▶ 0:20:43>> we will need a quorum but in support of everybody's capabilities doing what they need to do, I will have my
▶ 0:20:51Opening Statement And: Ranking member blumenthal. As specified in the notice you received, we have 24 pieces of pending legislation on the agenda. I'm pleased we are back in the stage of looking at policy and legislation and we will work hard to include every members priorities in consideration by the committee.
▶ 0:21:16Opening Statement And: The bills we are taking up today represent bipartisan priorities including expanding access to v.a. Health care and benefits, preventing veteran suicides, supporting caregivers, student veterans, women veterans, survivors of military sexual trauma, and further topics as well. I'm grateful to the sponsors for their work on the proposals.
▶ 0:21:46Opening Statement And: I'm grateful to the v.a. For providing technical assistance on the legislation and consideration to our veteran service organizations for working with us to approve and advance these. And bring these bills to the president's desk for signature and improving services for veterans, families, caregivers and survivors. There is more work to be done on these bills before they pass the full senate.
▶ 0:22:16Opening Statement And: That includes making certain mandatory costs associated with the proposals are fully offset in accordance with paygo requirements after we receive the cost estimate from the budget office. We debated whether we should advance these but while we wait for the cbo score I think it is prudent to start the process. Move the process further along. This will include negotiations with the house, v.a. Leaders and the white house.
▶ 0:22:43Opening Statement And: I look forward to the work we are going to do in the future to get this done and I will be voting in favor of all the bills we are considering today. Before returning to the agenda I yield to the ranking member for his opening comments.
▶ 0:22:58Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Thanks to you and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for a bipartisan package that I think fits the work of this committee, whatever our differences may be on other issues and whatever our complaints about the v.a., as you know I have more than a few.
▶ 0:23:21Sen. Blumenthal: I think we have sought to work together in a bipartisan way, and I think it is important for veterans and advocate to know we are capable of coming together in good faith to advance ideas and legislation on their behalf. It is tough to operate business as usual, but we have an obligation still to serve our veterans.
▶ 0:23:51Sen. Blumenthal: Today I'm proud to advance the service members and veterans empowerment and support act of 2025. This bipartisan legislation would eliminate bureaucratic hurdles for military sexual trauma victims and survivors who apply for v.a. Disability benefits. We look forward to giving survivors a strong voice filing claims while expanding access to treatment they need.
▶ 0:24:27Sen. Blumenthal: And the care and services. They should access to every tool they need to heal from their sexual assault trauma. Other critical bills ensure the v.a. Is better serving disabled veterans, women veterans and student veterans. Some support veterans caregivers and extend and expand efforts to address the mental health needs of veterans and make care more accessible.
▶ 0:24:58Sen. Blumenthal: It is very important. In addition to addressing costs I recognized some of these bills will need changes, technical and substantive as they advance through the legislative process. The chairman and I have worked together for many years and will continue to do so. We continue to hear from v.a.
▶ 0:25:22Sen. Blumenthal: Clinicians and veterans across the country experiencing cuts and delays due to the secretary's ongoing frankly, haphazard, disastrous policies for v.a. Employees and facilities.
▶ 0:25:39Sen. Blumenthal: In that connection I would like to put into the record an article that appeared in prospect for organizational health care entitled privatizing veterans health care will be a disaster. If there is no objection.
▶ 0:25:59Chair Moran: No objection.
▶ 0:26:01Sen. Blumenthal: Let me just say, thank you. After we convene, after recess I plan to introduce legislation to safeguard and expand v.a.'s capacity to provide high-quality accessible care to all veterans, with all kinds of needs and I hope the chairman and I can work together in that effort.
▶ 0:26:26Sen. Blumenthal: I look forward to continued discussion about ensuring community providers are held accountable for meeting basic requirements to provide high-quality care to veterans. That includes returning medical records and ongoing training similar to what is required of v.a. Providers.
▶ 0:26:50Sen. Blumenthal: The first item on the agenda is one that I am going to support for purposes of votes today, but it needs continued work. It is the access act of 2025, senate 275.
▶ 0:27:10Sen. Blumenthal: I'm going to support it today provisionally, on the condition that we continue to work together as the chairman is mentioned, two men -- to make it better than it is now and make it accessible so community care meets the standards necessary and we enhance and improve our v.a. System. Not abandon it, but actually expand and improve.
▶ 0:27:39Sen. Blumenthal: As we work in a bipartisan way to improve access to quality care for veterans in the community, it is essential we do the same for care provided by the v.a. Which has been so essential to our sons, mine, and daughters and our parents and others who have depended on the v.a. Being the gold standard, which it has truly been for many veterans. World-class care that we need to preserve and enhance. Thank you.
