To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the provision of adult day health care services for veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to express my strong support for the significant package of the veteran's bills that we considered in the House both yesterday and today.

As the former Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee (2001 through 2005), I am acutely aware of the challenges our veterans face, especially as they transition from military to civilian life. As Chairman, I authored more than a dozen laws to expand health, education, job training and homelessness benefits for the men and women who served in uniform. Thankfully these laws continue to help our veterans today.

Still, there are new problems and new issues that urgently need our attention. Massive wait times, forged documents by VA officials, ineptitude, lack of equipment and under-staffing at VA medical facilities are just a few of the significant transgressions that have been exposed and are undermining the quality of service and the treatment our veterans receive.

In 2014 and 2016 Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act (P.L. 113-146) and the Faster Care for Veterans Act (P.L. 114-286), respectively, to usher in a complete overhaul of VA systems and to institute new technological services for scheduling and in order to secure more timely appointments. Some, but not nearly enough, progress has occurred. Much more must be done.

I commend Chairman Phil Roe, MD and his team at the Veterans Affairs Committee on the package of bills before us this week. All seven will help improve the benefit programs and the delivery of healthcare service for our veterans.

For instance, The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (H.R. 2288) will empower veterans who have been denied benefits to have more options as they pursue their appeals. Under the new bill, vets will be able to waive a hearing and submit additional evidence, pursue a hearing and submit additional evidence, or transfer the jurisdiction of their case to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The new options should help cut through some wait time.

The VA Scheduling Accountability Act (H.R. 467) would require an annual certification of compliance with scheduling directives. Additionally the bill blocks awards and bonuses to any leadership personnel at any medical center that fails to comply with the scheduling directives. Another bill before us, H.R. 1005 would allow the federal government to enter into agreements with state veteran's homes to pay for adult day health care for certain eligible veterans.

The No Hero Left Untreated Act (H.R. 1162) will create a one year pilot program at the VA to use innovative therapy to treat veterans who suffer from invisible wounds, which include post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma, chronic pain, or opiate addiction. As the author of the Veterans Health Programs Improvement Act (P.L. 108-422) which authorized regional veteran polytrauma centers for multiple injuries including TBI, I fully support H.R. 1162 as a way to ensure that the VA is able to adapt to the newest and best practices for treating veterans with these unique traumas and conditions.

The Quicker Veterans Benefits Delivery Act of 2017 (H.R. 1725) will require stronger reporting requirements from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding the necessity for in-person disability examinations; and the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2017 (H.R. 1329) will increase the cost-of-living-adjustment for disabled veterans who receive compensation to equal the same rate of increase for citizens who receive Social Security in 2018.

Finally, the VA Prescription Data Accountability Act (H.R. 1545) will help combat drug addiction among our veterans by creating better information and data sharing between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the states' recording programs.

Mr. Speaker, let me remind my colleagues that while this package of veterans bills marks another step forward, we cannot be lulled into thinking that the Department of Veterans Affairs and the delivery of veterans' benefits and healthcare will be forever fixed simply with the enactment of new legislation, no matter how well written.

Good legislation is the necessary, minimum first step. But equally important is the full and consistent implementation of the new laws, along with regular and aggressive oversight by this Congress. We must be vigilant and continue to push to ensure that all veterans get the care they have earned--at the time they need it--not months or years later.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 324) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the provision of adult day health care services for veterans.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, before I begin today, I would like to take a moment to express my deepest sympathies to those affected by last week's tragedy in Yountville, California. I closely followed the situation. I am truly saddened by what has occurred.

All three employees who lost their lives--Christine Loeber and Jennifer Golick from the Pathway Home and Jennifer Gonzales from the Department of Veterans Affairs--were committed to helping veterans struggling with difficulties like post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental problems.

As Secretary Shulkin said: ``Caring for veterans and our employees serving them is always important. It is even more critical that we reach out to one another and provide support during painful times like these.''

I think I can speak for myself and the rest of the members on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs when I offer prayers and support during this incredibly difficult and challenging time for these families.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 324, the State Veterans Home Adult Day Health Care Improvement Act of 2017. It is imperative that we ensure that VA is equipped with a variety of geriatric and long-term care programs to best meet the individual needs and goals of the increasing number of veterans who are reaching retirement age.

