Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 15, 2007)

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thank the Chair, and I thank the leadership for the opportunity to present this amendment.

This amendment is very simple. It transfers $50 million from the 1990 BRAC account and puts $22 million into the Veterans Health Administration and Medical Services account. The proposal for the 1990 BRAC account is $50 million above the Department of Defense request. As has been talked about with the previous amendment, it is nigh impossible to be spending more than the request.

The money that is in the request is used for environmental cleanup associated with previous BRAC-based closings, and my amendment would make the 1990 BRAC account reflect the Defense Department request and place $22 million of these funds in health care for our veterans. The amendment as scored by CBO is outlay neutral which is the reason for the difference in the figures.

While cleaning up after base closings is indeed important, the unrequested money, as has been mentioned, would be very difficult to spend and would be better spent, I believe, by providing better health care for our returning service men and women.

The conflict we are in has left many soldiers with lifelong injuries, and veterans are acquiring lasting health care. As a physician, I am well aware of the fact that traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder are the signature conditions from our current conflict. As we are learning more about traumatic brain injury and PTSD, we find that more and more of our soldiers are suffering from these injuries.

I believe it is imperative that we ensure that as much funding as possible is available to go for important veterans health care. I believe this amendment to be a fiscally responsible amendment that ensures that our veterans are taken care of in the finest possible manner. I urge adoption of the amendment.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the chairman's comments, and I applaud the work he has done to increase funding for veterans health care, sincerely. I don't recall, specifically, requests to the committee; but I am certainly on record in multiple areas across this Congress in urging increased funding for health care. As a physician, I appreciate the need for increased funding for health care across all areas of our budget.

My understanding regarding this provision in the bill is that the $50 million increase over the DOD request is, as I understood it, money that would not be able to be spent in fiscal year 2008. Consequently, that was the reason we requested or proposed in this amendment that the money come from that. So removing $50 million from there, based on outlays by CBO, would stipulate that $22 million was available; and it is my respected request to my colleagues that we place that money for veterans health care for the obvious benefits to all.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate the chairman yielding.

I would hope that we wouldn't impugn an individual's motives for bringing amendments forward. My motive is sincere. I believe it is appropriate to increase funding for veterans health care as much as possible, and it was my understanding, and we can disagree about whether or not the funds would be available to be spent in fiscal year 2008, and we may have a legitimate disagreement about that, but I would hope that we wouldn't impugn an individual's motives.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I commend you for the increase in health care spending.

The $22 million comes from removing the $50 million that the Defense Department didn't request in the account, and then it works out to be $22 million based on outlays.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I think I mentioned in my comments that the increase in traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress syndrome that we are seeing with the conflict that we are currently in obviously warrants as much funding as we can make available to our veterans who are serving us so proudly.

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