Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act of 2014

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time and appreciate being here on behalf of my colleagues and to have a discussion that is going to focus on what we are doing with our time.

Mr. Speaker, it seems like it never fails. When we are out and about in our districts talking with our constituents, people will approach us, and they want to talk about how concerned they are about the cost of living and what they see happening to the price at the pump and to the price at the grocery store. They want to talk about how concerned they are with how much more education seems to cost them. They are concerned about our national security. They are concerned about the border security. They are concerned about their retirement security. The list goes on and on and on.

They will look at us and, Mr. Speaker, without fail, they will say: Tell me exactly what you are doing about this. I want to know what you are doing to address this problem or that problem

or any of the issues that all of us hardworking families are out there facing every single day--every day.

What they are looking for is solutions. What we have realized is that many times they don't know exactly how hard we are working here in the House and that the obstruction that is happening is not necessarily here in the House. What is happening is across the dome over on the Senate side.

Now, I have got in front of me 300 of the 332 bills that have passed this House--300 of the 332 bills that have passed this House. Now, sometimes people will say: Where are those bills sitting? Why haven't they gone to the President's desk?

Well, I always like to tell them, they are on the desk of Harry Reid. It is unfortunate, but it is where those 332 bills are languishing.

Now, as we begin to look at being out of D.C. and working in our districts for August, one would think that the majority leader over in the Senate, Mr. Reid, would get busy with trying to clean his desk. Most people do that. When they expect to be out of town working for a few weeks, they try to get their desk cleaned off, and they try to get things pushed out to where they need to go. They get things organized. They get things done. But that is not what we are seeing in the Senate.

I had one of my constituents come up to me one day and say: Look, I am all for the Larry the Cable Guy approach.

I said: Tell me what that is.

They said: Git-R-Done.

That is what people are looking for, getting the job done on behalf of hardworking taxpayers.

Now, sometimes people will say: Tell me what all is in this list of things that you have done.

Let me just go through what we have found in our bills that have been passed. 178 of these 332 bills, 178 of the bills passed with no opposition, none at all. There was agreement, total agreement, on these bills.

One would think that the Senate majority leader would say: 178 bills in which there is complete agreement, those bills coming out of the House? Surely we can move those forward in the Senate. Surely, out of 100, we can get 60 to agree on something.

But it is amazing. The Senator still has not called for a vote on those.

Beyond that, 54 more bills passed under suspension. That means you had to have two-thirds of this body agree. So all totaled, that is 232 of the 332 bills that have passed this body with either no opposition or two-thirds of the body voting in support of that.

I also find it very interesting, and probably some of our Democrat colleagues would like to join us in our Special Order tonight, because 55 of these bills--55 of these bills--were authored by Democrats. I am certain that they would like to see the majority leader take up their bills and push them through.

Mr. Speaker, when you are so far behind in your work, you generally work nights and you work weekends. You roll up your sleeves, you buckle down, and you get the job done. But that is not what we are seeing happen coming from the Senate. What we are continuing to see is a resistance, an absolute resistance, to moving forward and taking up these bills.

Now, as we go into our last week next week before our August work period, there are several issues that we would love to see the Senate address. As I said, the issues that are stacked in front of us cover everything that the American people are talking to us about, that our constituents are talking to us about when we go into our town halls.

On the issue of energy, we have 16 bills that deal with the issues of energy, 16 different bills that are right here that would address energy issues. Many people have heard us talk about the Keystone pipeline. Do you realize that the bill that would address the Keystone pipeline approval you are going to find right here in this hefty stack of paper?

For those who are just really concerned about what they are paying at the pump--and I don't know about you, Mr. Speaker, but I have been watching the price of a gallon of gas when I fill up my car, and in the last few months, I have gone from $3.59 to as high as $4.15 to fill that car up--far too much. For people who are paying too much at the pump, there is legislation in here that would get the cost down. It is Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America that Works, getting that price down at the pump.

For individuals that feel like we are paying too much on our electricity rates--and we have all watched these rates go up. You look at that bill every month and you see, compared to last year, you are using fewer kilowatt hours but you are paying more. And you think, how could this be? Well, of course, we all remember the President saying that the prices would necessarily skyrocket under him, and he has made good on that promise. Maybe a lot of promises he hasn't made good on, but, the fact that gas was going to cost us more and electricity was going to cost us more, he is making good on that.

Well, here is a bill, the Electricity Security and Affordability Act. All of these are cost-of-living items that we look at in our monthly budgets, energy being one of those that affects us all, everywhere we drive, when we turn on the lights, when we light the fireplace or turn on the burner of the stove to cook lunch. Bills that address those issues, they are found right in front of us.

