capabilities and god knows they certainly need that help, and also for capital planning. lastly, and we need to reiterate this point, this bill gives the secretary of the v.a. the authority to immediately fire incompetent employees and those who have falsified or manipulated data in terms of waiting periods. our legislation differs from the house that in order to prevent, in my view, the politicization of the v.a. or eliminate all due process, it provides for a very expedited appeals process. mr. president, the house of representatives passed legislation yesterday which covers a lot of the same ground that sanders-mccain bill covers, and i am absolutely confident that working with chairman miller and rankin rankg member michaud, we can send the president a bill that he can sign in the very near future.

finally and lastly, i want to say to the 300,000 employees who work at the v.a., the overwhelming majority of those people are hardworking, honest, serious people, and for many of them taking care of veterans is in the a job; it is a mission. and many of them are in fact veterans themselves. and these people understand the sacrifices the veterans have made to protect our country, and they are doing the best that they can to support our veterans. so, mr. president, i hope we pass this bill. i hope we pass a waiver of the bucket point of order. i hope we get a conference committee meeting immediately and i hope we get a bill to the president as soon as possible. and, furthermore, as senator mccain has just mentioned, i don't think this is the end of the discussion regarding the needs of veterans. and i hope very much that in our

committee and on the floor we can begin to address some of the other very, very serious issues facing the veterans community. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask for five minutes for dr. cobun. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. coburn: i want to thank the chairman of the veterans' committee for working with senator mccain to get a bill. i support senator sessions and the budget points of order on this bill, and i take exception to some of the statements of my colleague from vermont. if you -- as was reported yesterday, if you look at the patient list for many of the primary care doctors in the v.a., they're half of what the average practicing physician outside of the v.a. is. and when you drill dune o down n those, many of them have

patients that have been deceased for years. about 10% to 15% of their patient list has never been to the v.a. or came once. aso what you actually see -- and so what you actually see is the patient load is two and a half times what it is in the v.a. i have no doubt we need to increase the number of physicians in the v.a. but we also need to markedly increase the amount of output that those physicians perform. the other thing that's important in this bill is the transparency that i don't believe has been mentioned that will actually allow veterans to know the quality outcome of where they're being treated and the cree engs dids -- credentials of those that are treating. those are important factors for care. our veterans deserve the best care, and i agree with the chairman of the veterans' committee that we have the vast majority of our v.a. employees

are hardworking employees. but there are some that aren't. and our lack of oversight and the lack of management expertise at the v.a. has now exploded into things that are going to continue to be exploding. we her every day new whistle-blowers coming forward on problems in the v.a. and it is not just schedule. it is a lot of lack of truthfulness. a lot of inaccuracy in terms of outcomes sm. so i agree with the chairman. this is just the beginning. if in fact somebody puts their life on the line for us, we certainly, at a minimum, ought to make sure that we don't just have words that say we're going 0 give you health care if you are an injured, returning war veterans, that we actually give that care and it meets the standard of care that we'd want for anybody in our family. so this is just the start. the other thing that i would say, in agreement with senator

sessions, there's ways to pay for this bill. and on the clinics, we drill down on one clinic. and i am going to spend just a minute talking about it. it is a clinic that will triple in size with an average expected increase in veteran population of 5% and visits of less than 7% over the next 20 years. so it's going to go from 50,000 to 19,000 square feet. we're going to spend $188 million for that facility, on a rate of increase of 4% in part of the leerks and we can buy the same -- on the part of the lease, and we can rent the same space in tulsa and spend less money that we'd spend for the engineering costs nor to have a clinic just as good or better. so the planning and the management planning that the v.a. on these plans is suspect -- and i plan to drill down on every one of these and give our conferees based on that. we're going to spend emergency

money, as the chairman would like to do on this, and we ought to make sure there isn't a penny that's wasted. so we can do it. we can do it better. we can do it for less money, and we can do it in the confines of what we're going to actually seevmenactual see.the final thie my colleague's willingness to compromise on the issues. he is dedicated to issues on veterans. our philosophies are different, but his commitment is nonetheless real and felt. and i thank him and i yield the floor. mr. sanders: i would yield back the remainder of my time. the presiding officer: without objection, all time is yielded back. the question is on the motion to waive. the yeas and nays have been ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

