Enhancing Veteran Care Act

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

Mr. Speaker, since 2014, the Veterans' Affairs Committee has held countless hearings focused on VA medical centers that were found to have covered up wait times or failed to consistently provide high- quality healthcare to veterans.

Many of these failures were first brought to light by whistleblower allegations and were later substantiated by Government Accountability Office studies and VA inspector general investigations. Solutions to these failures were only uncovered through multiple inspections of medical centers' facilities, their policies, and their employees.

Congress relies on the hard work of medical inspectors and investigators at the VA, the OIG, and the GAO to review allegations and issue recommendations regarding how VA and Congress should work to correct deficiencies at medical centers and hold VA officials accountable. With limited resources, the inspector general and the GAO have completed a staggering number of investigations and reviews that have led to significant reforms of the VA system. They should be commended for their excellent work.

The Enhancing Veteran Care Act gives the Secretary another tool for developing solutions to problems at VA medical facilities. The VA Secretary should be able to contract with nonprofit-nongovernmental medical inspectors or auditors when deemed appropriate.

However, I strongly believe that granting the VA Secretary the authority to contract with nongovernmental inspectors and auditors should not result in cuts to the IG's or VA's budgets. We need to ensure VA inspectors and the VA OIG have the resources to continue their thorough and timely investigations.

I am also concerned about these nongovernmental organizations not being required to follow Federal laws that require transparency. I believe these nongovernmental bodies should be held to the very same level of transparency as the IG, GAO, and VA investigators, including requirements to publish their methods for conducting audits and reviews alongside their findings and recommendations. Without transparency, Congress and the public will not have the same level of confidence in their findings.

If we had the opportunity to consider this legislation in committee, we could have received testimony from VA, the IG, and GAO on this legislation and done more to address concerns around transparency, while also ensuring that investigative efforts are not duplicated. I encourage the chairman to continue his inclusive approach by seeking to bring all veterans related bills through committee for due consideration.

However, these concerns will not prevent me from supporting the Enhancing Veteran Care Act. I trust the Secretary will execute this authority in a manner that supports and supplements government-led investigations.

Veterans should have full confidence that they will receive high- quality healthcare at VA facilities. Rigorous and transparent investigations and audits will help guarantee these high standards are met.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), my good friend and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in support of S. 1266, the Enhancing Veteran Care Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1266) to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts with nonprofit organizations to investigate medical centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1266, the Enhancing Veteran Care Act. S. 1266 would authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs to contract with a nonprofit entity specializing in civilian accreditation or healthcare evaluation to investigate and assess deficiencies at VA medical centers and to coordinate any such investigations with the VA inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.

This bill is sponsored by Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma and is companion legislation to H.R. 42, which is sponsored by my good friend, Representative Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma's Second District. I am grateful to both Senator Inhofe and Congressman Mullin for their work on this legislation.

We are all familiar with the various challenges and scandals that have plagued VA medical centers across the country since the 2014 systemwide VA access and accountability crisis.

I, along with Ranking Member Walz and other committee members, our Senate colleagues, Secretary Shulkin, veterans service organizations, and others, have been working tirelessly to transform the VA healthcare system into the modern, high-performing healthcare organization that our veterans deserve.

S. 1266 is in line with those efforts in that it would provide VA an additional avenue to identify and resolve problems impacting the care our veterans receive in VA medical facilities.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), my good friend and sponsor of the House companion bill, H.R. 42.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. This has been a team effort on the Veterans' Affairs Committee to work to try to improve the care that our veterans and Nation's heroes get throughout this country. The involvement on both sides of the aisle on our committee is unprecedented, I think, for a committee working toward a single goal and purpose.

Many times, we have differences of opinion, but this bill is just another tool that the VA will be able to use to improve the care that veterans get.

I received a letter today from a gentleman in New Mexico who had a very different experience 6 or 7 years ago with the VA. He was even hesitant to go back. He went back to this VA hospital and had a very pleasant experience. So I think things are changing for the better, I think due to the hard work of the leadership at the VA, the people who work there every day, and this committee.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1266, the Enhancing Veteran Care Act.

I support this legislation because it would establish in the Department of Veterans Affairs the capacity to conduct independent analysis of the healthcare services provided by the VA to our nation's veterans.