So there is plenty of work on Harry Reid's desk. Harry Reid has been unwilling to call the vote. I know that my colleagues join me in saying we would love to see him call the vote on one of these 332 bills.

At this time, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).

I thank the gentlelady.

She mentioned jobs bills. Mr. Speaker, 40 of the bills sitting in this stack are related to jobs. Just the Keystone pipeline bill, there are 42,000 direct and indirect jobs that are related to getting the Keystone pipeline started. So the question becomes: What are you afraid of? What do you fear from taking up some of these bills? Do you fear the American people going to work? Do you fear that things just might get on the right track? That you would find in these 332 bills that we expand some opportunities and the environment for opportunities and the environment for jobs growth to take place? Why is it that the Senate is content with being a do-nothing Senate? Why is it that they are accepting of being a do-nothing Senate? I think we would all like to know the answer to that question. Do they like it? Do they like that they have a stack of work this high sitting on their desk that they are just not able to get around to?

You know, I used to do some door-to-door sales, and we had a little wooden coin and it was called ``a round to-it.'' Any time we felt like procrastinating, any time we felt like we just didn't have the energy to do the heavy lift or make one more sales call or go to another prospect, we would take that round to-it out of our pocket and look at it and remind ourselves, the important thing is to get around to doing the job in front of you.

You know what, Mr. Speaker, I still have my round to-it. I have it on my desk. It is getting old and worn-out, but anytime you think I could just be lazy, I could just not finish this and go do something I want to do, you look at the work in front of you, you look at the fact that you have a cluttered desk, and you look at the fact and consider that people are counting on you to do your job, and you make it a priority to get around to it and to get the job done. That is precisely what the American people have expected of this body, and we have done it. We have done that. And it is frustrating to us and to the American people, and I tell you, we join them in their frustration because look at this, all of these bills, and nothing has been done.

The gentlewoman from Minnesota mentioned the issue of veterans. Do you think it would be considered appropriate to not solve the VA issues and the issues for our Nation's veterans? Of course not.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).

Mr. Speaker, on the veterans issue, there are three bills specifically that cover exactly what Mrs. Bachmann has just mentioned. H.R. 4031, which is the Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act, this is something desperately needed. Accountability in the VA, absolutely. Why will the Senate not take this up? Why will they not come to work on this bill?

Another, H.R. 2072, Demanding Accountability For Veterans Act, again languishing on the desk of Harry Reid. Of course the VA should be accountable to the veterans and to the American taxpayer. Why are they not moving this forward so that it gets addressed?

H.R. 4810, Veteran Access to Care, precisely what Mrs. Bachmann is speaking of, making certain that the veterans are guaranteed that they are seen in a timely manner.

I have one constituent who got on the VA list for a primary physician 15 years ago. Guess what? He is still waiting. I have another constituent who has been on the list for 3 years and has never gotten a call.

This is completely unacceptable, and in this stack of 332 bills, you are going to find bills that will put that accountability in place. Mrs. Bachmann mentioned also the issue of taxes. We hear about it everywhere we go. People are overtaxed. They are overworked. They realize that they are taxed far too much, and they are tired of it. They want to see the tax rates lowered and the tax burden lowered as well as seeing the regulatory burden lowered.

And on taxes, we have got seven bills, one we passed today, the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act. We have got permanent Internet tax freedom. It is right here, seven bills that deal with taxes. We also have H.R. 4457, America's Small Business Tax Relief Act. Hardworking men and women, small business owners, small business employees, they all want to make certain that we deal with this complicated and overbearing Tax Code. They want to make certain that we are reducing that burden on them.

We could take some steps, not solve all of the problems, but take some steps in that direction if the Senate would show up and take up some of the tax bills that are here and help us lower that burden.

We hear a lot about government spending. You know, government never gets enough of the taxpayers' money and government spends too much. You give them a little, they are going to take a little more. We have 31 different bills that are in this stack that deal with reining in government spending, that deal with some of the budget reforms that are desperately needed so

that we get rid of some antiquated processes and move to a new template for how we need to approach our spending and approach being a good steward of the taxpayers' money; 31 different bills. Pick one. Get going.

It is amazing, once you get going on a task, it is easier. You get momentum, and that is something that we would like to see the Senate get and take up some of these 332 bills that are sitting over on Harry Reid's desk.

Maybe you are aggravated about government waste and you are frustrated with regulatory overreach, and you would like to see a smaller Federal Government, and you would like it if some of these Federal agencies would stop wasting your money.

Well, we have 16 bills in this stack that deal with stopping that overreach and curbing that waste and putting the bureaucracy on the track to being a better steward of the taxpayer money. We have to remember it is not Federal Government money, it is not the money of this Chamber, it is the taxpayers' money. They want these issues addressed.

