Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, on rollcall 981, I was away from the Capitol. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall 960, I was away from the Capitol. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Amendment No. 14 Offered by Mr. McCarthy of California

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 4251, legislation to include certain Department of Homeland Security facilities, such as ports of entry, under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program.

Since 1976, communities have received payments from the Interior Department's PILT program to help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable Federal lands administered by the BLM, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest service.

However, all along our Border, communities are not reimbursed for land that the Department of Homeland Security uses for ports of entry. The community often provides resources and services to these facilities without reimbursement from the government. My bill, H.R. 4251 provides support for these communities.

H.R. 4251 amends existing law to include certain Department of Homeland Security facilities, such as ports of entry, under the PILT program. Providing access to these payments will help these communities with the important work they provide along our borders.

Mr. Speaker, many Members of the House of Representatives have spoken at length on the ways that the Affordable Health Care for America Act will improve health care for all of our constituents. I wanted to draw attention to another significant benefit of this legislation: the creation of new high-paying jobs in this country. Let me repeat that

for some of my friends on the other side of the aisle, this bill will create high-paying, high-quality jobs in healthcare delivery, technology and research in the United States.

First, this bill will create enormous demand for healthcare workers, especially in the area of primary care. Insuring the millions of Americans in this country who currently have no insurance will allow them to see primary care providers and receive the wellness and preventive care they have been denied for too long. This influx of new patients will need doctors, nurses and technicians for their care, while reducing overall healthcare costs because they will not need much more expensive hospitalizations. I support channeling resources that for too long have been used to treat people once they become sick into jobs and services that will prevent people from getting sick in the first place.

Second, this bill will continue the efforts we began in the stimulus package to deploy new health information technologies that better manage both the quality of care people receive and the cost at which they receive it. New health care exchanges and new demands on the health system to provide high-quality and cost-effective health care will create new opportunities and markets for our brightest technology minds. They will be incentivized to create and develop products that will be a win/win for Americans: high quality health care at an affordable price.

Third, this bill will create high quality research opportunities in this country. The Energy and Commerce Committee enacted a framework for allowing biosimilar competition in this country. This new class of medicines will help lower costs and bring competition to one area that is key to the future of our healthcare system. Biotechnology is on the cutting edge of efforts to reducing costly invasive procedures and allowing our constituents to live healthier and more productive lives. The creation of this new class of medicines comes with requirements for new clinical research and testing, especially in the area of whether a new biosimilar can be interchangeable with an innovator's product. This research will create high quality and high paying jobs and it is imperative that we keep this research and these jobs in this country. We cannot allow these research opportunities to leave this country, and I intend to work with the Secretary of HHS and the Commissioner of the FDA to ensure they stay in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I do not look at this bill as one of cost or drain on the economy of our country like so many of its opponents on the other side of the aisle. I see this bill as an exciting opportunity to create the kind of jobs we so desperately need in this country while at the same time improving the lives of ALL Americans. This bill will improve health care, create jobs and grow our economy.

I thank Mrs. Davis. As she said, I represented this area, Logan Heights, for 10 years in Congress. I want to thank her for picking up the banner and doing something that the community really wants and understands as a clear incentive and appropriate honor that children in the area and other members will look to Cesar Chavez as their hero.

When I was a graduate student at Cornell University studying history, I had a colleague in the department of philosophy who was doing a Ph.D. thesis on the nature of saintliness, what constitutes a saint throughout history. The only American figure that he could find really to exemplify his notion of saintliness was Cesar Chavez. And it was not just because Chavez was an advocate of some of the most oppressed members of our society, farm workers, seasonal workers, but in the manner in which the he approached politics.

I marched with Cesar. I knew him. He approached politics with an air of humility and contemplation, and, of course, nonviolence. The marches he undertook, the boycotts, the hunger strikes, all were done in a spirit that he was going to serve the people that he represented. He was their servant, and he exemplifies the notion of being a servant to those people in the most

calm, nonviolent way that you can imagine; and people around him, and as his movement grew, were inspired by this incredible saintly manner that he exemplified and practiced.

He was a politician, yes, and he organized the farm workers. He organized boycotts. He had great victories for organizing and unionizing farm workers in California and other parts of the Nation. But it was the manner in which he did this, the calmness, the nonviolence, the sense that he could take all of these indignities and all the pressure and oppression, and respond in a positive way.

I think that is what influenced so many people, and why this honor that Mrs. Davis is sponsoring today is so important, to name a post office in the Logan Heights Community that really were his constituents.

