Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, sometime soon the Senate will be voting on the first fiscal year 2019 appropriations minibus. It has been a long time since we have brought conferenced bills to the floor, and I am pleased that the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill is a part of this package. This bill is the result of a bipartisan commitment to return to regular order, and I thank Chairman Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy for leading the Senate in this process and providing all Members a voice in determining how taxpayer dollars are spent.

We have worked hard with our House colleagues over the past two months to develop a thoughtful and responsible conference report that took into account the input of Members on both sides of the aisle. The conference committee made thoughtful decisions about how to provide maximum readiness for the warfighters and prioritize investments at the Department of Veterans Affairs so it can take care of our veterans.

This bill provides $97.1 billion in discretionary spending, which is $5.1 billion over last year's level. Within that, the VA is provided a record level of resources at $86.5 billion in discretionary funding. That is $5 billion over last year's level and $1.1 billion over the President's request. These resources will provide healthcare and other important benefits earned by U.S. servicemembers.

Included in the bill is $1.25 billion more than requested for medical services and community care to support the VA's traditional community care programs as it transitions to a new and improved program. The bill includes $8.6 billion for mental health services, $865 million for the caregivers program, and $1.8 billion for VA homelessness programs, including $380 million for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program. It includes $400 million for opioid misuse prevention and treatment and $270 million for rural health initiatives.

The bill provides $10.3 billion to support military construction and family housing needs, a $241 million increase over last year's level.

It also funds $921 million for overseas contingency operations and the European Deterrence Initiative, $171 million increase over last year's level. In total, 190 military construction projects are funded to restore warfighter readiness and increase lethality of our installations within the United States and around the globe.

This bill also funds improvements to fuel logistics at Little Rock Air Force Base, in addition to a measure to move forward with development on the base's runway.

I am also pleased that the package increases funding to the Veterans History Project, an initiative led by the Library of Congress that builds an archive of oral histories and personal documents of the men and women who served our country in uniform. This is a unique collection of memories of our veterans who served from World War I to the Iraq war and other recent conflicts. It is an important program that ensures future generations understand the sacrifices our combat veterans made to protect our freedoms. Preserving the experiences of our veterans is an honorable way to recognize their bravery and dedication to our country.

Since its beginning, approximately two decades ago, the project has collected the stories of nearly 1,400 veterans from Arkansas, and nearly 50 of those have been conducted by my office. We are training more and more Arkansans to conduct these interviews for submission to the project.

These are all things that we can be excited about related to this bill. A lot of time and a lot of energy has gone into putting this legislation together. I would like to thank Senator Schatz and his staff, including Chad Schulken and Jason McMahon, and Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz and their staffs for working hard to address the needs of our servicemembers and our veterans.

I would also like to thank very much my own staff, including Patrick Magnuson, Jennifer Bastin, Joanne Hoff, and Carlos Elias for their dedication and hard work in moving this bill through the committee process, to the Senate floor, and through conference negotiations.

Finally, I want to thank Chairman Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy, along with Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey, for the dedication and leadership they provided throughout this bipartisan process.

I strongly urge my colleagues in the Senate to support final passage so we can get this bill to the President's desk.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source