How about reining in red tape? You know, I talk to lots of small business manufacturers on a regular basis and they will say to me, the red tape is killing us. The regulation and the red tape is just killing us. We spend too much time on compliance. We have four different bills in here that deal with compliance and cutting red tape. That is another way that government can do a better job of responding to the needs of the American people and the taxpayers.

I think everybody, Mr. Speaker, is concerned about national security.

Every time you pick up a paper or you flip on a channel or you turn a page on your iPad and go to a Web site and look at what is happening, whether it is in Ukraine, the belligerence of Russia, whether it is what is happening in the Middle East, and what we see happening in Israel, concerns about Iran, everybody is concerned about foreign affairs and concerned about our Nation's security.

We have six different bills that would deal with these issues of national security. We would appreciate it if the Senate would take up some of these House-passed bills. Again, Mr. Speaker, 178 of these bills--178 of 332 bills have come out of this Chamber with no opposition at all.

Another 54 have passed, 54 have passed, with a two-thirds vote of this Chamber. As I said earlier, that is 232 of the 332 bills. By the way, 55 of the bills out of the 332 bills are bills that have been authored by the Democrats, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot about repealing and replacing ObamaCare and making the health care system work, getting it into a healthy, healthy place, so that you are going to see people actually have access to health care.

Right now, we have got a situation where everybody's health insurance costs are going up, and they are concerned about that. Access with these very narrow networks is becoming more difficult. We are hearing of people that are having to travel great distances to get to physicians or they are having longer waits.

We found 11 bills right here that deal with health care. Some of these are repealing and replacing ObamaCare, 11 bills right here that could be taken up that would help with those situations, that would help with the access to health care, access to the doctor.

What we have seen happen with ObamaCare is that people have access to the queue because they have got a health care card, but what they do not have is access to the physician.

By the way, education--I talked to a constituent at the grocery store on Saturday morning, and she said that she was beginning to plan toward back to school for her two children. I said: Oh my goodness, it seems so early to be planning for back to school.

She said: Well, you know, they are going to be starting back to school the end of the first week of August and then into school the second week of August, and there are fees to pay, there are different class fees that have to be paid, sports teams that have to be signed up for, sports physicals that the children have to get, and those beginning-of-school expenses.

So she was beginning to focus on education and asked what were we going to do about letting parents and local school districts and getting rid of common core and replacing it with commonsense and putting parents and teachers in charge of those classrooms.

Well, we could make some progress in that direction. Seven of the bills that we have right here deal with education and with the issues that face parents and students and teachers. We are all concerned about the future and what is going to be there for our children, in making certain that they are prepared for the future and having access to a quality education and having that right there in our neighborhoods and our communities.

We could take some steps in that direction if the Senate would begin to take up some of the legislation that is over there on the Senate desk. As was said earlier, we are facing a do-nothing Senate because they have chosen not to get to work on this stack of legislation that would address some of these issues.

Mr. Speaker, this week, as we have looked at the crisis on the southern border, we have heard quite a bit of talk and conversation about the issues of human trafficking, drug trafficking, the sex trafficking that is taking place in this country.

Many people probably are not aware, and many of our colleagues probably haven't thought about the amount of work that we have done over the past 2 years on this issue, getting ready to address the issue, doing some research and some digging and some education and addressing human trafficking, taking steps to prevent this, to have the ability to do some intervention, penalties, and making certain that we are strengthening the family unit and fighting these trafficking elements.

We have 11 bills specific to human trafficking that are right here, 11 bills that would help hold accountable some of the traffickers and smugglers and put penalties in place, strengthen and shore up families, take care of victims, do some work on prevention. It would be encouraging if the Senate would join us and address those.

There are other bills that are here. We have got bills that deal with innovation. We have got flexibility for working families to make it easier for working moms. All of those issues are issues that could be addressed.

Yes, we have worked in a bipartisan manner. Indeed, we recently--just a few minutes ago, Congresswoman Jackson Lee was here on the floor talking about some of her work. I thought it was interesting. There was a report earlier in the week. She had had 18 rollcall votes on her amendments in the House in the past year. That is more rollcall votes than all the Republicans in the Senate combined.

She was asked about the amendments in a recent interview, and she said, ``I want to thank the Republicans for their generosity.''

That is the manner in which we have approached our job. As I said, 178 of the 332 bills that you are going to find in this stack, unanimous votes. You have got another 54 bills that are in this stack that had two-thirds majority support.

I thought it was also interesting, in the same article, Senator Manchin has not received a rollcall vote on an amendment since June of 2013. He had recently aired his frustration. He said, ``I've never been in a less productive time in my life than I am right now in the United States Senate.''