Mr Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 780, which I introduced along with several of my colleagues on the U.S.-Philippines Friendship Caucus.

H. Res. 780 recognizes Filipino American History Month, which was in October, and celebrates the heritage and culture of Filipino Americans and their immense contributions to our nation.

The Filipino American National Historical Society established Filipino American History Month in 1988. However, the U.S. House of Representatives has never recognized Filipino American History Month.

Consideration of H. Res. 780 is long overdue.

I am pleased to honor the Filipino American community and pay tribute to the extraordinary contributions that Filipinos make to this nation. Filipino Americans have been part of the American experience, confronting many difficult challenges while being resolute and steadfast in their cultural heritage.

Today, we honor Filipino Americans, from farm workers to nurses and doctors to the brave and courageous soldiers who fought shoulder-to- shoulder with American servicemen. This country is indebted to the Filipino veterans of World War II for their extraordinary sacrifices.

I urge my colleagues to join with me in honoring the history, culture, and contribution of Filipino Americans in the United States by supporting this important resolution.

Madam Speaker, please join me in supporting a bill which I have introduced, ``Providing Military Honors For Our Nation's Heroes Act,'' H.R. 3886, to reimburse expenses of volunteers who provide military funeral honors at veterans' funerals.

Because thousands of service members are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan while thousands of World War II and Korean War veterans die each day, there is simply not enough military available to provide a proper honors detail for these funerals. Some families of veterans have had to ``make do'' with a CD playing taps. I am saddened by this outrageous situation and determined to provide proper military funeral honors for all families who request them.

This bill will allow reimbursement to volunteers from members of veterans' service organizations, VSOs, and other organizations approved by the Secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, VA. Transportation costs and other expenses, such as cleaning uniforms, incurred in providing funeral honors details will be reimbursed. A second change will allow reimbursement to details that are requested by funeral homes and the VA, as well as the Department of Defense.

Currently, members of VSOs and other volunteers can assist the military by providing a color guard, pallbearers, a bugler or firing party, but the law does not address ceremonies in which VSOs render honors without military representation. My bill will allow volunteers to be reimbursed even when no military person is a part of the honor guard. This change will increase the number of honors details available to families.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 804) providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 1016, with amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important bill. It's a whole new approach to the funding of Veterans Administration health care programs, one that will allow our Nation's veterans to receive timely, high quality and well-funded care regardless of political considerations that go into the budget process every year. I'm glad I was able to work with my colleagues in the Committee on Veterans' Affairs in both the House and the Senate to get this bill to the House floor today.

This is a bipartisan response to years of chronic underfunding of VA medical care and happens to be the highest legislative priority of veterans' groups in this Nation.

In an unprecedented step, Mr. Speaker, nine veterans' groups formed the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform. These groups, including The American Legion, AMVETS, Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Vietnam Veterans of America all formed together to advocate for a VA health care budget that is sufficient, timely and predictable.

In fact, the leadership of one of the prime organizations that took the leadership in this fight, the Disabled American Veterans, are watching this debate from the gallery. Their national commander, Bobby Barrera; their executive director, Dave Gorman; and their legislative director, Joe Violante, are watching this, and we thank them for their leadership in this fight.

These groups put together the idea that resources for VA health care should be provided through advance appropriations, so that when the fiscal year starts on October 1, the VA will already have its budget figure regardless of what occurred in the year's budget that was funding other agencies. The result of their advocacy is H.R. 1016, which will pass as we pass the resolution before us on the floor.

The VA budget, in fact, has been in place at the start of the fiscal year only four times in the last two decades. We all felt that this delay in providing vital funding, for whatever reasons that were going on in the House and the Senate, put the provision of health care to veterans at risk and hampered the VA's ability to plan its health care expenditures and hire needed health care professionals. This was a concern that was shared by current and former VA officials.

Again this year the VA was forced to rely on funding from a continuing resolution, even though the House acted in a timely fashion and passed the FY 2010 VA spending bill in July.

The House passed its version of the forward funding bill by a vote of 409-1 this June. Our other colleagues in the Senate acted in August, and the version of the legislation before us represents a compromise agreement between us and our colleagues on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

The bill will ensure that VA can best plan and utilize taxpayer dollars to provide veterans with the health care they have earned and deserve. It provides a framework with which we can realize advance appropriations for VA medical care accounts.