▶ 0:28:09Chair Moran: Senator blumenthal, thank you for your comments. You can count on me to work to make certain what this committee does and what happens at the v.a. On behalf of our veterans, whether it is care provided directly in the department of veterans affairs or provided in communities is of the best and highest quality possible.
▶ 0:28:30Chair Moran: I look forward to making certain that turns out to be the case for every veteran who seeks service, and health care, from whatever the venue is that it is provided. I have been involved in the issue of community care for veterans since my early arrival in congress. I represented the district the size of the state of illinois.
▶ 0:28:56Chair Moran: There is no va hospital and as a house member I became interested in what we could do to make certain veterans could access care wherever they live. We supported and continue to support v.a. Outpatient clinics but the distances were miles, or hours, for the travel for those veterans.
▶ 0:29:20Chair Moran: Small town in northwest kansas called atwood, if you are an 88-year-old world war ii veteran or disabled veteran and you live in atwood, it is five or six hours to the va hospital. We created an outpatient clinic and it is three hours from atwood to the clinic. We have worked with creation of choice in early days and ultimately the mission act, of which we were engaged in a significant way in its drafting and passage.
▶ 0:29:50Chair Moran: None of that is designed to undermine or diminish the rule -- the role the department of veterans affairs plays in health care for veterans, and it is not designed and intended, and would not want it will occur, that we prefer choice or community care over the department of veterans affairs. I believe veterans should have a say in where they receive care in the community.
▶ 0:30:16Chair Moran: They have a choice and we will continue to try to do that, but I will work with the ranking member and members of the committee and our colleagues to ensure quality care is provided so veterans have a choice of good care here or good care there. I look forward to that and I think the ranking member for his cooperation.
▶ 0:30:37Chair Moran: He and I outlined my history with regard to community care, senator blumenthal, since my early days as a senator, have worked together on things related and unrelated to veterans and I'm pleased we are here today. It has been a long time this committee legislated and I have been anxious to get it started.
▶ 0:30:59Chair Moran: We are, this legislation I described, it does a number of things to improve the access to community care and I want to make certain as we go down the path, that care, it expands, I don't know there is reason to explain the provisions of the bill.
▶ 0:31:24Chair Moran: We did reach a conclusion, I have been seeking the permanent codification of access standards created in the mission act. This bill does not create a permanent, but an eight opportunity for the access standards to be in the position and the ranking member was cooperative in agreeing to a compromise to get the provision included in the bill. I thank him for his good faith effort to help us report the bill out in that regard.
▶ 0:31:52Chair Moran: This bill also has significant support, strong support from the bso community and I'm grateful for that. I would ask if any other members wish to speak in regard to the access act that is before us. Senator blackburn.
▶ 0:32:09Sen. Blackburn: Thank you. I appreciate we are taking up the access act and we have a pilot on mental health. That will look more comprehensively, if you will, at what we could do with community care.
▶ 0:32:29Sen. Blackburn: One of the things that has concerned me, and I have worked for years on community care and opening up the opportunity for community care, and as we worked on these issues, one of the things we found is about 80% of the v.a. Workforce, 80%, is unionized workforce.
▶ 0:32:53Sen. Blackburn: They continue to push against provisions like community care, expanding the access act, and our goal should be to make health care convenient and provide more options for our veterans.
▶ 0:33:17Sen. Blackburn: To me, taking the access act to permanence is something we should do to honor that sacrifice the veterans have done. Having pilots on community care, in areas other than just mental health, is something we should do. As you mentioned, you have someone that is six hours from a veterans clinic. Tennessee is a long state.
▶ 0:33:47Sen. Blackburn: Upper east tennessee is closer to the canadian border than it is to memphis, tennessee. Having these veterans, giving them the ability to go in their community, to get the care that they need, is something that we should do. So yes, permanence on access.
▶ 0:34:10Sen. Blackburn: More broadly, allowing community care so that veterans can get what they need, when they need it and I think it is imperative that we stop letting the unions dictate what they want. We saw during covid, we had the v.a. Staff that was required to show up only two days out of a two week work period in the office. Two days in person.
▶ 0:34:39Sen. Blackburn: In health care we heard from the secretary, they only got to show up five days and then we wonder why we have such a backlog. I'm supporting the access act. I think we should push this further and make it permanent. So veterans know they will not have to guess if something is going to continue. They will know what they are going to get.