The Enhancing Veteran Care Act would authorize the Secretary to contract with nonprofit private healthcare auditors and investigators to investigate a VA Medical Center and to then, assess and report deficiencies found at the medical center.

This bill will not vacate the authority of the Inspector General or the Government Accountability Office from conducting investigations of VA medical facilities.

Mr. Speaker, the reason this important legislation is needed is illustrated by the tragic and heart breaking cases of thousands of veterans who were left waiting for care for serious medical conditions.

The debt that we owe to our nation's veterans is immeasurable. Their sacrifices, and those of their families, are freedom's foundation.

Without the brave efforts of all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and Coast Guardsmen and women and their families, our country would not live so freely.

In the State of Texas we have 1,099,141 Veterans under the age of 65 and 590,618 who are over the age of 65. There are over 1,689,759 veterans living in our state.

The 18th Congressional District has 20,607 under age 65 and 9,844 Veterans over the age of 65.

Nationwide more than 9 million veterans and their families enrolled in the VA health care system in 2014,

In the city of Houston, the Michael E. Debakey Veterans Hospital Center, serves the health care needs of thousands of veterans and their families.

The Debakey Veterans Hospital Center provides support to veterans and their families who are amputees, cancer, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury, and have visual impairments.

The Medical center provides family support services through its Fisher House that provides living suites at no cost to family members of hospitalized Veterans and military members.

The devotion and dedication of family members who provide care to our nation's wounded warriors should not be forgotten.

Last month was National Caregivers Month to show our caregivers how grateful we are for them.

Today, 5.5 million spouses, parents, children, and other loved ones care for our wounded warriors and 15 percent of caregivers spend 40+ hours a week providing care for our military families.

The wounds of war and the recovery process may be long in healing, which is why it is important that as members of Congress we provide them with the best healthcare treatment possible.

I urge all Members to join me in voting to pass S. 1266.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1266, Enhancing Veteran Care Act.

Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs can contract with qualified and accredited third-party nonprofits to investigate a VA medical center for deficiencies in its facility. Only the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, however, is directly capable of authorizing these third-party investigations.

Unfortunately, this process is needlessly cumbersome and delays the improvement of medical centers. This bill

is an important reform because it empowers Veteran Integrated Service Network directors and VA medical center directors to initiate these third-party reviews.

The Manchester VA Medical Center in my home State of New Hampshire currently faces a number of questions regarding the services it provides and the facilities it manages. While Secretary Shulkin has initiated reviews of the facility, it took a number of whistleblowers to put their reputation and jobs on the line to force action.

Legislation like the Enhancing Veteran Care Act could have streamlined this process and made both the facility and the VISN more accountable to the needs of veterans in New Hampshire. VA must be better at assessing its own shortcomings.

Ultimately, veterans in the Granite State and across the country deserve the highest standard of care.

I thank Senators Inhofe and Lankford for introducing this important legislation. I thank Senator Shaheen, one of the lead Democratic cosponsors of the bill, for helping advance this bill through the U.S. Senate and being attentive to the needs of our Granite State veterans.

I proudly support this legislation and urge all of my colleagues to support this bill and immediately send it to the President's desk.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Roe for allowing this to come to the floor and Leader McCarthy for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor. I also want to thank my fellow Senators from Oklahoma, Mr. Inhofe and Mr. Lankford, for their great work in getting this passed in the Senate.

As the sponsor of H.R. 42, the House companion bill to S. 1266, I urge my colleagues to support and vote in favor of today's bill.

Nearly a year ago, we debated this bill on the floor and saw it passed by voice vote. I look forward to another strong response from the House in sending this bill to the President's desk and it becoming law.

This bill simply authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to contract with nonprofit organizations that accredit healthcare organizations in order to investigate VA medical centers.

This bill would allow the VA to get a second opinion from outside of the agency in order to get the best information and provide the best care for our veterans. Just like how patients sometimes need to get a second opinion on their diagnosis, the VA should not be above bringing in a second opinion.

Our veterans deserve care equal to the finest civilian hospitals, so let's bring more transparency to the VA by allowing them to invite the people who evaluate those private hospitals to take a look at the VA and make recommendations when problems arise.

This is a commonsense bill that will help improve the care for our veterans, and I hope all will support it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this bill.