Political Quotes

“H.R. 2015 would kill the efforts of the Department of Veterans Affairs from obtaining the resources it needs to meet the health care needs of our Nation's veterans. Earlier this year the administration proposed that appropriations for VA health care remain constant at $17 billion a year for 5 years. Clearly the ability of the VA to provide needed health care service to the Nation's veterans could be seriously jeopardized if the resources required to provide that care were fixed, while the costs of providing care increased. To offset the possible dire consequences of an appropriation freeze, the administration also proposed that VA retain funds it collects from third party payers, insurance companies for example, for some treatment provided by VA to certain veterans. The VA is attempting to collect funds for third party payments, but today those recovered funds are simply deposited by the VA into the General Treasury. On a bipartisan basis the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs rejected this proposal. Our committee believed it jeopardized VA's ability to meet veterans' health care needs and we said so.”