From Barracks to Benefits: Judge Carter’s Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Bill Analysis
We owe our freedom to the nation’s veterans who have put their lives on the line for America, and it is our duty to honor the commitments we’ve made to ensure their well-being and care in return. Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee Chairman John “Judge” Carter (R-TX) understands the gravity of this monumental responsibility. In this week’s Appropriations 101 conversation with Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID), Carter speaks candidly about the struggles of funding consistent, high-end, and reliable health care for America’s heroes.
Following a supposed $15 billion shortfall - announced months after President Biden’s Budget Request and following House and Senate action on their respective FY25 bills - Carter reveals his take on how to hold the Department of Veterans Affairs accountable for its miscalculations and budgeting errors.
Watch Subcommittee Chairman Simpson and Subcommittee Chairman Carter’s conversation here.
Carter: “What my bill does is basically, I attempt to fund all of the construction needs of every military post on Earth that belongs to the United States… The rest is making sure we take care of our warfighters that come home and need good health care. We try to give them the best health care that we can provide. I think we do a pretty good job of it.”
Simpson: “I do too… What veterans have sacrificed in defending our country is extraordinary. We've made promises, and we need to keep those promises.”
Carter: “You shouldn't break a promise to people, especially people who are willing to put their lives on the line. That’s my whole theory. It’s why I like this subcommittee so much because it's really helping people. It’s helping people that have been in harm's way, on our behalf. Now they have an opportunity to have good, solid, health care that they can count on.”
…
Carter: “I have a challenge in my bill right now. As you know, we finished our bill in June and went to the House floor in July and got passed off the floor. Then, right around the first or second of August, I get a notification. The Department of Veterans Affairs gave me a sort of warning, but not a real warning, that they had a $15 billion shortfall… This doesn't make sense. We're going to have a hearing on that after we come back from the election and hear what they have to say.”
Simpson: “One of the challenges that you've got in your bill is that we've all heard the stories about what's going on at certain VA hospitals. It's different across the country. Some of them are working perfectly fine, but it's the oversight responsibility that we have to ensure that they're doing their job and that they're doing it as efficiently as possible.”
Carter: “When the VA could not find what our veterans needed, we allowed them to go to the private industry to seek the solution. The VA is claiming that is what drove these numbers up. I'm going to have some questions about that… if you'll recall, two years ago, they put out an announcement that we were underfunding our veterans: we didn't underfund it, we overfunded it, if anything. All of that is part of the politics in this town.”
Simpson: “It just goes to show that one of our biggest responsibilities is not just appropriating the money, but it's the oversight. In fact, that's probably a bigger responsibility for us than anything.”
###
