Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “It is not the place of Congress to be pushing for increased use of specific experimental treatments. The VA is currently…”

“It is not the place of Congress to be pushing for increased use of specific experimental treatments. The VA is currently in the midst of a multiyear clinical trial to collect data on this treatment for potential use in treating post- traumatic stress disorder, but they do not yet have sufficient data one way or the other regarding this treatment. If this treatment is safe, effective, and appropriate for expanded use, then the healthcare experts at the VA should be the ones to expand the treatment for wider use. There is a deliberative process for expanding the use of emerging healthcare treatments, and we should let that process play out. This specific treatment actually involves insertion into the neck of an individual and could be potentially dangerous. We should make sure that we are waiting out the results of the studies that are being done before trying to impose a decision from the House floor. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.”