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the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to cast their votes? on this vote, the yeas are 75, the nays are 19. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn have voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. the point of order falls. the clerk will read the bill for a third time.

the senate will be in order. the clerk: calendar number 206, h.r. 3230, an act making continuing appropriation during a government shutdown, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question is on passage of h.r. 3230 as amended. the yeas and nays -- is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

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vote:

whitey you have to address the infrastructure issues that go after public safety, the preservation of party, life itself. i suppose if you are sitting somewhere and i retire typing of scorecards you can pick the things that are less relevant to you. of these 3,000 structures scattered across america

vote: is.

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote?

if not, the ayes are 93, the nays are 3. the bill as amended is passed. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: i ask unanimous consent that h.r. 3230 which is at the desk be agreed to. the presiding officer: do i hear objection? mr. inhofe: reserving the right to object, let me inquire of the gentleman, is it your intent to speak on that tonight? mr. tester: in a second, i'm going to ask unanimous consent to go into morning business, and i'm going to speak on the veterans bill, that is correct. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: if the senator from montana would yield for a question? was there any kind of order established here who would be recognized at this point? the presiding officer: there is not. mr. levin: all right.

the senator from oklahoma and i thought we would be recognized here about an hour ago. we understand the requirement that there would be a delay. i think if we could establish some order right now, it would be helpful to all of us. senator grassley is apparently waiting to be recognized as well. so may i ask the senator from montana how long he will be speaking? if it would be in order. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: about seven minutes. the senator from michigan, it was my understanding that i was going to speak, you would have your colloquy with senator inhofe and then senator grassley would speak. mr. levin: thank you. i thank the senator. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: how much time is the colloquy going to take? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan.

mr. levin: seven or eight minutes, i would believe. mr. inhofe: i think i had the floor, objecting to the u.c. let me just share that we would would -- we could do it, ours probably in about 12 minutes and then we could have more time tomorrow if that would work out. so i withdraw my objection. mr. tester: mr. president? the presiding officer: without objection, the senator from montana's amendment is agreed to. mr. tester: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each, with the time agreement previously agreed to. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. tester: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: mr. president, i rise to speak about the care this nation provides its veterans, care they have earned, care that we owe them and the

care that we promised them and the care that we should never stop working to improve. i joined the senate veterans' affairs committee when i first came to the senate in january, 2007. soon thereafter, i launched a listening tour around the great state of montana to hear what veterans thought about the health care that they received. montana has the second most veterans per capita. we serve our country at some of the highest rates in the nation. we are home to a large native american population that serves more often than any other minority in this country. in 2007, the surge in iraq was in full swing. veterans had many concerns on their minds, but in rural montana, i heard over and over again from the veterans about how the mileage reimbursement for veterans, disabled veterans receive to see their doctor at the v.a. was far too low. in fact, it was at 11 cents a mile, hardly enough to even pay for the gas, much less the tires, the oil and the automobile itself.

that number matters in a state where folks have to drive a couple hundred miles across the state to see their doctor, so when i came back to washington, i worked with then-senator burr to raise that reimbursement rate for the first time in decades and now more veterans can afford to see their doctor and that is how a representative government should work. identify the problem, write a bill to fix it, work with colleagues, view their concerns and pass a solution with the law, and that's what we have done here today. today's bill is a good bill that gets at some of the v.a.'s most addressing problems. it looks at some of the access and care issues that are plaguing the v.a. by getting rid of incentives to falsify wait times and make it easier to approve bad managers, we will hold more folks accountable for the care that veterans receive. by making it easier to hire medical professionals and allowing more veterans to seek care from outside providers, we will reduce the bottleneck which forces veterans to wait too long

