Bishop statement at full committee markup of 2016 Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill

Thank you for yielding, Mr. Chairman. As you all know, this bill has a strong reputation for finding bipartisan common ground as members work together to fund the construction of military facilities and strive to improve the quality of life and care afforded to our veterans and military families.

As I said at the subcommittee markup Chairman Dent has set a cooperative tone from day one and I really appreciate his efforts to be inclusive. I am pleased with several aspects of the bill. For example, the bill maintains the tough but fair reporting requirements for Electronic Health Records endeavor.  The bill continues to prioritize the elimination of the claims backlog, and it includes steps to keep the Board of Veterans Appeals ahead of the curve.  I think these are all positive steps to making the VA function better.  At the same time Chairman Dent has avoided including contentious legislative riders.

Unfortunately, Chairman Dent was forced to write a bill under the Majority’s budget resolution which chose to lock in the BCA levels and use gimmicks to boost defense funding. Because of the budget resolutions failure to provide relief from these budget caps, which were established in 2011 and later adjusted in 2013; Chairman Dent was forced to make some tough choices due to the allocation he was given.   

Military Construction is $7.2 billion, an increase of $593 million above 2015 and $1.2 billion below the budget request. In addition, the bill also includes $532 million in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding even though the FY15 budget request did not include an OCO request. The 2016 budget resolutions used a gimmick to boost defense spending by pumping up the OCO budget which is not limited by the budget law.  I believe that this way of getting around the BCA Caps is unreliable and makes it difficult for the Defense Department (DOD) to do long-term planning.  The House Budget Committee choosing to use this gimmick shows that the budget caps have out lived there usefulness.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is funded at $68.7 billion, which is $3.6 billion above the FY 2015 enacted level. Even though we are seeing increases above the enacted level I believe this is still an inadequate allocation.  For example, the request for Major Construction is basically cut in half with a reduction of $582 million.   I am concerned that this reduction will further contribute to the gaps in access, utilization and safety that were already identified in the VA’s annual SCIP process.  Mr. Chairman, I just want to point out that the FY 2017 advance funding is going to eat up $4.6 billion of the non-defense discretionary cap. So next fiscal year the problem only gets worse.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that it’s well past time to be more strategic about how we handle our federal budget.  And now we need to take the next step and stop lurching from crisis to crisis.  As I said earlier, Chairman Dent crafted the best bill he could with the allocation he was given. 

Mr. Chairman, this is the first step in a long process and I am concerned about the impact these reductions to the VA construction account could have and I believe they will have to be addressed as we move through the process.

Before I yield back Mr. Chairman, I would like to recognize the staff for all of the hard work and time they have put into this bill.  From the Minority Committee Staff I would like to thank Matt Washington as well as Michael Reed and Bill Golembiewski from my personal office.  From the Majority Committee staff I would like to thank Maureen Holohan who is in her first cycle as Majority Clerk, Sue Quantius, Sarah Young, and Tracey Russell.