As part of the annual budget submission, the President will be required to submit a request for certain VA accounts for the ``fiscal year following the fiscal year for which the budget is submitted.'' For example, as part of the administration's fiscal year 2011 budget, the President will include budget estimates for VA medical care accounts for fiscal year 2012. The VA will be required to detail estimates in the budget documents it submits annually to Congress.

Each July, the VA will be required to report to Congress if it has the resources it needs in the upcoming fiscal year in order for Congress to address any funding imbalances. This will help to safeguard against the VA facing budget shortfalls such as it faced several years ago.

Finally, the Government Accountability Office will report, within 120 days of the annual budget submission, whether VA's advance appropriations requests are in line with workload and cost estimates and the VA's budget model. It sounds a little complicated. It was worked out by, as I said, this really hardworking coalition of veterans' organizations and, in fact, bottom line and simple, it will make sure that a year in advance, the VA will be funded appropriately.

I want to thank both the Appropriations and the Budget Committees for their assistance in moving this measure forward. The Budget Committee, for example, in the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution provided explicit language exempting the three medical care accounts of the VA, the accounts covered by the compromise agreement on H.R. 1016, from many points of order against advance appropriations. The Appropriations Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Obey and Chairman Edwards, provided for advance appropriations for the three medical care accounts representing an 8 percent increase above the historic levels provided for fiscal year 2010.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert a copy of the letter from the veterans' groups comprising the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform expressing their full support of this measure and an explanatory statement on the bill in the Congressional Record.

By working together, Congress and the administration have provided veterans with their top legislative priority. They spoke, we listened, and today we are acting. I ask the rest of the House to join once again in unanimous support of this bipartisan bill and ask for swift action by the Senate before the end of this session.

The Partnership for Veterans

Health Care Budget Reform,

Washington, DC, September 29, 2009.

Hon. Bob Filner,

Chairman, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Cannon House

Office Building, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Filner: On behalf of the Partnership for

Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, we write to fully endorse

the substitute amendment that you intend to offer to H.R.

1016, the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency

Act. We understand that this amendment has been developed in

cooperation with Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman

Akaka and Ranking Member Burr, who join you in support of

this new language. We agree with all of you that adoption and

enactment of H.R. 1016, as amended by this substitute

amendment, will lead to VA health care funding that is

sufficient, timely and predictable.

The Partnership, comprised of nine leading veterans service

organizations, has long sought a solution to the recurring

budget problems that have plagued the VA health care system

for most of the past two decades. Last year we began

advocating that Congress provide advance appropriations for

VA medical care and we were grateful that you introduced

legislation to authorize this funding reform. We supported

your reintroduction of this legislation (H.R. 1016) in

February and fully supported the substitute amendment you

offered during the Committee's markup in June, that was

subsequently approved by the full House with a vote of 409 to

1 on June 23rd. That amendment would add important new budget

reporting provisions for VA medical care and would increase

transparency of the advance appropriation process,

strengthening the legislation.

The compromise substitute amendment you plan to offer on

the House floor retains these provisions and makes two other

modifications. First, your new amendment provides the

Government Accountability Office, GAO, with 120 days from the

time the President submits his budget to Congress to review

and report on whether the level of funding requested for VA's

medical care accounts is consistent with the estimates

generated by VA's Enrollee Health Care Projection Model. With

this change, GAO would have ample time to complete the review

and still report in a timeframe that allows Congress to

consider this information before finalizing future

appropriations levels for VA health care.

Second, this compromise amendment limits VA's advance

appropriations to the three medical care accounts, Medical

Services, Medical Facilities, and Medical Support and

Compliance, contained in our original proposal, removing the

two additional ones, Medical and Prosthetic Research, and

Information Technology, added during the Committee's markup.

We understand the reasons

for this modification and support your compromise position.

However, we expect that the Committee will closely monitor

implementation of this legislation and carefully consider

whether VA health care would be enhanced if additional budget

accounts, such as IT and research, were similarly

appropriated in advance.

Mr. Chairman, the Partnership has worked for over two

decades to enact legislation that would assure sufficient,

timely and predictable funding for VA health care. With your

leadership, and that of Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Burr

and others, as well as the crucial support of President

Obama, we are closer than ever to achieving an historic

legislative victory on behalf of all veterans. We thank you

for all that you have done to support these efforts, and look

forward to working with you on future matters of importance

to the men and women who have served, are serving, and will

serve in our nation's armed forces.