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that there are many people that probably share that thought over in the Senate because they are looking at the fact that things are not getting done in the Senate. Ninety- eight percent of these 332 bills have passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans.

If we were in school, that would be making an A grade on bipartisan support for legislation that is coming out of this House. Our committee chairmen have worked hard to be able to do that, and we have, in good faith, passed these bills, and in good faith, we have moved these bills to the Senate.

Right now, we are watching these bills sit on Harry Reid's desk. For whatever reason, he is choosing not to take these bills up.

At this time, I would like to yield some time to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Daines).

I thank the gentleman. I love the fact that he talked about Montana and what is going there and the northern route approval, Mr. Speaker, the H.R. 3. I wish he would hold that bill back up.

I will yield to the gentleman. How many pages is actually in that bill that would approve the route for the Keystone pipeline?

So it is 2,700 pages.

That is easy to read, and people could easily read that.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to note that our bills are not 2,000 pages or 2,700 pages or 2,300 pages. You are talking about bills that are readable. They are easy to work through. You can take them up one at a time, get going on them, and get some things done for the American people.

You can see the different bills. This one is two pages. This one can't be more than about 15 or 20 pages.

So this is not too much of a heavy lift. You can look at a bill like the Keystone pipeline bill, H.R. 3. It is simple and easy to read, but yet this would help create the environment for jobs growth. It would put in motion the components that are necessary to get 42,000 direct and indirect jobs started and on the books.

For an electric power co-op in Montana--and I think it is important to realize that co-ops are membership-led and owned organizations; these are the people that live in the communities that own these utilities--it would be able to hold those utility rates flat.

What a boom that would be for those families that are members of that co-op and those small businesses to be able to say, We have got certainty and stability and we have got security of electric power that is going to be predictable and our rates are going to be stable and low for a 10-year period of time.

That helps them to know what to expect, to work those business plans, and develop plans for expansion. That aids job growth. And that is an indirect benefit. It is a positive consequence of taking a step and passing a bill that is not even 3-pages long that would approve a route for a project.

I yield to the gentleman from Montana.

That is exactly right. And it is about making certain that we get our labor force participation back up in this country. We have the lowest labor force participation rate we have had since the misery index days of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. We would love to see more individuals back into the workforce.

There are 40 bills that would deal with creating the environment for jobs growth to take place. There is opportunity for innovation in some of these bills. There is predictability and certainty in bills as simple as the little bit on the Keystone pipeline. All of it is sitting on Harry Reid's desk.

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier tonight, one of the questions many of us in the House are asking is, What is the Senate afraid of? What is it the majority leader and the Senate fearful of? Why does he not take up some of these bills?

We have 332 bills, and 232 passed either unanimously or with a two- thirds vote. That is a pretty amazing record. And in these bills are solutions that the American people are looking for--solutions to jobs, to veterans issues, solutions in certainty for our Nation's economy, for our national security, and opportunity for our children.

Those are the things that our focus is on. It is what our constituents have sent us here to do and the job they have sent us here to do.

So I would encourage my colleagues. And as we move forward, we will continue in the House to do our job and to send bills to the Senate.

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you I think that we would be encouraging of our friends in the Senate to not be a do-nothing Senate--not to be content with that--but to be aggressive in taking up these bills. And as they get ready for August and go back to their districts to work, to get around to it and get to work to clean and organize their desks and do what is right for the American people by addressing the issues that concern them and finding solutions to the issues that they bring to us each and every day.

With that I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4810) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts for the provision of hospital care and medical services at non-Department of Veterans Affairs facilities for Department of Veterans Affairs patients with extended waiting times for appointments at Department facilities, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks H.R. 4810.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today amidst a growing crisis amongst America's veterans. Just over 2 months ago, at a committee oversight hearing, we disclosed that the committee investigation had in fact uncovered evidence suggesting that at least 40 veterans had died while waiting for care at the Phoenix Department of Veterans Affairs health care system. We now know, and VA has in fact confirmed, that almost 60 veterans have died while facing delays in care at Phoenix and other locations, and that the data manipulation efforts that the committee has uncovered are in fact systemic throughout the entire Department.

I cannot state it strongly enough, Mr. Speaker, this is a national disgrace. For our veterans, it is something more. It is a national emergency.

An internal audit that was released just yesterday found that more than 57,000 veterans had been waiting for care, for their first medical appointment, and an additional 64,000 veterans who have enrolled in the health care system over the last 10 years never received the appointment that they requested.

