Steve Buyer: “this is excellent bipartisan legislation, not only between the Members of this body but also between the House and the…”

“this is excellent bipartisan legislation, not only between the Members of this body but also between the House and the Senate. This is a good compromise, not only with regard to major facility construction, whether it is to improve, renovate, replace, update and establish new health care facilities around the country. That is an excellent portion of this bill. I would like to bring to my colleagues' attention that included in this compromise package is some legislation I authored to ensure the ethical treatment and safety of veterans who participate in VA medical research. We spend a lot of money on VA medical research, and there have been some incidents over the years whereby veterans have been harmed. And just the title of what it is called, Human Subject Protection, by calling humans subjects, it even sort of desensitizes the issue that there is a human being here at stake. The VA medical research human subject protections section of this bill does the following: We will establish an independent office to oversee research and compliance and assurance.”