Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for the Department of Veterans Affairs

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25), Ranking Member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Thank you, Chairman Carter, for yielding.

Welcome, Secretary McDonough. Thank you for being here today.

The fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs includes $337 billion, and in addition, it will fully utilize the $24.5 billion provided for the Toxic Exposures Fund in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

This funding will support the Department’s mission to provide world class health care and benefits to veterans.

We have historically expanded healthcare and benefits to veterans exposed to toxins during their time in service through the passage of the PACT Act, and the Department is surpassing expectations in its implementation. More than 1.3 million PACT-Act related claims have been received and over 1.1 million have been completed.

Just last month, VA announced that all veterans who were exposed to toxins or other hazards while serving in the military are eligible to enroll directly in VA healthcare without first applying for benefits.

This is years earlier than required by the PACT Act.

Additionally, VA is ending its discriminatory IVF policy by expanding services to eligible veterans regardless of marital status or sexual orientation and will allow for donated eggs and sperm.

This is long overdue, but I applaud VA for finally taking this important step to help veterans start or grow their families.

2023 was the 100th anniversary of providing healthcare to women veterans, which is the largest growing group of veterans. Not just providing access, but continuing to expand access to gender-specific care is vital to ensure we are fully providing the healthcare veterans want and deserve.

Women are serving this country right next to men, and it’s a shame how hard we have to fight to provide the necessary resources to support gender-specific care year after year.

VA is continuing to build new state of the art medical centers and continuing to modernize and improve current facilities. Quality infrastructure is the bedrock to providing care to veterans, and it must be maintained.

We cannot provide the necessary care to veterans if buildings are crumbling around us. With an estimated capital funding requirement of over $160 billion, we have a long way to go.

VA is on the cutting edge of research, and I am proud to say that it will be eliminating the use of research on animals within the next two years, and we are pushing VA to find other scientific methods to conduct this vital research.

I am especially proud of this – I have been pushing for years to eliminate harmful testing on animals, and we were able to come to a bipartisan, bicameral agreement in conference last year to make this happen.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is doing really great things for veterans, and we want to make sure that it is able to continue to do so.

However, today, we are essentially supporting two health care systems.

The one that we are working to continue to expand to make sure all veterans receive the best care by the best providers who know how to care for veterans – and the one in the community we are supporting to try to fill the gap in service for veterans so we can ensure we keep our promise to always care for those who sacrificed so much for us.

But since the passage of the MISSION Act and coupled with dramatic impacts from the pandemic, I am worried at how much we are relying on the community.

Medical community care continues to exponentially grow year after year and is becoming unsustainable. I do not want to be over relying on community care at the expense of providing the high quality care and service within VA facilities.

Especially with the record hiring the Department has done this past year, we should have the capacity within the system to do more for veterans.

I worry we are not doing enough to show veterans why they should get their care within VA since VA is willing and able to provide it, and especially if VA can provide that care better and faster than in the community in some circumstances, even if the veteran is eligible for community care.

The majority of veterans prefer to receive their care at the VA because this is where they can get care in an environment that understands their unique needs.

So, today’s hearing is vitally important. Without a third budget category, VA continues to compete for scarce resources along with the other domestic funding bills.

Mr. Secretary, once again, I support your request to break out medical care as a third budget category, and I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do the same. The intensity and reliance on the VA healthcare system, coupled with medical inflation is consistently driving the ever-growing funding requirements of VA medical care.

The third budget category will ensure that funding for veterans’ healthcare will always be taken care of – so veteran healthcare is not pitted against other nondefense discretionary programs.

This year, we are working within the tight confines of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, so it is especially important to make every dollar count for our veterans.

With that, I look forward to your testimony, Mr. Secretary, and I yield back.