Now, correcting the many failures of the VA health care system is going to take diligent and focused work for a long time to come. This committee, both Republicans and Democrats, is committed to seeing this through. However, our first priority must be making sure that those 121,000 veterans--and the thousands more I fear that are out there that have yet to be identified--receive the long overdue care that they need without any further delay.

This is why we have introduced H.R. 4810, the Veteran Access to Care Act. This bill would require VA to provide non-VA care authorization to any enrolled veteran who resides more than 40 miles from a VA medical facility and has waited longer than VA's stated wait time goals for a medical appointment, or has been notified by the Department of Veterans Affairs that an appointment is not available within the stated wait time goals.

Now, to ensure continuity of care, the bill would require VA to utilize existing contracts to the greatest extent possible. It would also ensure that the non-VA care authorization encompasses the entire episode of care needed by the veteran during a 60-day period.

To ensure providers are willing to accept veteran patients, the bill requires the Department to reimburse non-VA providers at the greater of the following rates: the rate of reimbursement under VA, the rate of reimbursement under Medicare, or the rate of reimbursement under TRICARE. These authorities would remain in place for 2 years.

To ensure that we are addressing both the short-term access challenges facing our veterans as well as the long-term need for a proactive solution, H.R. 4810 would further require the VA to enter into a contract with an independent entity or entities to conduct an assessment of the health care provided by the VA medical facilities and to submit its findings and recommendations of the assessment as well as an action plan and a timeline for full implementation to the Congress.

Importantly, the bill would also eliminate bonuses and performance awards for all VA employees for fiscal years 2014 through 2016 and require the Office of Management and Budget to transmit to Congress an estimate of the authority's budgetary effects, to include any transfer authority needed to utilize savings and, if necessary, a request for additional budgetary resources. Our latest estimate suggests that a temporary elimination of bonuses and other incentives will free up roughly $400 million per year that can be immediately utilized for the expanded patient choice options under this bill.

VA has a well-established authority to send veterans outside of the VA health care system to receive care through non-VA providers. However, right now, the decision of if and when a veteran is sent to non-VA care lies with a VA bureaucrat.

H.R. 4810 would require that the VA use the authority the Department has been given to assure that veterans waiting for an appointment or residing far from VA medical facilities are left in the control of their own care and able to choose for themselves where, when, and how they receive the care that the veteran themselves need. This authority would ensure that no veteran waiting for an appointment today would receive what one veteran, during a recent committee hearing, determined ``a death sentence.''

Mr. Barry Coates is a gulf war era veteran who waited almost a year in increasing pain to receive a colonoscopy from the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina.

That colonoscopy revealed that Mr. Coates had stage IV colon cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and his liver. Members, he is terminally ill today. Mr. Coates called his experience attempting to access care through the Department long, painful, emotional, and unnecessary. He testified:

I am here to speak for those to come so that they might be

spared the pain I have already endured and know that I have

yet to face.

Mr. Speaker, the problems the Department of Veterans Affairs is now facing represents failure on at least two fronts: failure of accountability and failure of access. Over the last several weeks, the House has addressed VA's lack of accountability through the passage of two pieces of legislation: H.R. 4031, the Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act, and H.R. 2072, the Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act.

Today, with the passage of H.R. 4810, we will address the Department's access failures for Barry Coates and, as he so eloquently said, for all those veterans still yet to come.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn), who has been at the forefront of the investigation on this scandal.

Mr. Speaker, I understand Ms. Brownley's concern, and I have heard that from Members on our side of the aisle as well.

At this point, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), the vice chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, a stalwart supporter of our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the First District of Tennessee, Dr. Roe, a veteran himself.

Mr. Speaker, many Members have been very involved in this issue. Certainly the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health has been at the forefront. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan, Dr. Benishek.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Huelskamp).

Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers at this time so we are prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, without a doubt there are thousands of veterans across this country that are waiting for care that VA should be providing for them today. That is a national disgrace.

It is a national crisis when veterans die, as VA has already admitted: 23 preventable deaths due to delayed care, and maybe more on the way.

Let me assure the Members of this body, this will not end here. There are problems, systemic problems, throughout the entire Department of Veterans Affairs. We will work day and night, as we did last night, going until 11:30 p.m., making sure that VA tells this Congress, a coequal branch of this Federal Government, the truth.

With that, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 4810, and 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. 2072) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the accountability of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2072, as amended.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2072, as amended, the Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act.

This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general--the IG--to determine whether appropriate action has been taken by the VA in response to an IG report concerning public health or patient safety.

It would require the IG to notify the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees and the Secretary of any failure of VA to respond appropriately.

The bill would require the Secretary, following such notification, to report

the names of managers responsible for implementing the relevant action plan to the IG within 15 days and prohibit the IG from making such names public.

