Today the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs marked up several bills to improve veterans mental health and suicide prevention programs, protect veterans’ rights while deployed, improve access to VA programs for women veterans, increase veterans’ service connected disability compensation, and protect the Second Amendment Rights of our veterans.

Included in the Omnibus Healthcare package (S.3340) were two bipartisan provision I have been working on with my Senate Colleagues.  The text of S. 3049, of which I am the lead Republican Cosponsor with Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), was included as Sec. 307, and will ensure that women veterans fleeing domestic violence or abusive relationships, including those that threaten the safety of their children, will have access to VA Homeless assistance programs before their situation worsens.  The text of S. 1849, the “Rural Veterans Health Care Improvement Act,” of which I am the lead Republican Cosponsor with Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was included in Sec. 407, and will improve the access and quality of care for our veterans living in rural areas. 

Also passed by the committee was S. 1707, the “Veterans’ Second Amendment Protection Act,” legislation introduced by Sen Richard Burr (R-NC), of which I am an original cosponsor. 

The following are my opening remarks. 

Madame Chair - Ranking Member Burr, 

Thank you for holding this mark-up today so that we may discuss ways in which this body can further improve many of the benefits that serve our veterans, particularly regarding mental health care and homeless veterans. 

I very much appreciate you including several provisions that I have been working on with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. 

Included in the Chair’s omnibus bill, or the “ACCESS Act,” are a couple of important proposals we have been working on, and I appreciate the committee leadership for including them in that package.  Sec. 307 of this bill includes an important provision that reflects the work of Senator Begich and me.  This provision would ensure that women veterans who are fleeing domestic violence, and find themselves with no place to go, do not have to wait for an even greater crisis before they and their families have access to VA homeless services.  This is a common sense provision and I thank the Chair and Ranking member for including it. 

Sec. 407 includes a provision that Senator Franken and I have been working on to ensure that we are getting a good return on the investments we have been making in the VA’s Office of Rural Health.  With so many of our veterans living in rural areas, our nation has seen fit to invest a significant amount of money to improve the accessibility and quality of the health care they receive.  I think it is so important for us to have a clear path forward to improve health care for our rural veterans.  This provision will ensure that this occurs and I appreciate Senator Franken’s work and leadership on this issue and am pleased that it is included in the bill. 

I would also like to express my strong support for Senator Burr’s legislation, S. 1707, of which I am an original cosponsor. I have been strongly advocating for this legislation for the past few Congresses and it is high time we got this thing done.  This bill would protect the 2nd Amendment rights of our veterans who have served in uniform.  I would also express my support for the additional amendments that Senator Burr has offered in response to recent developments that would further protect our veterans’ second amendment rights. 

Finally, I would like to express my concerns about some of the provisions included in “GI Bill Consumer Awareness Act” that will be discussed here today. We all want to see veterans use their benefits wisely, and all consumers should be protected from fraud.  However, I believe there are better ways to accomplish this with tools already at our disposal and do not require the creation of myriads of bureaucratic reports and hoops to jump through that could place an undue burden on the VA and educational institutions.  We want to protect veterans and we can do so by empowering them, but we should be careful not to burden them with bureaucracy and limit their choices.  We must remember that this benefit belongs to the veteran, or their beneficiary, because they have earned it through their service and sacrifice and we should be careful not to limit their ability to use it as they wish or further limit their educational options. 

Again, Madame Chair and Ranking Member, thank you for holding this Mark-up today and for your continued commitment to our servicemembers and their families.

 

Today is Social Security’s 77^th birthday.  Since 1935, the program has helped millions of Americans during their golden years.  However, as this Associated Press story shows, without reform, the program is unsustainable.

Social Security has been paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the past two years and with the large number of baby boomers retiring, that trend will only get worse.  The program’s trustees say that the surpluses will disappear in the next twenty years.  As the AP notes, “unless Congress acts, Social Security would only collect enough tax revenue each year to pay about 75 percent of benefits, triggering an automatic reduction.”

Our number one priority must be to ensure no benefits are cut to current and future enrollees.   However, the current system is unsustainable and in need of reform to make sure that future generations also receive benefits. 

While I believe it is extremely important that we evaluate the system to ensure its viability for the next generation, I am committed to maintaining a system that will continue to provide benefits to those who are currently receiving them,  and will also provide benefits to our children and grandchildren.  I will not support any change in Social Security for current recipients and near-retirees.  We can all agree that it is unfair to change this system that our aging Americans have come to depend upon.

In addition, Congress has taken steps that will eventually lead to a stronger, more reliable Medicare program.  These modernizations include a prescription drug benefit, increased reimbursement for doctors who treat our seniors and financial support to programs currently providing health care benefits to retirees.  Though this is just a first step, Congress has more work to do to ensure that Medicare is around for generations to come.  Unfortunately, we have also seen new laws, like the President's health care law, that make drastic cuts to Medicare. I opposed those laws when they came before me in the U.S. House of Representatives and I remain opposed to any legislation that cuts funding for such an important program.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate continue to work together to address the coming insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare programs, as well as the need to expand the systems to encompass the growing number of seniors who will be collecting benefits in the next several years.  I understand the urgency of this situation and remain committed to working with my colleagues to find a solution.  Nothing will be done, however, unless there is an agreement between the President, Congress and, most importantly, the people of Arkansas.

It was great to catch-up with our former Governor Mike Huckabee on his radio show this afternoon. We talked about the agreement to avoid a government shutdown and The End Government Shutdown Act which would allow us to automatically continue funding for discretionary programs whose budget has not been approved by October 1 for 90 days. This would allow for government operations to continue running without any interruption in service. It is a commonsense solution to the chronic budgeting problems. Click on the file linked below to listen to the segment.

Our manufacturing and energy sectors are not the only industries that are feeling crushed under the weight of regulations proposed by the Obama Administration.  You may be surprised to learn that our farmers are getting hit hard as well.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee has done an excellent job compiling the most egregious regulations aimed at our farmers. 

As far as President Obama is concerned, nothing on the farm is off limits for the government.  Everything from dust to animal feed to farm equipment has been in the Obama Administration’s regulatory sights.

At every turn, the Obama Administration has sought to expand the federal government’s reach into the family farm.  For instance, the President has pushed for unprecedented expansion of the Clean Water Act that would make it nearly impossible for farmers to make a living.  The proposal to delete just one word—'navigable'—from the original law would make nearly every puddle of water subject to federal regulation.   It is an unprecedented overreach that must not be forced upon our farming communities.

So intrusive are these proposed regulations, that up until a few months ago, the Obama Administration even wanted to oversee work performed by youths on their families’ farm.  The outcry from rural America led the Administration to ditch this onerous proposed rule.  There was no commonsense, science or reason behind this proposal and it was seemingly written by bureaucrats who lack a full understanding of farm operations.  This proposed rule was merely another attempt by the federal government to control every aspect of our lives.

Taken individually, each of these proposed regulations would seriously harm the ability of Arkansas’ family farmers to compete in a global market.   As a whole, they will have devastating effect on our state’s top industry, our agriculture sector.

Read Regulation Nation: How Big Government is Stalling the Recovery to see how President’s Obama’s overregulation is hurting our economy and how we are working to put a stop to it.