Respectfully,

Steve Robertson, Legislative Director, The American

Legion; Thomas Zampieri, Director of Government

Relations, Blinded Veterans Association; Herb

Rosenbleeth, National Executive Director, Jewish War

Veterans of the USA; Carl Blake, Legislative Director,

Paralyzed Veterans of America; Rick Weidman, Director

of Government Relations, Vietnam Veterans of America,

Inc.; Raymond C. Kelley, National Legislative Director,

AMVETS (American Veterans); Joseph A. Violante,

National Legislative Director, Disabled American

Veterans; Hershel Gober, National Legislative Director,

Military Order of the Purple Heart of the USA; Dennis

Cullinan, Legislative Director, Veterans of Foreign

Wars of the United States.

As I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud), I would just remind the gentleman from Florida that when the Senate saw that the prime mover of the amendment that put those two extra accounts in the bill was the only one in the House that voted against the bill that was sent to the Senate, they didn't take that too seriously. I just would remind the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I would yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Halvorson) who as a new Member has been an incredibly active and committed member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to another new Member who has been a great addition to our committee, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Teague).

I do have more speakers, yes.

How much time do I have left, Mr. Speaker?

I yield 2 minutes to another new member of our committee who has, again, given us a great commitment and energy to the cause of veterans, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Nye).

I yield myself 30 seconds just to say something I forgot when I introduced the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud).

In this process, there was a time when the executive branch seemed to waiver in its commitment to this effort, and Mr. Michaud's tenacity and his steadfast support of this makes sure that we continue down this path. I want to thank him for doing that.

I yield as much time as he may consume to Mr. Hare from Illinois, a former member of the committee, who I wish was still on our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for those words of support, and I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on House Resolution 804.

Mr. Speaker, this is a unique solution for a unique population, our veterans. Again, I want to thank the Disabled American Veterans and all of the members of the coalition who are watching this on television or in the gallery today for working so hard to come up with this unique approach. It is an incredibly good solution to what we saw as a real problem. It took creativity, it took commitment, and it took sticktuitiveness to get this done. I tell you, we would not have been here without the coalition's work. So I urge all my colleagues to adopt this legislation.

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 (S. 1717) to authorize major medical facility leases for the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2010, and for other purposes.

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

I rise in support of S. 1717, a bill to authorize 15 major medical facility leases for the Department of Veterans Affairs' fiscal year 2010 budget. The bill would also authorize $196 million to allow the VA to carry out these leases in a timely manner.

Mr. Speaker, the VA operates the largest direct health care delivery system in America. Providing timely access to high-quality health care to veterans is the work of the VA. It provides these services through their sizable inventory of buildings and properties that include 153 medical centers, 755 outpatient clinics, and 230 vet centers. This bill provides the VA the ability to move forward without delay on the execution of important leases. Veterans who have been anticipating new clinics opening up in their communities will not be disappointed if we act on time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to thank the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for taking the lead and moving this bill so quickly. I urge support of the legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no speakers running for Governor or Senator, so I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), who has been an incredible advocate for, I think, a unique approach to serving the veterans in his area in Monterey, California.

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 1717.

Mr. Speaker, I think the importance of this bill and its quick passage has been proven by all the speakers.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Lynch, I thank you. I thank Chairman Towns and the Speaker for getting us this resolution so quickly.

We celebrate today and congratulate the Chula Vista Park View Little League team for winning the 2009 Little League World Series.

I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, for several weeks last month, our whole region, the San Diego region and the city of Chula Vista in particular, was enthralled by these 12 young men on the little league team who managed to win victory after victory, some with dramatic comebacks from behind.

They hit home runs whether they were 5 foot 1 or 6 foot 2 and, in fact, set the little league world series record for number of home runs. Their defensive play was incredible, making some fantastic double plays that were worthy of the Major Leagues.

Running the bases or just cheering on the team, every one of these 12 young men played a very important role, and our whole region was enthralled by them.

So we want to thank Isaiah, Oscar, Nick, Kiko, Garcia, Bulla, Seth, Markus, Jensen, Daniel, Luke, Andy, and Bradley for their incredible play in this World Series. The manager, Oscar Castro; the coach, Ric Ramirez; and the little league president, Rod Roberto, were key figures, of course, in this incredible victory.

These young men were dubbed the Blue Bombers. Their final victory was over Taipei in a 6-3 victory. They come from behind in that one, too.

They displayed the success that solid coaching brings and the execution of the fundamentals that little league stresses. Again, the whole region was thrilled by their performance--playing with poise, with class, with sportsmanship. They even invited the Chinese Taipei team to join them on their victory lap around the field at Williamsport to show their own incredible team spirit and sportsmanship.