It would require the Secretary to promptly notify each responsible manager of an issue in a covered report, direct that responsible manager to resolve the issue, and provide such manager with counseling and a mitigation plan to resolve the issue.

It also would require the VA to include an evaluation of whether such manager took appropriate action to a covered report in his or her performance review, and it would prohibit the VA from paying a bonus or performance award to any responsible manager if an issue in a covered report is left unresolved.

Other provisions of the bill will authorize the VA for 3 years, beginning on October 1, 2014, to enter into a contract or agreement with certified medical foster homes to pay for long-term care for certain veterans already eligible for VA-paid nursing home care and require an eligible veteran to receive VA home health services as a component of such payment.

It would require per diem payment recipients under VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program to provide VA with certification of compliance with all relevant fire, safety, and building codes; and it would allow entities already receiving grants or assistance under the program to submit such certification within 2 years of enactment, require the VA to determine the code requirement for a facility in a location without a code requirement, and also to determine how such facility would be inspected.

It would require VA to include an accounting and evaluation of the safety and accessibility of facilities used for homeless veterans in the annual report on assistance to homeless veterans.

It would also extend the current rate of certain VA housing loan guarantee funding fees from October 1, 2017, to October 1, 2018, and extend VA's authority to receive information from the Internal Revenue Service for pension income verification purposes from September 30, 2016, to May 31, 2017.

H.R. 2072, as amended, was reported out of the full committee last year with full support and is fully offset.

I would like to offer my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all the Members who cosponsored the provisions in this bill, particularly Chairman Miller and Representative David McKinley from West Virginia, who we will be hearing from shortly.

I also commend Chairman Miller; Ranking Member Michaud; the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health, Julia Brownley; and all the members of the Subcommittee on Health, for their hard work and leadership on behalf of our Nation's veterans.

Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago today, our Nation commemorated Memorial Day in remembrance of the brave men and women throughout history who paid the ultimate price in defense of our freedoms.

One of the best ways we can honor these heroes is to ensure that their fellow servicemembers--those they fought side by side with-- receive the best possible health care when they return home.

Unfortunately, it has become painfully clear that the VA is not only failing to reach the standard, they are not even coming close. It is a sad legacy that I have seen firsthand as a VA surgeon for 20 years.

From my first day on this committee, we have been working to identify the problems at VA and provide solutions for our veterans.

It has been more than a year since we on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee first began investigating delays in care and seeking answers, and it has been 2 months since public awareness of these problems took off, after CNN highlighted the tragedy in Phoenix, allegations which were first brought to light by the committee; yet we still cannot get clear answers from the VA and are still waiting for key VA officials to be held accountable.

I am sick and tired of these bureaucrats and undersecretaries coming before us to say: We know there's a problem, and we're working on it. We take this seriously. We're going to have a fix in a little while.

Yet there never seems to be a fix. Veterans are dying. The time for excuses and delays is long past. The time for action is now.

Two weeks ago, the VA IG released an interim report on the alleged negligence and mismanagement at the Phoenix VA health care system.

In that report, the IG states that they have issued reports to call attention to problems in analyzing critical data for almost a decade and called for a system to monitor VA's corrective action. That system is exactly what we are creating today.

No longer will VA officials be able to hide behind excuses. Instead, with this bill, we will take bold steps toward ending the culture of mismanagement and complacency at VA.

When the VA concurs with an inspector general's recommendation on an issue that needs to be fixed and, indeed, nothing happens, who was the person responsible for following through on that fix?

Why is the fact that they didn't reply to an IG report and stated via a VA concurrence that an action would be completed, not punished? Why are they still getting bonuses if they don't comply? Why are they getting promotions for not getting the job done?

Anywhere else in America, these questions would already have been answered, but not in bureaucracies like VA. The Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act will correct this injustice.

Let me be clear. I know the people that are providing direct patient care for our veterans--the nurses and the doctors--are good people who work hard, but their leadership has failed them, and it has failed our veterans, and it must stop now.

I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation and, in doing so, take a needed step to ensure that responsible individuals are held accountable for correcting any lapses in care that impact the health and well-being of our veterans.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Indiana, Mrs. Jackie Walorski, my colleague on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and a member of the Subcommittee on Health.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia, Mr. David McKinley, my colleague on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from New York (Mr. Collins).

Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support H.R. 2072, as amended, the Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act, and, in turn, to support our veteran heroes.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee for her leadership on this important issue of this do-nothing Senate.

The President likes to refer to us as the do-nothing Congress. Well, tonight, we are presenting 332 reasons why it is actually the do- nothing Senate, as seen by the stack of the bills here on the gentlewoman's desk. This has made it the least productive Congress in history.

