Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Chairman John Carter
HT-2 The Capitol
(202) 225-3047
Majority | Minority |
| John Carter – Chair | Debbie Wasserman Schultz – Ranking Member |
| John Rutherford | Sanford Bishop, Jr. |
| Michael Guest | Veronica Escobar |
| Ryan Zinke | Mike Levin |
| Stephanie Bice | Henry Cuellar |
| Scott Franklin | |
| Mark Alford – Vice Chair | |
| Nick LaLota |
Recent Activity
To ensure every Member of Congress has an opportunity to participate in the annual appropriations process, Members may submit programmatic, language, and Community Project Funding requests to the Committee using the electronic portal available here.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5860, a bill that keeps the government open until November 17th.
While I would rather be here speaking on the floor about final appropriations bills, I want members to understand why passing this short-term funding bill today is so important.
First, I want to explain how we find ourselves in this situation.
Just nine months ago, when Republicans took back the Majority in the House, our commitment was to Regular Order for appropriations.
No more omnibus measures released in the dead of night. No more Christmas Eve votes on thousands of pages of text that Members of Congress had not read.
Unfortunately, there were a few stumbling blocks as we sought to change the process.
For example, the Administration's budget request was more than a month late. It then took months for the President to come to the table on the debt ceiling negotiations.
Today's hearing is on the VA's Electronic Health Record Modernization program. I'd like to welcome our witnesses: Dr. Neil Evans and Dr. Jonathan Nebeker, who are leading the program for VA, and Mr. Mike Sicilia with Oracle Global Industries.
A modern, interoperable electronic health record system that fully integrates VA, Defense Department, and community providers is a fundamental part of fulfilling our promise to provide world-class health care to our country's Veterans.
For more than 20 years, VA has attempted to modernize its system. About five years ago, I was hopeful VA was on the right track when it decided to acquire the same system as the Defense Department and then signed a contract with Cerner. However, we are now in a "reset" period.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4366, a bill that will provide funding for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
During the last Congress, three trillion dollars was spent outside of the normal appropriations process. As spending soared, so did inflation.
There was damage done to the economy, and the work of the Appropriations Committee changed significantly over those two years.
That is why earlier this year, I asked Subcommittee Chairs to evaluate all of the funding in the pipeline.
When the President's budget finally arrived, I directed them to review each agency's budget – line-by-line.
I want to thank the Subcommittee Chairs for their work to identify ways to save hard-earned tax dollars.
These savings have allowed us to reduce overall spending without short-changing what is most important – national defense, homeland security, and veterans.
