Sam Farr: “this amendment provides $1.82 billion for veterans, particularly in the health care field. It is in 10 separate areas…”

“this amendment provides $1.82 billion for veterans, particularly in the health care field. It is in 10 separate areas: mental health and prosthesis, patient workload backlog, research for prosthesis, nursing home beds for long-term care, priority 8 veterans health care for those veterans who earn as little as $27,000 a year, improving the VA casework backlog that currently takes more than 6 months, money for VA hospital construction, medical administration, the VA IG's office, and unproven efficiencies. Now, why should you be supporting this amendment? Well, Mr. Chairman, next week we will all be going home for Memorial Day recess. And on Memorial Day, we will all, as Members of Congress, get up and tell our veterans all the things we are doing for them. You ought to tell them about this amendment because this amendment does what veterans have asked us to do. The figures that I have proposed here are the independent budget recommendations for mental health, prosthesis, medical and prosthetic research accounts, and staffing levels to improve timely care. The independent budget was brought to the committee, and I want to applaud the chairman for allowing four veterans organizations to bring this, including AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. They provided our committee with a budget of what they thought needed to be done.…”