Chula Vista is a city hard hit by foreclosures and the national recession. It often feels overshadowed by the bigger city of San Diego and affluent suburbs further north, so this victory was particularly sweet for the city of Chula Vista. It helped us all through some tough times. When our professional teams in the area were losing, the little league team was, in fact, victorious.

So all of us here today commend the hard work, dedication and determination of the members, the parents who came out always to support them and were with them the whole way, their coaches, their managers, and the community itself for the outstanding loyalty and support that they displayed to the team throughout the whole season. The welcome home ceremony was attended by 12,000 people in the stadium.

So I thank the House. I thank the Speaker. I thank Mr. Lynch and Chairman Towns for joining me in congratulating and honoring the Chula Vista Park View Little League team for winning the 2009 World Championship game of the Little League World Series. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a very dedicated, committed leader of the labor movement in America who deserves to be recognized for his tireless contributions to working men and women.

Shannon Silva was born and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1974. After High School, Shannon followed the family tradition as a tuna fisherman, where he was stationed on one of the first exploratory boats to fish off both coasts of Africa. After fishing career concluded, he worked for the Pepsi Cola Bottling Group from April 5, 1976 to April 7, 1991. On April 8, 1991, Shannon went on to work for Interstate Brands Corporation (Weber's Bread) as a sales driver and union supervisor until February 28, 1999. While working for Weber's Bread, Shannon also served on the Executive Board of Teamster's Local 683.

He was elected as a Trustee on January 1, 1989, and appointed Recording Secretary on October 1, 1991 and appointed the Local's President on February 1, 1993.

On March 1, 1999 Shannon went to work for Local 683 full time as a Business Representative, until December 31, 2004. On January 1, 2005 he was appointed Secretary Treasurer of Local 683 and was re-elected January 1, 2007, in which he continues to serve in that capacity.

Shannon is currently a member of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council Executive Board. He was also appointed to the National Bakery Drivers Policy Committee and serves as a Trustee on the San Diego County Teamsters-Employers Insurance Trust Fund, Teamsters Miscellaneous Security Trust Fund and the Southern California Bakery Drivers Security Fund.

It gives me a great honor Madam Speaker, to join with so many colleagues, community leaders and well wishers in proclaiming Shannon Silva as the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council's 2009, Labor Leader of the Year.

Madam speaker, on rollcall 687, I was unable to vote, as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall 688, I was unable to vote, as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, on rollcall 689, I was unable to vote as I was away from the Capitol in my capacity as Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 3365, the Medicare VA Reimbursement Act of 2009. This legislation authorizes the establishment of a Medicare VA reimbursement program where HHS reimburses the VA for the provision of health care to Medicare eligible veterans for the treatment of non-service-connected conditions at VA medical facilities.

Today, there are veterans who have earned VA health care benefits with their service to our country, as well as Medicare benefits, by paying into the Social Security system during their working years. Even though these individuals have clearly earned both of these benefits, current law unfairly prohibits them from using their Medicare benefits at VA facilities even though they may feel more comfortable seeking care among their fellow veterans from VA providers who specialize in caring for veterans.

This is also inconsistent with the authorities granted to other Federal entities such as the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Department of Defense's (DoD) TRICARE for Life that are allowed to bill Medicare. IHS and DoD are able to augment their resources with Medicare collections and reinvest the extra funding back into their programs and services. H.R. 3365 would provide equity in such billing practices among the Federal entities. In other words, the VA would be able to access an important new source of revenues from Medicare which may be reinvested to further strengthen the VA's health care system.

In detail, this legislation requires the Secretaries of VA and HHS to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) no later than six months after the date of the enactment of the Act. The MOU must establish such program elements as the frequency of reimbursement, the billing system, the data sharing agreement, and the payment rate.

H.R. 3365 also provides some guidelines on setting the payment rate so that the terms that contributed to the failure of the Medicare DoD Subvention Demonstration Project are not repeated again. For example, this legislation prohibits setting a reimbursement rate which is less than 100 percent of the amount that Medicare would pay a participating provider. It also prohibits annual caps on reimbursement and does not allow for a maintenance of effort requirement, which refers to the requirement that VA maintain a certain level of spending before they can be reimbursed from HHS.

Finally, H.R. 3365 requires an annual report to Congress providing program data, as well as a triennial GAO report assessing the program impact.

I urge the support of all Members for this important legislation.