Current law requires VA to cover the cost of nursing home care in a State Veterans Home for any veteran in need of such care due to a service-connected disability or with a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or more. However, veterans are increasingly seeking opportunities to get additional care they need as they age while remaining at home rather than in a nursing care facility or other institutional setting. S. 324 would help those veterans by requiring VA to enter into an agreement or a contract with the State Veterans Home to pay for adult day healthcare for veterans who are eligible but not receiving nursing home care.

Adult day healthcare programs provide companionship, peer support, recreation, certain healthcare services, case management assistance with activities of daily living, and more to veterans, and needed respite and relief to caregivers. What is more, adult day healthcare programs are a much less costly alternative to nursing home care, meaning that, with the enactment of this bill, we could grant veterans who desire to age at home the opportunity to do so without sacrificing the care and support services they may need and save taxpayer dollars.

S. 324, which is sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, is companion legislation to H.R. 1005, which is sponsored by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin) and passed the House with unanimous support earlier this year. I am grateful to both of them for their leadership on this issue, and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), from the Upper Peninsula, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin), the author of the bill on the House side and also an Iraq war veteran.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. Speaker, unless Mr. Zeldin has talked to my doctor and knows something I don't know, I hope to be here next year. That is my plan.

I appreciate the opportunity to work on this bill with him. He has been a great advocate, as the ranking member has been. This is a bill that is long overdue, much needed, and I give my strong support along with--I think I can speak for them--the entire Veterans' Affairs Committee. We voiced this. I encourage Members to support this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very excited to be here because I know just how many disabled veterans in our country are on wait lists for adult day healthcare and now will be getting a service that is just so important and overdue.

I certainly want to thank Chairman Roe and his great staff, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the ranking member and his team as well, everybody coming together working hard on behalf of our disabled veterans who need it most.

I rise in support of S. 324. It is the Senate companion to my bill, H.R. 1005, which is a bill to provide adult day healthcare and save State Veterans Homes for veterans who are 70 percent or more service- connected disabled. This bill is an extension to the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006, which currently provides no-cost nursing home care at any State Veterans Home to veterans who are 70 percent or more service-connected disabled.

Medical model adult day healthcare provides comprehensive medical nursing and personal care services combined with engaging social activities for physically or cognitively impaired adults. Medical model adult day healthcare offers a complete array of rehabilitative therapies, including physical, occupational, and speech therapies, hospice and palliative care, social work, spiritual, nutritional counseling, and therapeutic recreation.

The program is designed to promote socialization and stimulation and maximize the participant's independence, while enhancing their quality of life. The program is staffed by a great team of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals who evaluate each participant and customize an individualized plan of care specific to their health and social needs.

Adult day healthcare is an alternative care setting that can allow some veterans who require long-term care services to remain in their homes as opposed to being institutionalized in a nursing home. Such veterans typically require support from some, but not all, activities of assisted daily living--ADLs--such as bathing, dressing, or feeding.

In many cases, the spouse or their family member may provide the veteran with much of their care, but they require additional support for some of the veteran's ADLs. By filling these gaps, adult day healthcare can allow these veterans to remain in their homes and communities for additional months, or even years, and thereby lower the financial cost of caring for these heroes.

Adult day healthcare also provides family caregivers support and relief to meet their other professional and family obligations and provides a well-deserved respite while their loved ones are participating in the program.

In addition to thanking Chairman Roe for his leadership and support on this important issue, I also want to thank Senator Hatch for carrying this effort in the Senate, as well as Fred Sganga and the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook for their great efforts. That is a State Veterans Home located in the First Congressional District of New York, one of three places currently offering adult day healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, this is a piece of legislation that will provide a valuable and necessary service to our Nation's veterans, and I am urging my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan legislation.

What goes on too often unnoticed in this House is the great staff that we have to help make these efforts possible. So, from the leadership team, I want to thank staff John Leganski and Kelly Dixon, and in my office, as legislative director, Kevin Dowling, and Matthew Scott.

Thank you again to the great House Veterans' Affairs Committee, and we will all greatly miss Chairman Roe as he departs. Hopefully, maybe we will get him to change his mind, but in the meantime, I will just say we enjoyed serving with him, and I hope that he won't go anywhere for a very long time. He is a great leader for our veterans as well as being our ranking member.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1005) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the provision of adult day health care services for veterans.

