Home > 106th Congressional Bills > H.R. 439 (eh) To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, popularly known as [Engrossed in House] ...H.R. 439 (eh) To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, popularly known as [Engrossed in House] ...
108th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4399
To establish certain conditions on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
implementing any recommendation of the CARES Commission that would have
the effect of eliminating or severely reducing any medical service
provided to veterans throughout the United States at Department of
Veterans Affairs medical facilities.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 19, 2004
Mrs. Kelly introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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A BILL
To establish certain conditions on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
implementing any recommendation of the CARES Commission that would have
the effect of eliminating or severely reducing any medical service
provided to veterans throughout the United States at Department of
Veterans Affairs medical facilities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Securing Access to Vital
Entitlements for U.S. Veterans Act'' or the ``SAVE US VETS Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Veterans have sacrificed tremendously on behalf of
their Nation and deserve the best quality health care and
benefits that were promised to them by their country.
(2) The Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA)
formula, established by the Department of Veterans Affairs
pursuant to section 429 of the fiscal year 1997 VA/HUD
appropriations Act (Public Law 104-204; 110 Stat. 2929), has
proved to be an ineffective means of allocating veterans
medical care dollars fairly across the 22 national service
regions, known as Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs),
of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(3) A study by the General Accounting Office released in
February 2002 found weaknesses in the Department's
implementation of VERA, such as the omission of about 20
percent of VA's workload in formulating each network's
allocation and VERA's lack of accounting for the cost of
differences among networks resulting from variation in their
patients' health care needs as well as it could, which
``compromise VERA's ability to allocate comparable resources
for comparable workloads''.
(4) The same General Accounting Office study found that
failure to implement the General Accounting Office's
recommendations has resulted in the misallocation of
$200,000,000 annually by the Department and $920,000,000 that
would otherwise have been awarded to veterans health care
facilities in the northeast and was instead granted to the
south and southwest.
(5) In May of 2004, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
announced the Secretary's decision with respect to
implementation of recommendations of the commission established
by the Secretary on December 22, 2003, known as the Department
of Veterans Affairs Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced
Services Commission (or the CARES Commission).
(6) That May 2004 decision of the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs would diminish veterans' health care options by
breaking promises and pushing deserving veterans away from the
veterans health facilities designed and built to provide care
and treatment to the veterans who have suffered on the
battlefield.
(7) The CARES Commission failed to include mental health as
part of its criteria during its completion of its February 2004
report to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
(8) The May 2004 decision of the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to move acute and long-term psychiatry beds, without
proper and sufficient data on mental health of the affected
veterans, is premature and ill-conceived.
(9) The consolidation of services, closing of hospitals,
and removal of services, which the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs claims will ``enhance patient care'', will only worsen
and decrease services available to the Nation's veterans.
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS IMPLEMENTING
CERTAIN RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CARES COMMISSION.
(a) Limitation.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not
implement any recommendation of the CARES Commission described in
subsection (b) until the health care funding allocation system for the
Veterans Health Administration in effect on the date of the enactment
of this Act, known as VERA (Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation), is
replaced with a new, more equitable formula for the allocation of funds
appropriated to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(b) Covered Recommendations.--This section applies to any
recommendation of the CARES Commission that is contained in the report
of that commission dated February 2004 and that would have the effect
of eliminating or severely reducing a medical service provided to
veterans throughout the United States at Department of Veterans Affairs
medical facilities.
(c) CARES Commission.--In this section, the term ``CARES
Commission'' means the commission established by the Secretary on
December 22, 2003, known as the Department of Veterans Affairs Capital
Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services Commission.
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