▶ 0:35:03Chair Moran: Thank you. Senator blackburn raises a point I would like to make. There is a shortage of mental health care providers, suicide prevention efforts, and we should utilize every tool we can to make certain mental health services are as available as they can be. That includes care in the community as well as at the department of veterans affairs. >> I will be voting against the access act.
▶ 0:35:34Chair Moran: Not because I don't think veterans deserve mental health services. They certainly do, but moving us to our privatizing v.a. Care is not the way to go. I appreciate your efforts and that of the ranking member to continue working on the bill because the idea is, the commitment should be that veterans should receive care within the ba system.
▶ 0:36:00Chair Moran: We should focus on providing this kind of care and increasing the capacity of the v.a. System to provide all levels of care. It is not just mental health services, there are all kinds of specialty services the v.a., that the veterans need and will we send them into the community to receive this care, or will we focus on recruiting medical professionals within the v.a.
▶ 0:36:30Chair Moran: System, paying them enough, retaining them, doing all of those things that will truly make v.a. Care the kind of care our veterans rely upon? So it is for that reason, not because I don't think, you won't be focused on what we need to be doing, but I do have a concern about moving v.a. Care tech privatization -- towards privatization.
▶ 0:36:53Chair Moran: Thank you.
▶ 0:36:55Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you both, senator hirono and senator blackburn. I want to put an exclamation mark, if we need more mental health care, we should be hiring more sick -- psych high-yield trysts -- psychiatrists and counselors in the v.a.. Cutting the veterans suicide hotline, as the v.a.
▶ 0:37:19Sen. Blumenthal: Secretary did, apparently he restored some of those positions, maybe not all of them but that is an example of how shortchanging the v.a. Is intolerable. We should focus on recruiting and retaining not just mental health but all the areas of health care where the v.a. Has been a leader.
▶ 0:37:42Sen. Blumenthal: And it has been a world leader in many of these areas, including mental trauma and prostatic sand other areas -- prosthetics and other areas. Senator blackburn, let me just say that the recent cuts and hiring freezes have really called forth workers organizations, unions representing those workers.
▶ 0:38:11Sen. Blumenthal: In a way that I think has been impactful and they have demonstrated the importance of union representation. I worked with them in some of the complaints we have made to the secretary. So I think there is a role for unions in the v.a., and if there was any doubt about it, the last six months have demonstrated its importance.
▶ 0:38:34Chair Moran: Senator king.
▶ 0:38:38Sen. King: I intend to support the access act and I appreciate the work you have done and the ranking member come on bringing this to a place where I feel comfortable supporting it. There is an underlying discussion here about the v.a. System versus private, private services. And I just want to be sure that community care is always an adjunct and not a replacement.
▶ 0:39:09Sen. King: That is the way I view it. It was originally designed to provide services, as you suggest, in rural, that were more convenient, closer to home. But I just worry that, about the privatization, the camel going under the v.a. Tent and I think this will have to continue to be discussed.
▶ 0:39:37Sen. King: Senator blackburn I heard you say about remote working and people coming, some of our most successful companies in maine found during the pandemic remote work was productive, and folks working in those companies aren't coming in at all but they are very productive and they have found to be more successful. There is nothing inherently wrong with remote work. It depends on the nature of the job.
▶ 0:39:59Sen. King: I will support this but I think we are talking about a delicate balance of providing convenient community care, and we want to be sure the community care standards are the same as the v.a. We haven't gained anything if the v.a. Wait time is two days and community care wait time is four days or whatever number it is. I appreciate the work you have done.
▶ 0:40:25Sen. King: I want to continue to be engaged in this issue and I think it is one that will engage the committee over the next few years.
▶ 0:40:32Chair Moran: This may include my entire career. I look forward to working with you. I asked consent to add letters and statements of support on the committee's print to the access act into the record from the vfw, the pda, taps, vba, wounded warrior project, the elizabeth dole foundation and the american legion. Anyone else seek recognition? >> I had one comment.
▶ 0:41:04Chair Moran: It will be for a future time. The v.a. Bill we are debating has a significant funding for a full-service va hospital in new hampshire, which I think is great for new hampshire.
▶ 0:41:20Chair Moran: That leaves alaska as the only state in the union without, that will leave alaska as the only state without a full service veterans hospital, and we have more veterans -- >> they have a hospital with lack we have more veterans per capita than only -- then any state in the union.
▶ 0:41:46Chair Moran: For any -- major medical facilities, what we will vote on missouri, I'm sure it is legit. But at some point I will ask to be taken off the list of the states that don't have a va hospital when I have a lot of veterans. So congratulations to senator moran. But I want to join her someday.
