Lowey statement at markup of FY2017 Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill

Thank you, Chairman Dent, Ranking Member Bishop, and Chairman Rogers for your work on this bill.

Mr. Chairman, before I turn to the Military Construction-VA bill, I must note that for months, we have heard commitments from Republican leadership that the budget and appropriations process will return to regular order and adhere to the bipartisan agreement enacted in late 2015. Yet at our first markup, the House still has not passed a budget, the smart money says we never will, and the Speaker is threatening to keep appropriations bills off the floor unless a budget is passed.

The most extreme voices in the Republican conference – who would renege on last year’s bipartisan budget agreement – continue to reject as insufficiently radical, the Republican budget resolution that would devastate good-paying jobs, end the Medicare guarantee, and increase poverty in our communities.

I do not know the majority’s path forward. But I know this is not what was promised, and we are not on track for regular order or responsible governing.

Turning to Military Construction-VA, the bill provides $81.6 billion in discretionary funding, which is $1.2 billion below the Fiscal Year 2017 budget request and a $1.8 billion increase above the Fiscal Year 2016 enacted level, and would constitute a number of important improvements, including:

Furthering the reduction of the veterans’ claims backlog, which has dropped from 600,000 to 80,000 in the past two years;
Emphasizing the need for prosthetics designed for women and renewing the VA’s focus on improving access to both medical and mental health services for female veterans, who have different needs than their male counterparts; and
Strong oversight of the electronic health record system which would require the VA to meet benchmarks throughout the fiscal year, and improve interoperability with the Department of Defense.

Finally, I would be remiss not to note that, as the Appropriations process proceeds, funding levels will be extremely tight for critical priorities that we must not shortchange. Last year’s bipartisan budget agreement keeps domestic discretionary spending essentially flat; however the needs facing our nation have grown significantly, including for veterans’ medical services. We will soon see that rising rent prices have raised costs for federal housing assistance, and FHA receipts are down, restricting an already tight total spending level. Increases are necessary for the decennial Census, Secret Service candidate protection, and much more.
I am concerned that, yet again, we are embarking down a path of increasing funding for bills early in the process without a plan to provide adequate allocations to other critical priorities, including infrastructure, education, and homeland security, which will be cut as a result of these investments.

Furthermore, emergency investments are critical to address new and urgent challenges, like aggressively confronting the Zika virus, helping Flint, Michigan, protecting other communities from lead poisoning, and fighting the epidemic of opioid abuse.

Meeting these responsibilities will require emergency spending, flexibility, and wisdom in allocating our scarce resources. I look forward to working with each of you to meet these needs. Thank you.