Lowey Statement on 2014 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act

June 4, 2013
Press Release
Lowey Statement on 2014 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act

The bill we are considering continues our long commitment to our veterans and military facilities. It continues a bipartisan tradition of providing funding levels that members on both sides agree are appropriate, while avoiding contentious legislative riders that complicate passage.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The bill we are considering represents a good, reasonable approach and continues our long commitment to our veterans and military facilities. It continues a bipartisan tradition of providing funding levels that members on both sides agree are appropriate, while avoiding contentious legislative riders that complicate passage.

However, the Republican Majority's refusal to go to conference to forge a bipartisan agreement on the budget resolution in unacceptable. This imperils this year's appropriations process, making it nearly impossible to move all twelve bills. Instead, we will likely consider in the full House only a few bills with reasonable allocations, including Milcon/VA, while others are left in limbo indefinitely until we pass a Continuing Resolution.

I'm optimistic this bill has a good chance of enactment, as long as we don't attach any controversial "riders," but other important priorities will assuredly suffer.

While veterans programs are exempt from sequestration, $73.3 billion provided in the bill largely mirrors the Administration's request and does not reflect sequestration, even for the portions of the bill that were not exempted. In fact, the differences between this bill and the Administration's request are relatively small: an adjustment of $1.05 billion due to bid-savings and other project adjustments and the misguided decision not to provide $185 million for the requested 2014 civilian pay raise.

If the MilCon/VA bill assumes the sequester cuts have been replaced, why can't we join the Administration and Senate in assuming it will be addressed for other bills.

On a positive note, this bill would better support our female veterans struggling with the trauma of sexual assault and those in need of prosthetics. It also continues to focus on the mental health needs of our nation's veterans.

The bill, which takes several steps related to the shameful veterans' claims backlog, would:

• Hire 94 additional claims processors;

• Provide $155 million for the Veterans Benefit Management System and $136 million for the Veterans Claims Intake Program to significantly speed up claims by converting old paper files into digital files;

• Restrict funds to force DoD and the VA to use a seamless electronic health record system; and

• Require VA to provide monthly reports.

I will not accept any further excuses; the VA must make progress.

This is a good bill, and I hope we can avoid adding contentious and unnecessary legislative riders today. I also hope that the Chairman from Kentucky's optimism about sequestration, reflected in the allocation for this first bill, is proven true. I commend the chairman and ranking member on their good work.

I urge your support.

 

113th Congress