Chris Smith: “Mr. Chairman, next year the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs will spend over $40 billion combined on health…”

“Mr. Chairman, next year the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs will spend over $40 billion combined on health care for current or former military personnel and their families. Despite this enormous sum, despite the fact that this year under the leadership of the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle), the discretionary spending, the health care spending will increase just for VA alone by $2.8 billion, there is still not enough to meet the growing demand. The bipartisan amendment that I offer today on behalf of myself, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), is designed to provide additional resources to both health care systems by providing sharing agreements between the Department of Defense and the VA. Mr. Chairman, while statutory authority to allow resource sharing has existed for more than 20 years, as a matter of fact, the legislation was enacted during my first term 21 years ago, the latest figures tell us that the level of sharing between the VA and the DOD remains extremely low, almost a joke, accounting for less than 1 percent of their combined health care budgets. The Federal Government can and must do more to increase resource sharing whenever and wherever feasible.”