332 bills have passed the House and are sitting on Harry Reid's desk. These are not just Republican bills. 178 of these bills passed the House with no opposition at all. In fact, nearly 70 percent of these bills passed with two-thirds support or more. Fifty-five of these House bills were introduced by Democrats--still, Harry Reid refuses to bring these bills up for a vote.

While House Republicans are focused on building up America's middle class, the Senate Democrats are content to let dust gather on hundreds of bills that would grow the economy, reduce the size and scope of an overbearing Federal Government and, importantly, help create jobs in America.

Take the Keystone XL pipeline, for example. This is truly one of those shovel-ready projects that would create more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs nationwide. Across the political spectrum, there is overwhelmingly support for this project, yet Harry Reid refuses to bring it up for a vote. I have got that bill right here. It is H.R. 3. This is a bill that we passed with bipartisan support, yet Harry Reid refuses to bring it up for a vote.

The Keystone pipeline enters Montana. It is the first State that the pipeline enters after it comes to us from Canada.

I was out in eastern Montana recently, and I was meeting with the NorVal Electric Co-Op. This is a small co-op in Montana that provides electricity to a few thousand Montana families. They told me that if the Keystone pipeline is approved, they will be able to keep electric rates for these Montana families flat for the next 10 years.

If the Keystone pipeline is not approved, the electric rates for these Montana families will go up about 40 percent over the course of the next 10 years because this co-op supplies electricity to one of the pump stations on the Keystone pipeline, and that extra volume will lower the rates for all users.

Sometimes, I wish the President would get out of the White House and come to a place like Montana and talk to those families and have him explain to them why he continues to block the Keystone pipeline. I would like Harry Reid to come out to Montana and explain to these Montana families why the Senate refuses to take up a vote and approve the Keystone pipeline.

The House, we are going to continue enacting solutions to help create jobs and build a healthy economy because that leads to greater freedom and opportunity. We are not going to stop doing our job simply because Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has stopped doing his. It is time for the Senate to get back to work.

It is interesting, it has been quoted here tonight that Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democratic congresswoman, who we serve with here in the House, has had 18 rollcall votes on her amendments in the House in the past year.

That is more than all the Republicans in the Senate combined. When asked about those amendments in a recent interview, she said, ``I want to thank the Republicans for their generosity.''

It is time for the Senate to act. The Obama recovery, economic recovery, is 5 years old, and what have we seen? We shared this week the share of adults who are working is back to 1984 levels.

That is the year I graduated from Montana State University, with a degree in engineering. Far more adults have left the workforce than have found new jobs, and it has been said this is the worst recovery ever for long-term employed Americans.

The House has passed dozens of bills to create good-paying jobs and build a healthy economy, bills like the America's Small Business Tax Relief Act, which would lower costs for small businesses to allow them to hire more workers; or the Veterans Economic Opportunity Act, which improves programs that promote economic opportunity and ensures our Nation's vets have the tools and resources they need to find jobs they deserve.

Let me conclude by saying this: it is a shame that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats won't take up more of these 40-plus bills of these over 300 bills that we have passed that will get our economy moving because it is clear that the President's policies aren't working.

House Republicans have a plan to get America back to work and get our economy moving in the right direction once again.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he doesn't have to agree with our ideas. That is the nature of democracy. That is the nature of having the Senate and the House. We are not expecting him to agree on our ideas, but he does owe them a simple up-or-down vote. If he doesn't owe it to us, he certainly owes it to the American people.

I know ObamaCare was over 2,000 pages.

Here is the H.R. 3, the act to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. It is very simple. In fact, it is two pages and about a third of a bottom of a third page, so call it 2-1/3 pages, and we can approve the Keystone pipeline.

Will the gentlewoman yield?

On the issue of the Keystone pipeline and the benefits, many of those ratepayers in Montana are hardworking families that live month to month. Many of them are seniors that are living on fixed incomes. And so this President, by stopping the Keystone pipeline and not approving that bill that is just slightly over 2 pages in length, in essence, he is declaring war on the middle class of America that is struggling to make ends meet month to month.

Our daughter just graduated from Montana State University with a degree in elementary education. She is going to be a teacher. If we can approve the Keystone pipeline, we recognize these tax revenues in the State of Montana, and millions of dollars that will help fund our teachers, our schools, our infrastructure in Montana.

These are other benefits of the Keystone pipeline that we need to talk about that affect more than just the jobs. It also the tax revenues, as we talked about, and keeping the electric rates flat for many, many Montanans that live on fixed incomes.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mrs. Blackburn for the wonderful leadership that she is providing on this bill this evening.