for care. but i want to be clear about one thing, mr. president, and that is that once veterans get in the door at the v.a., they receive incredibly good health care. as a member of the senate veterans' affairs committee, i continue to travel around montana to talk with veterans. i speak with many veterans' groups around the country as well. they tell me that v.a. care is some of the best in the nation. i have had wives, husbands, daughters, sons seek me out to tell me what the v.a. is doing right. additionally, nine out of ten veterans report they are happy with the care they receive at the v.a. that's important to remember. it isn't all bad news. but the fact of the matter is, mr. president, is that while the war in afghanistan is winding down and the war in iraq has come to a close, the struggle for many service men and women continues here at home. we went to war after 9/11 to fight a war against terror, to fight for the freedoms that we value in this country, but we didn't think far enough down the road. we didn't think about how we could care for our fighting men

and women when they return from battle. when i joined that veterans' affairs committee, the v.a. was starting to recover from years of neglect. in 2007, as americans fought in the streets of baghdad, congress had to pass an emergency budget bill to keep the lights on in the v.a. imagine that. fighting two wars, but we didn't properly fund the department that cares for our troops when they come home. with better planning and advanced appropriation, we have come a long way, but news cycles are short. the bill we passed today is a good start but it can't be the end of the story. moving forward, we must make sure we have all the facts because you can't fix a problem if you don't understand it, and that's why i have already worked with my colleagues to help pass legislation out of committee that will free up more resources for the v.a.'s inspector general office to do its job, make reports from the v.a. medical inspector public, transparent. the bill also prohibits the payment of bonuses to v.a. medical directors and senior v.a. employees until

investigations are complete and reforms are made. our message is clear and that is that veterans come first. in the seven years since i held that first veterans' listening session across montana, since then we have worked with veterans' groups to open new veteran centers and community-based outpatient clinics across the state of montana. i have helped more veterans get transportation to get to their doctors' appointments and i have helped lead the way to expand the use of telehealth for rural veterans. we did this while working with v.a. secretaries from both parties by working across the aisle to write common sense legislation that meets the needs of our veterans and their families. because not only should improving veterans' care be an unrelenting focus for this body, it must be a nonpartisan one. approving mental health care for veterans is a nonpartisan issue. improving the veterans' ability to get a good job is not a partisan issue and making sure that veterans get the care they have earned, the care we have promised them when they signed up to fight should never be a partisan issue. just keep working together to honor the sacrifices made by

fighting men and women as well as the families who anxiously wait for them back at home. on saturday morning, i will be in montana kicking off my latest veterans' listening tour to get more ideas about how we can improve the services and care for our veterans. i know that many of my colleagues are holding similar sessions in their states and i look forward to hearing what ideas that they bring back so that we can work together to improve veterans' health care. mr. president, if this bill is the end of this congress' work on veterans' issues, it will be disappointing to me and it will be disappointing to the veterans out there who have put their life on the line to defend our freedom. we have more work to do and hope it doesn't require another crisis to get it done. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. before i do that, i would just like to thank bernie sanders for his great work on this bill. i yield. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president, before the memorial day recess, the armed services committee voted 25-1 to favorably report s.

2410, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2015. the bill is on the calendar. both it and the committee report have been filed and are available online and in print. as the chairman and ranking member of the armed services committee, senator inhofe, and i hope to bring the bill to the senate floor as soon as the senate schedule allows. i have talked to the majority leader about it. he says he is going to do his best, that there is a number of things that we can do to be helpful in this effort. now, neither of us want to be in the position that we were in last year. senators were unable to take up the bill and vote on any amendments to this important legislation because of how close it was to the end of the session when it was brought up. we urged senators both on the floor today are urging senators who are considering amendments

to our bill to file them before the july recess. we would then be in a position, both of us, with our staffs to work with senators to clear as many amendments as possible for inclusion in a managers package and to begin identifying relevant amendments that would be likely to be contested. now, we believe if we can develop a list of a few relevant amendments that would require votes to start with when we first take up the bill, that it would help us in getting to the floor. i believe that's the case given the circumstances that the senate is in. we have an awful lot of work ahead of us. we don't have a long time to do it. and if we would be able to put together a proposal to the leaders that we have not only the bill, which is on -- obviously on the calendar that we've worked on a bipartisan basis to pass with a 25-vote