On the recordMarch 20, 2010
First of all, I'd like to applaud Buck McKeon and Ike Skelton for their efforts, along with Mr. Levin, to permit this bill to be considered, but we haven't gone far enough. Now, it's kind of what happens when we rush or go too fast around here. We get sloppy in our drafting. Now, in the bill that was passed here in the House, there were general authority provisions under the Secretaries of DOD and VA to ensure that those health systems would be protected--the authorities, their general provision authorities to the Secretaries would be protected. That language was not in the Senate bill. The Senate bill, which is now coming over here, interestingly enough, to--which is about to be deemed. Pretty interesting. I don't know if you know about the word ``deem.'' It comes from the old English origin to ``dom,'' and to ``dom'' was from judges. It means to make judgment. In the 17th century, judges actually then began to make rapid judgments, and they called them ``deemers.'' The origin of to dom-- there are two words: to deem and to doom. Pretty fascinating. So, right now, the language that was going to be deemed, the bill under consideration, will, in fact, cover the TRICARE, because right now it covers just TRICARE for Life. There's about $30 billion a year for TRICARE for those who are active duty, or guardsmen, or reservists who are brought to active duty to include their dependents. And with this $30 billion price tag, that's a lot of money.
