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Us Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request For U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS BUDGET REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018 HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017 Serial No. 115–14 Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 29–682 WASHINGTON : 2018 VerDate Aug 31 2005 12:13 Nov 08, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 Y:\115TH\FIRST SESSION, 2017\FC\5-24-17\GPO\29682.TXT LHORNE leonard.horne on VACREP0180 with DISTILLER COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee, Chairman GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice-Chairman TIM WALZ, Minnesota, Ranking Member MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado MARK TAKANO, California BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio JULIA BROWNLEY, California AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire Samoa BETO O’ROURKE, Texas MIKE BOST, Illinois KATHLEEN RICE, New York BRUCE POLIQUIN, Maine J. LUIS CORREA, California NEAL DUNN, Florida KILILI SABLAN, Northern Mariana Islands JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut JOHN RUTHERFORD, Florida SCOTT PETERS, California CLAY HIGGINS, Louisiana JACK BERGMAN, Michigan JIM BANKS, Indiana JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, Puerto Rico JON TOWERS, Staff Director RAY KELLEY, Democratic Staff Director Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are also published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occur- rences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process is further refined. (II) VerDate Aug 31 2005 12:13 Nov 08, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 Y:\115TH\FIRST SESSION, 2017\FC\5-24-17\GPO\29682.TXT LHORNE leonard.horne on VACREP0180 with DISTILLER C O N T E N T S Wednesday, May 24, 2017 Page U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs Budget Request For Fiscal Year 2018 .... 1 OPENING STATEMENTS Honorable David P. Roe, Chairman ....................................................................... 1 Honorable Timothy J. Walz, Ranking Member ..................................................... 3 WITNESSES The Honorable David J. Shulkin M.D., Secretary, U.S. Department of Vet- erans Affairs ......................................................................................................... 5 Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 38 Accompanied by: Edward Murray, Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Mark Yow, Chief Financial Officer, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs James Manker, Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Af- fairs Matthew Sullivan, Deputy Under Secretary for Finance and Planning and Chief Financial Officer, National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rob Thomas, Acting Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs STATEMENTS FOR THE RECORD The American Legion .............................................................................................. 46 Veterans Of Foreign Wars Of The United States (VFW) ..................................... 57 Disabled American Veterans (DAV) ....................................................................... 60 Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) ................................................................... 62 The Indepedent Budget for FY 18 and FY 19 ....................................................... 67 QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD HVAC Majority Q&A ............................................................................................... 80 (III) VerDate Aug 31 2005 12:13 Nov 08, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 Y:\115TH\FIRST SESSION, 2017\FC\5-24-17\GPO\29682.TXT LHORNE leonard.horne on VACREP0180 with DISTILLER VerDate Aug 31 2005 12:13 Nov 08, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 Y:\115TH\FIRST SESSION, 2017\FC\5-24-17\GPO\29682.TXT LHORNE leonard.horne on VACREP0180 with DISTILLER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS BUDGET REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018 Wednesday, May 24, 2017 COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m., in Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Phil Roe [Chairman of the Committee] presiding. Present: Representatives Roe, Walz, Peters, Coffman, Etsy, Dunn, O’Rourke, Bergman, Sablan, Bilirakis, Kuster, Poliquin, Brownlee, Wenstrup, Takano, Rutherford, Correa, Banks, and Gon- zalez-Colon. OPENING STATEMENT OF DAVID P. ROE, CHAIRMAN The CHAIRMAN. Committee will come to order. Before we start today I have a special guest here that I would like to introduce. Today is Student Youth Foster Day. We have foster students from around the country, and if you see people wearing these little pins they are shadowing a Congressman today. And I would like Tim- othy Dennis. Timothy has been here before, so Timothy if you would stand up and be recognized. I know you are here somewhere. Oh, here he is, back over here. So he is going to be with me today. And these are remarkable young people, overcome a lot of obsta- cles in their lives. So when you see them, have a chance to stop and just say a few words, and find out what their story is. Good morning, and I thank all of you all for being here today to discuss the President’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget submission for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The budget is not about numbers, it is about priorities. Yesterday afternoon the President proposed a $6.4 billion increase in the VA’s budget, which is reflective of the high priority that this administration places on serving our vet- erans. I applaud that action and share the feeling that second perhaps only to ensuring our ongoing national security, there is no greater priority we have than caring for those who have borne the burden of our battles. This budget was released less than 24 hours ago. In the coming weeks our Subcommittees will hold hearings to discuss different aspects of the budget in depth. However, during this morning’s hearing I want to discuss several overarching issues that I believe are key to transforming the Department of Veterans Affairs into a nimble 21st century organization that our veterans can count on when they need it most. (1) VerDate Aug 31 2005 12:13 Nov 08, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\115TH\FIRST SESSION, 2017\FC\5-24-17\GPO\29682.TXT LHORNE leonard.horne on VACREP0180 with DISTILLER 2 Before we dive into the budget, Mr. Secretary, I am extremely proud that the accountability legislation and appeals reform legis- lation have already passed the House’s congress with wide-spread bipartisan support, and with your support I might add. I am grate- ful to you, Mr. Secretary, and your team for assisting the Com- mittee in both of these efforts, and I look forward to continuing to work together to secure a swift passage of those measures in the Senate this summer. Our next priority is reforming the Choice Program, and in doing so, consolidating VA’s many care and the community programs under a single, streamlined Choice umbrella. The President’s budg- et demonstrates that Choice reform is an administration priority. While the Choice Program that Congress created three years ago has helped hundreds of thousands of veterans receive care, it is not without problems to say the least. Too many veterans still have trouble getting the care they need when they need it. Too many community providers and VA employ- ees are left confused and frustrated by overly bureaucratic and opaque care in the community processes and procedures. Looking ahead, I want a Choice Program that empowers veteran patients to make decisions about where, and when, and how to use the health care benefits they have earned because, as a doctor, I can tell you that empowering patients leads to better outcomes, better quality, and more efficient and effective hospitals and clinics. Our veteran’s service organization partners rightly note, when given the choice to receive care in the community many veterans choose to remain at VA. For those veterans we must examine ways to increase access, improve quality, and ensure an appropriate alignment of supply and demand. I look forward to working to- gether to reform the Choice Program in the coming months. Mr. Secretary, in recent weeks you have noted that VA has a high number of vacant, underutilized buildings and properties across the country. Using VA’s limited resources to secure and maintain empty or largely empty buildings and campuses while so many VA’s capital asset projects go unfunded serves no veteran well. I look forward to working with the administration to examine how to right size VA’s physical footprint, ensure taxpayer dollars are spent where our veterans need them the most, and explore in- novative ways of ensuring that VA is able to maintain a presence in the community. Underlying all of these goals from achieving faster and more ac- curate appeals determinations to enhancing VA’s relationships with
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