Rob Woodall: “I want to thank my chairman for yielding me the time. I want to thank him for his leadership. The ranking member, I…”

“I want to thank my chairman for yielding me the time. I want to thank him for his leadership. The ranking member, I appreciate her leadership as well. She was exactly right. These are two House bills that the Senate combined that we passed unanimously here. This veterans trucking language was language that the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley) and I introduced together upon learning that of the more than 54,000 medical professionals that are allowed to certify folks for Federal trucking licenses, only 25 of those worked in the VA system. Of 54,000, only 25 were available to our veterans. We said that is not right, so this House came together. We expanded. All the physicians of the VA became available to serve our veterans through these trucking certifications. The bill went to the President's desk, and he signed it. Then we had folks come back. We had advanced practice nurses, we had physicians' assistants, we had folks working throughout the VA healthcare system who said: You know what, we, too, are licensed to provide these physicals; and if you change the language, we, too, will be your partner in serving veterans. Again, Julia Brownley on the Democrat side; I on this side; my ranking member; Ms. Norton; my chairman here, Mr. Graves; we came together and now we have a further improvement to language that the rules are still being crafted for down at DOT. Mr. Speaker, folks don't think there is cooperation in this Chamber.…”