Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment to H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act. In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that under similar legislation to what we are considering today, the VA each year would need to process about 665,000 claims for reimbursement of childcare each year. The VA has a history filled with delays and difficulty in processing claims for veterans. As my staff and I have worked with veterans in our Texas 27th District, we too often hear from veterans about the trouble they have encountered with the VA. From delays in processing benefit claims, to wait times in scheduling appointments; veterans have often waited months, sometimes years from hearing back from the VA on their request or receiving reimbursement for payments due them. Should this bill pass, the VA will have to process a considerable amount of childcare claims each year; therefore, we must ensure that there is oversight in the VA's progress in paying veterans and private care providers for childcare. My amendment would inject accountability into this program by requiring the VA to submit an annual report to Congress on how the processing of claims is going. Specifically, the report would include data on the number of childcare claims filed each year, the number of staffers required to process a claim, the average cost of each claim, and how long it takes the VA to process a claim.…”