Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. My amendment to H.R. 1155 would exempt rules and regulations made by the Department of Veterans Affairs from the burdensome provisions of this legislation. The rules that are promulgated by the Department of Veterans Affairs serve the nearly 21.9 million veterans who have served our country, more than 9 million of whom are enrolled in the VA health system. These are the rules that will improve the VA, and these improvements are urgently needed to repair a system that is poorly equipped to handle the increasing numbers of veterans returning from overseas. These are the rules that will ensure that those who have served our country have access to critical and quality health care. However, in its current form, the SCRUB Act would delay or even block the implementation of these rules. For example, it would delay rules designed to provide care to the 2.6 million veterans who were potentially exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. To help these veterans, the VA issued a final interim rule in June of 2015 that would expand the class of veterans presumed to be eligible for treatment. The new regulation would include those who worked with C-123 aircraft known to have been sprayed with this herbicide during the war. But under the terms of this legislation, the VA would be required to go through additional hurdles to meet the procedural requirements of this legislation with absolutely no additional benefits.…”