue, and I will stick to dealing with the bills on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Does the yieldee have to make time for an extraneous comment from the yielder?

Is the yieldee required to give time to the yielder for a matter that has nothing to do with the matter under discussion?

So are they through with their time? Have they yielded back the balance of their time?

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 392.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join Mr. Lamborn and me to unanimously support H. Res. 392. I have no further requests for time, and I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 392 that encourages Americans and people of all nationalities to visit American cemeteries, memorials and markers operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

More than 125,000 American war dead of the Mexican, Civil, Spanish American and both World Wars are buried in American cemeteries across the globe. Our overseas cemeteries are under the jurisdiction of the American Battle Monuments Commission. I believe they

are the gold standard in preserving the final resting place of this Nation's heroes.

I've had the privilege of visiting our cemeteries in Normandy, in Luxembourg and Cyrennes which is just outside Paris. I believe that those who work at these cemeteries, in fact, when I said they set the gold standard, it is a standard to which our VA cemeteries here in this country should achieve. It's emblematic, I believe, of our Nation's regard to those who made the highest sacrifice.

They are true shrines to Americans who came to lands that they had never seen, to fight for a people that they had never met. They fought for no bounty of their own and left freedom in their footsteps.

Normandy, the American cemetery, is probably the most famous of our Nation's overseas cemeteries. It is the final resting place of more than 10,000 Americans who died in one of the greatest and most decisive battles of the epic struggle against tyranny in World War II. This year the Commission will open a new visitors center to help communicate the story of this site to those who fought and died over its length and breadth in time.

I had the opportunity to deliver the Memorial Day address, along with my friend Henry Brown of South Carolina, at Normandy as I stood there on the cliffs at Omaha Beach in 2005, an experience that I will never forget.

When I visited the Luxembourg cemetery last year, I was in awe of the beauty of the white stone chapel flanked by two very large stone pylons as the centerpiece of this cemetery in which then-General Patton lies in rest before his men. These pylons have maps and inscriptions telling the achievements of the U.S. Armed Forces in the region. Inscribed here are the 371 names of missing who gave their lives near this site but whose remains were not recovered or identified.

The Luxembourg cemetery is also the final resting place for some 5,000 GIs who repulsed Hitler's final offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, including several members of the famous Band of Brothers, deposed in Steve Ambrose's book.

I think if you visited any of these cemeteries all over the world you can't help but walk away with the same feeling that I have, a strong sense of humility and very humbled that these individuals gave everything in the name of freedom and in the name of liberty.

I just encourage everyone so when you go overseas and you're on a trip, or you go to Paris, pause for a moment and go visit one of our cemeteries on foreign land.

And I'm pleased that after World War II we now make every effort to bring these bodies back to our own country. So from Korea and Vietnam and the first Gulf War, second Gulf War, we try everything we can to bring these bodies back.

And speaking of Korea, now that the chairman is here on the floor, I would even ask of the chairman, there is a bill that was filed by one of our colleagues to bring recognition to Raymond Jerry Murphy, to name the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Mexico after this Medal of Honor winner. And I've given you several letters as to why this bill shouldn't be brought up. We're hopeful that you could have brought this bill to the floor while he was alive, but now he has since deceased.

So I would ask the chairman if he has knowledge as to why this bill shouldn't be brought to the floor and given the same honor to which you're giving here with regard to this bill.

I yield to the chairman.

So the chairman would raise an issue of germaneness rather than addressing the issue of how we honor the men and women who serve this country. That is disappointing.

This is a Medal of Honor winner from the Korean War in which we tried to seek to give recognition, just like we're doing in this bill, in how we honor our Nation's sacred fallen. This is an individual of whom is so respected in New Mexico the entire delegation supports it. It passed by unanimous consent in the Senate. The Senate bill lies upon this desk, but the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee won't bring it to the floor, and I don't understand.

I will now yield back to the gentleman for a better explanation, rather than germaneness, as to why you will not honor this veteran that the entire delegation of New Mexico supports.

No, the gentleman from Indiana yields to the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Parliamentary Inquiry

I absolutely yield for a parliamentary inquiry.

I will reclaim my time since the gentleman now is not speaking of a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. Speaker, I think by silence, by omission, the chairman just spoke, and how disappointed I am that veterans, that he just said that he wanted to come to the floor, that he was going to take this moment as a thank-you to veterans and all they do; yet here we have an opportunity in bipartisanship to recognize this Medal of Honor winner from Korea, whereby he wouldn't even do it when the gentleman was alive, and now he's deceased, and he still won't even give this individual the recognition. Yet the Senate bill, in a bipartisan fashion, lays upon this desk.

I am very disappointed, and I don't know what it's going to take to get you to move this bill and give the recognition. The Governor supports it. The two Senators support it. The Members of Congress from New Mexico support it. All the veterans service organizations support the bill, and I support this bill.

And if you know of a particular reason as to why this Medal of Honor winner, Mr. Murphy, should not receive this recognition by having the veterans hospital named in his honor, please let all of us know, because if you're blocking this for political motive, now we're upset.

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 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