Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this piece of legislation. I want to thank the chairman personally for bringing this forward and for being very eloquent in his words on what this does. It is appropriate that it is part of this block of legislation dealing with appeals reform also. I thank the folks who have worked on this for years: Mr. Denham, Mr. Langevin, Ms. McSally, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Costello, Ms. Kuster, Mr. Higgins of New York, and Ms. Shea-Porter. As originally introduced, this bill sought to change a current requirement stipulating that initial physical examinations of those seeking to file disability claims must be conducted by the VA. It was to allow veterans to see a local doctor. Again, as the chairman so clearly pointed out, it was to relieve some of the pressure on the VA, while recognizing we have quality, ethically trustworthy physicians in the private sector who can deliver some of these services. The idea was that requiring the VA to accept private medical evidence from a qualified physician would ease the benefit process in rural communities, expedite diagnosis of disabilities, and reduce the wait times and the backlogs. This is a problem that we have been working on for many years. We introduced similar language in 2013, 2014, and 2015. I would like to thank all my fellow members, both on and off the committee, and those who are no longer in Congress for working toward this.…”