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

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 1005, a bill to improve the provision of adult day healthcare services for veterans.

Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs testified that 9.8 million veterans, or 46 percent of the veteran population, will be 65 years of age or older in 2017. Given that, the need to ensure that veterans have ready access to a variety of geriatric and long-term care services and supports is an increasingly important component of the VA's mission.

Current law requires the VA to cover the cost of nursing home care in a State Veterans Home for any veteran in need of such care due to a service-connected disability or with a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or more. That authority is incredibly important and has helped thousands of our veterans get the nursing home care they need.

However, there is an increasing demand for VA to offer geriatric and long-term care programs in noninstitutional settings that would allow aging veterans to receive needed services and supports while remaining in their homes surrounded by their loved ones.

To that end, H.R. 1005 would require VA to enter into an agreement or a contract with State Veterans Homes to pay for adult day healthcare for a veteran who is eligible for but not receiving nursing home care.

Adult day healthcare programs are a popular alternative to nursing home care that provide veterans in need of case management, assistance with activities of daily living, or other supportive services with companionship, peer support, recreation, and certain healthcare services. They also provide needed respite for caregivers.

By requiring VA to cover the cost of adult day healthcare programs at State Veterans Homes for veterans who would otherwise qualify for VA- paid nursing home care, H.R. 1005 would expand access to this type of care, which has been shown to maximize a veteran's independence and quality of life and to extend an aging veteran's ability to remain at home, which I think we would all want to do.

This bill has the support of the National Association of State Veterans Homes, The American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

I am grateful to my friend and former committee member, Lee Zeldin from New York, for sponsoring this legislation and for shepherding it to the House floor. I look forward to working with him and our colleagues in the Senate to secure a quick passage over there as well.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1005, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin) who is a former member of our committee and sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello) who is a former member of our committee.

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.R. 1005.

Once again, I urge all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his compassionate words on the tragic loss of three dedicated, selfless servants in care of our veterans. I very much appreciate that, and it is a challenging time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 324, the State Veterans Home Adult Day Health Care Improvement Act. I want to thank Senator Hatch for introducing this innovative and bipartisan bill.

S. 324 directs the VA to enter into an agreement with each State home to pay for medical supervision model adult healthcare for a veteran for whom the home is not receiving VA nursing home payments.

Ensuring that veterans have access to appropriate affordable geriatric and long-term care is becoming increasingly important. In 2017, approximately 9.8 million veterans, or 46 percent, were 65 years or older.

In addition, VA's own Enrollee Health Care Projection Model indicates a further demand on long-term care and support services is coming as the Vietnam-era cohort ages, with most having gone beyond age 75 by 2026.

At present, VA is required to cover the cost of nursing home care in the

State Veterans Home for any veteran in need of such care due to a service-connected disability or with a service-connected disability rated 70 percent or more. However, there is increasing demand for VA to offer geriatric and long-term programs for veterans in noninstitutional settings that would allow them to receive the services and support they need to remain in their homes--their preferred venue.

Adult day healthcare programs provide veterans in need of supportive services with companionship, peer support, recreation, and certain healthcare services, while allowing them to stay and maintain their independence.

In testimony before the Subcommittee on Health last year, the National Association of State Veterans Homes claimed that there are a number of State homes across the country interested in providing medical model ADHC services; however, the current basic ADHC per diem paid to the State Veterans Home by the VA is not sufficient for most homes to cover the cost of this program. As a result, only 3 State Veterans Homes out of 153, nationwide, provide this program.

This legislation would correct that imbalance, allowing veterans who would otherwise qualify for more costly VA nursing home care the ability to stay in their home longer, at a reduced cost.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman has no further speakers, I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Long Island--he clearly understands this issue--for his

passionate work on this, and we are grateful for it.

I, too, would like to add my voice to this, to the chairman for once again proving to America that this Congress can work, that there are bipartisan solutions to issues that we care about in serving our constituents and our veterans and others. It is something that we are very proud of here. It doesn't always come easy, but his leadership somehow finds a way to bring us to the table. We get it done, and I am grateful for that.

I urge my colleagues to join us in passing S. 324, and I yield back the balance of my time.