David Thomas: “Mr. Chairman, obviously, what is at debate here is whether or not this program, the way it is currently constructed, is…”

“Mr. Chairman, obviously, what is at debate here is whether or not this program, the way it is currently constructed, is one which has a maximum chance of retaining viability. One of our colleagues, I believe, got a little carried away in her eloquence and indicated that this was going to be available for every eligible retiree. It is not. It is a very limited program, 70,000. The gentleman from Virginia said it really exposed the trust fund to $50 million. That is correct. But it is a $327 million CBO estimate cost over 3 years, 70,000 retirees, $327 million. It also has no permanent transition. One of the things we tried to do in the DOD subvention and that Members will see we are doing in the VA subvention is to say that if it is, in fact, successful, this is what occurs as a follow-up. What we have here is an amendment that started out at more than $3 billion. In an attempt to get costs under control, although we were not able to work, and I would like to make one brief allusion to the May 4 meeting. That was the one meeting that was held. It was a late Friday night phone call, and my staff was unable to work because they were working on the VA subvention. They did a follow-up on Monday, and that was their only opportunity to try to have some input. All of us want to help our military retirees and our veterans.”