Sanford Bishop: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, let me say that I am delighted to have the opportunity to work…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, let me say that I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Chairman Dent of the subcommittee as well as the chairman and ranking member of the full committee. Madam Chair, as you know, this bill has a strong reputation for common ground and bipartisanship. We are pleased with several aspects of the bill. For example, the bill maintains tough but fair reporting requirements for VistA modernization, which closely tracks the VA's development of its electronic health record. The bill continues to prioritize the elimination of the veterans claims backlog by fully funding the fiscal year 2016 requests: $18.3 million for a centralized mail initiative which consolidates inbound paper mail from regional offices to a centralized intake site, as well as $140.8 million for the Veterans Claims Intake Program to scan and convert paper claims into a digital format. I believe that these are all positive steps to making the VA function better. Furthermore, Chairman Dent has avoided including contentious legislative riders, which is very much appreciated. Unfortunately, however, the chairman was forced to write a bill under the majority's fiscal year 2016 budget resolution, which chose to lock in the Budget Control Act levels and to use gimmicks to boost defense funding.…”