FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2019
Floor Schedule and Procedure: Under a Rule (2 bills):
This bill is a package of five bills reported by the Appropriations Committee for FY2020, and is the second set of FY2020 appropriations bills the House will consider this year. It includes Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations. Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs The Military Construction-VA bill provides $108 billion in discretionary funding to support military construction projects and critical health & wellness program for veterans. The bill provides $1.5 billion to fix high-priority remediation issues in military housing, allocates over $80 billion to VA medical care, provides $3 billion to reduce the disability claims processing backlog, and includes $222 million for suicide prevention outreach to veterans. Click here for a fact sheet on the Military Construction-VA bill. Click here for a summary of the Military Construction-VA bill. Click here for the Committee Report. Amendments to be considered today: Raskin Amendment Increases and decreases funding by $1 million for Military Construction, Navy and Marine Corps in order to support construction projects on military facilities and facilities that serve the military community where health and safety are at risk. Lesko Amendment Increases and decreases the Veterans Health Administration account by $3 million to be directed towards women only inpatient clinics. McCarthy Amendment Increases and decreases funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Construction, Major Projects account by $39.732 million to support the timely completion of construction of VA facilities authorized by Public Law 111-82. Blumenauer Amendment Prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from interfering with a veteran’s participation in a state medical cannabis program, denying a veteran who participates in a state medical cannabis program from being denied VA services, and interfering with the ability of VA health care providers to recommend participation in state medical cannabis programs. Walberg Amendment Prohibits the use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce proposed rules limiting veterans’ ability to access care from a prosthetist of their choice. Lynch Amendment Increases funding for Medical Services by $1 million, with the intention of it being directed to Public-Private Partnerships to reduce veteran suicides, decreases General Administration account by $1 million. Barr Amendment Increases by $5 million the VHA’s Medical Services account for the explicit use for VA’s Adaptive Sports Grant (ASG) Program equine assisted therapy, given the promising results reported using equine assisted therapy for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, decreases by $5 million the VHA’s Medical Community of Care account. Welch Amendment Increases and decreases funding for the VA medical services account by $1 million for the purpose of encouraging VA to collaborate with states on their efforts to conduct educational outreach and help veterans enroll in the burn pits registry. Allen Amendment Increases and decreases Military Construction, Army by $37 million to fulfill the President’s budget request for construction of the Cyber Instructional Facility at Fort Gordon. Connolly Amendment Increases and decreases VA OIG funding by $1 million to encourage the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General to devote sufficient resources to oversight of the Washington, DC VA Medical Center. Bost Amendment #205 Increases and decreases by $1 million the Native American Veteran Housing Loan Program Account to emphasize the positive pro-bono legal services done by public university law schools to help veterans and their dependents in underserved areas. Bost Amendment #206 Prohibits funding to be used in contravention of the Executive Order titled, “Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects.” Sewell Amendment Increases and decreases the Medical Community Care account by $1 to instruct the Veterans Health Administration to prioritize funding for the modernization of medical transportation programs for Veterans, particularly those who are rural, underserved or female. Ruiz Amendment Increases and decreases funding to VA Medical Services account by $1 million to conduct educational outreach to veterans to enroll in the burn pits registry, conduct additional research using the registry, and other activities concerning the maintenance of the registry. Johnson (LA) Amendment #210 Increases and decreases DOD Military Construction, Army funds by $1 to show Congressional intent for the Army to prioritize modernization funding for its Combat Development Centers (CDC) in order to properly prepare and equip the Army for training scenarios. Johnson (LA) Amendment #211 Increases and decreases Military Construction, Air Force funds by $1 to show Congressional intent to ensure the Air Force continues to follow its revised plan for construction and upgrades to the Weapons Generation Facility enterprise and its critical function to the national security interests of the United States. Gottheimer Amendment #212 Increases and decrease funding for the VA General Administration account by $1 million to address staffing shortages across the board at the VA. Gottheimer Amendment #213 Increases funding by $5 million for the Veterans Health Administration to hire more mental health professionals, the most needed occupation according to the VA’s Inspector General, decreases by $6.5 million from the General Administration account. Steil Amendment Increases and decreases by $1 million funding for the Veterans Health Administration Medical Services account to express the Congressional intent that the VA suicide prevention and treatment programs should be adequately funded. Blunt Rochester Amendment Increases and decreases by $1 million the Veterans Health Administration Medical Services account for the purpose of expressing concern over uncompensated care for veterans under a certain service-connected disability rating at State veterans nursing homes. This includes uncompensated dental care for veterans without a 100% disability rating and pharmacy co-pay for veterans with less than a 70% rating. Hill (AR) Amendment Increases by $1.5 million programs within the Medical Services account, including homeless assistance programs and suicide prevention outreach, decreases by $1.5 million the Departmental Administration account. Carbajal Amendment #217 Increases and decreases Veterans Health Administration Medical Services funding by $5 million to direct the Secretary to change the phone system to have local Community Based Outpatient Centers answer calls rather than having all calls routed to the major VA Medical Centers in an effort to reduce wait times for veterans on the phone and to provide more timely health services. Carbajal Amendment #218 Increases by $3 million the Veterans Transportation Program within the Medical Services account, to assist veterans in attending to all their medical appointments in a timely manner, decreases by $3.5 million funding for information technology systems. Cunningham Amendment #219 Prevents any military construction funding from being used towards a new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round. Golden Amendment Increases funds for the VA Medical Facilities account by $5 million, decreases by $5.2 million funding for information technology systems. McAdams Amendment Increases and decreases by $1 the Veterans Benefits Administration, General Operating Expenses account with the intent to instructs the Department of Veterans Affairs to submit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate an implementation plan, including expected timeline and resource requirements, for the Department of Veterans Affairs to complete the requirements of Section 302 of Public Law 115-174. Porter Amendment #222 Increases funding by $1 million for the Veterans Crisis Line, decreases by $1,000,000 funding for the Information Technology Systems account. Porter Amendment #223 Increases funding by $2 million for VA homeless assistance programs to combat Veteran homelessness, decreases by $2 million funding for the Information Technology Systems account. Pappas Amendment Increases and decreases by $10 million the Veterans Health Administration Medical Facilities funds to specify improvements to the environment of care for women veterans in VA facilities. Kim Amendment #225 Increases and decreases the Air Force account by $7 million to address road safety issues at military bases. Cunningham Amendment #226 Prohibits funds to future defense projects that do not conform with military resilience standards. Houlahan Amendment Increases the Veterans Health Administration Medical Services account by $1.7 million in order to increase the minimum amount that must spent on gender-specific care for women at the VA, decreases by $1.7 million the General Administration account. Kim Amendment #228 Increases and decreases the Army Reserve account by $7 million to address road safety issues at military bases. |
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| QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” Franklin D. Roosevelt |