▶ 0:42:16Chair Moran: You may have a lifelong career opportunity to serve that effort, as well. >> Mr. chairman. >> was that a vote the chairman? You are supposed to be sympathetic -- >> you have been working on this for a really long time and I hope you get it accomplished soon.
▶ 0:42:42Sen. Hirono: Hawaii also doesn't have a full-service va hospital so that is something we can work on. >> Mr. chair, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I would only support -- would fully support my colleagues in understanding the need for full-service va hospital's and our states.
▶ 0:43:07Sen. Hirono: It is important, something we have been pushing for, for a long time. We have a long way to go to get it done and I have been pushing the v.a. To make sure they are talking to people in new hampshire including the veterans in new hampshire about how they will carry this through.
▶ 0:43:28Sen. Hirono: The last thing I would say on this topic, I'm a strong believer veterans should have the choice for community care especially in rural areas, a choice that is necessary in new hampshire because we haven't had a full-service va hospital.
▶ 0:43:44Sen. Hirono: But for anybody who thinks that in the blink of an eye, somehow our civilian community care health system is currently prepared to take on veterans, for those of us who are waiting six months to a year for a primary care appointment on the civilian side, I think we should be realistic about the fragile state of health in this country right now, on the civilian side, especially since the cuts that were just made.
▶ 0:44:13Sen. Blumenthal: Senator sullivan and senator hirono, I think you will have strong bipartisan support. I think it goes to senator king's point that the v.a. Ought to be the primary source of health care. I don't know whether adjunct is the right word. Supplement? But every veteran deserves a v.a. Facility or access to a v.a.
▶ 0:44:41Sen. Blumenthal: Facility, and if it is impossible, we should make it possible but if it is impossible, community health care of some kind.
▶ 0:44:51Chair Moran: I recognize senator boozman for a motion.
▶ 0:44:58Sen. Boozman: I move the committee adopt the committee print to 275, amended and I request a roll call vote. >> moved and seconded. >> Mr. boozman. Mr. cassidy. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. tillis. Mr. sullivan. Mrs. blackburn. Mr. cramer. Mr. tuberville.
▶ 0:45:29Sen. Boozman: Mr. banks. Mr. sheehy. Mr. blumenthal. Mrs. murray. Mr. sanders. Ms. hirono. Ms. hassan. Mr. king. Ms. duckworth. Mr. gallego.
▶ 0:46:00Sen. Boozman: Ms. slotkin.
▶ 0:46:00Sen. Blumenthal: Aye by proxy.
▶ 0:46:04Chair Moran: Clerk will tally the vote. Aye. >> on this boat, the y -- this vote, the yeas, 16?
▶ 0:46:21Chair Moran: I want you to say it with greater certainty the not.
▶ 0:46:25Sen. Blumenthal: There are only two no's. >> there are 16 and two no and one not voting.
▶ 0:46:35Chair Moran: The motion is agreed to. Next we will consider the remaining items on our agenda. They include the committee print to s 506, s 506, s6 10, s6 35, s6 54, 702, community -- committee print to s 787, s 800, essay 27, committee print to s
▶ 0:47:05Chair Moran: 831, committee print to s 879, committee print to s 972, 1139, committee print to s 1245, s 1318, committee print to s 1320 and 1380 three, as 1441, committee print to s 1530, committee print to s 1591, s 2392 and s 2393.
▶ 0:47:40Chair Moran: I'm grateful to the members of the committee on both sides of the aisle, to the v.a. And the veteran service organizations for the efforts to bring these bills forward today. Do any senators wish to comment on any of these bills? I'm of the committee, I would ask for a motion to move the order to report the bills favorably in bulk. Moved by senator blackburn, second by senator blumenthal. All those in favor? All those opposed?
▶ 0:48:10Sen. Blumenthal: If I may. On behalf of of senator sanders, he wishes to be recorded as a no vote on s6 35, veterans home care choice act of 2025.
▶ 0:48:26Chair Moran: He will be so recorded. In the opinion of the chairs, the ayes have it. The motion is agreed to. I believe that concludes our work. Thank you. >> Mr. chairman, I have a letter from americans for prosperity and concerned veterans for america, for the record.
▶ 0:48:48Chair Moran: The senator makes a motion to include the documents in the record without objection, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent preparing agenda items for reporting, staff be authorized to make required clerical, technical and changes necessary to conform with the budget act. Is there objection? Without objection, so ordered. The meeting is adjourned.