Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I want to thank Chairman Miller of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Ranking Member Brown, and, of
course, Chairman Dent, who chairs the Appropriations MILCON-VA Subcommittee, where I serve as ranking member.

Today, this body is debating text within the highway bill to address the Department of Veterans Affairs' $3 billion budget shortfall for veterans' health care in FY 2015. Without this legislation, the VA could run out of money by September. Costs have exploded by more than 10 percent in the last year as a result of higher demand, while the budget increased by only 2.8 percent.

Additionally, costs for treatments have increased. For example, due to the new lifesaving hepatitis C medicine costing as much as $1,000 for a single pill, the VA's $700 million FY 2015 budget for hepatitis C has already been exceeded with more than 2 months left in the fiscal year.

This situation is a prime example of how the sequester caps imposed by the Budget Control Act and locked in by the Republican budget constrain our ability to deal with issues responsibly and in a timely manner. It is well past time that we come to the table to break the cycle of irresponsible funding levels that are shortchanging our veterans' health care.

While the House-passed FY 2016 MILCON-VA Appropriations bill adds $970 million for VA medical care advance appropriations within the FY 2015 bill, the amount still remains $330 million below the VA request, most likely leading to another budget shortfall in FY 2016. Today's bill is only a Band-Aid, a temporary solution, because of budget caps.

To be clear, if we continue to ignore the new reality of increased demand and higher costs, delivery of healthcare services to millions of currently enrolled veterans will be devastated for the foreseeable future.

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. If Congress continues to function under these budgets caps, we will see more gaps in access, utilization, safety, and, ultimately, a lower standard of care. Even further, the caps limit Congress' options to create jobs, keep our communities safe, research lifesaving medical treatments, and give our children a better education.

I urge Members to vote for this bill to ensure that veterans continue to receive the care which they have earned, but we cannot continue to govern in this fashion. Today, we must take the next step towards a more responsible budgeting process so we can eventually stop lurching from one crisis to the next. To do so, the budget caps must be directly addressed in order to properly invest in veterans' health care as well as advance other priorities assisting hard-working Americans.

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