It really is quite shocking. We have had a conversation this week about all the work that has been done in this Chamber. We have worked really hard. We have been here late at night, and we have been here every day because we know people across the United States are suffering. They are suffering in this economy, as Mrs. Blackburn has said. They are suffering from the rising gas prices. They are rising because of joblessness. They are very worried because their children aren't getting jobs. Most particular, the African American youth, it is out of control the number of African American youth who don't have employment, and in the Latino community, as well.

We are heartbroken about that because this is hurting families across the United States, so therefore we have been here doing the work. We have been here passing jobs bill after jobs bill. And this week we learned, as Mrs. Blackburn rightly said, that we passed 332 bills out of this Chamber.

Now, we didn't fully expect when we passed these bills that every word and every jot and every tittle of every bill would be immediately unanimously agreed to by the Senate.

We didn't kid ourselves, but we thought at least let's get started and do the work; 332 bills, and out of those Harry Reid couldn't find one that he could pick up and we could have a conversation about and pass and do something to move this economy forward? The economy is one thing, Mr. Speaker, it is also all of the firefights around the world that are happening. We are concerned about America's national security issues. We are concerned about our allies, like Israel, and what is happening in these countries.

We have bill after bill, scores of bills to address getting our Nation back in order. We want to work with the President. We want to work with the Democrat-controlled United States Senate and with Harry Reid, and what doesn't make one bit of sense to me, Mr. Speaker, when we have all these scandals, whether it is the VA or the IRS that is using the power of the Federal Government to punish innocent American citizens for simply expressing their political beliefs, all of these scandals, and we can't even get the attention of the U.S. Senate?

We have heard about a do-nothing Congress. I think we have to be a little more specific. It is a do-nothing U.S. Senate. There is a distinction here. There is no equivalency. So I wanted to come down to the floor when I heard Mrs. Blackburn speaking this evening, I wanted to come to the floor because she is exactly right. I know that many of our colleagues on the floor today agreed with the position Mrs. Blackburn is putting forward this evening.

Many of our colleagues wanted to be here because they want to work, and have worked, and now we are saying to Harry Reid with one voice, please come back, we are happy to work with you. There is plenty of time. If you want to come back in August, we will be here. Whatever it takes, we are here to work on behalf of the American people. Why not come and join us?

There is a heartbreaking story that happened to me this week. I was on the plane, the usual Delta flight that I take out of Minneapolis at 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon when we come back to resume our work here, and a veteran came up to me, a young man who couldn't have been more than 30 years of age. He told me that he had been deployed in the Iraq war. While there, his knee had been shattered in a combat operation in service to his country. He told me that he has been waiting for over 1 year to get an appointment with the VA to go in to have the surgery done to fix his knee with arthroscopy. He called the VA center in Minneapolis to try and get in, and it has been over a year for a young man of maybe 30 years of age, and he can't get in and get his knee taken care of. I think that begs our involvement.

He wasn't even from my district, but I took his name and his address. I took all of his information, and then I took his hand, most importantly. I held his hand in mine and I looked into his eyes and I called him by his name and I said: I promise you I will personally call the VA center and make sure that you get a call back and that you get the appointment you need. And I will make sure that your Member of Congress gets this information and is able to help you because there is not one Member of Congress that I can imagine who wouldn't want to see a veteran get the help he has earned and that he deserves and that he needs. Anyone I believe in this House Chamber would do it, Republican or Democrat, this is not partisan.

But what absolutely floors me, Mr. Speaker, and I think floors Mrs. Blackburn, is that we want to help these veterans. How could anyone on the Senate side, anyone, possibly refuse reform of the VA?

Mr. Speaker, I understand and I am sure that Mrs. Blackburn is aware that today there was supposed to be a conference committee hearing on the VA reform bill and the Democrats in the Senate chose not to even show up to conference the bill.

Now, how in the world is this young man who is a veteran who served his country honorably supposed to expect that his government cares about him when the Senate won't even show up to talk about VA reform?

That is why I am so proud of the fact that Mrs. Blackburn has the physical stack of the work that this body has done, work to help veterans like this young, 30-year-old Iraq veteran. Or the moms that are waiting tables tonight and the dads who are at T-ball games tonight who are asking us, Could you please get the Keystone pipeline bill? Could you please do something about the Tax Code so my business can get up and fly?

That is why we are here tonight, not expecting that the Senate would agree with everything that is in these papers. We do not expect that for a minute. All we are saying is show up to your job, show up and work. We want to talk. We are here. The President is very happy to talk to the terrorist nation of Iran. He has been very willing to negotiate, even to offer them a deal on developing a nuclear weapon, but for some reason, they won't talk to Republicans in the House of Representatives.