walorski of indiana. at the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following, section, none of the funds made available by this act may be used to transfer or release to the republic of yemen or any part of yemen a detainee who was held or detained or otherwise in the custody of the department of defense on or after union 24, 2009, at the united states naval station, guantanamo bay, cuba. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 628, the gentlewoman from indiana, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from indiana. mrs. walorski: the recent he release of the taliban five was a potent reminder to the american people and congress of the risk involved in detainee transfer decisions. the rising rate of terrorism re-engagement and the continuing threat posed by al qaeda in the arabian peninsula have prompted me to introduce this amendment again this year. one of president obama's first acts in office was to sign an executive order to close the faci

walorski of indiana. the chair: those in support of a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having isen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: the yeas are 238, the nays are 1779. the amendment is adopted. the chair: the committee will be in order. the committee will be in order. the chair: the committee will be in order. the chair: members will take their conversations off the floor. he committee will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas seek recognition? >> i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will read the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2 printed in the congressional record offered by mr. cotton of arkansas. >> mr. chairman, th

if it is pretty simple you will get it to representative walorski. let's make a deal. if you don't, we will subpoena it. >> i understand, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. representative titus, five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to echo some comments that have been made by my colleagues and the concern about performance awards going to people who may or may not have earned them. i think it was the chairman who pointed out earlier that the director of vision 21 which oversees part of nevada it turned out had put false information on their rise in may about where she had gone to school and that she had not gone to school but rose through the ranks to be the director of that and that is an enormous task of overseeing tens of thousands of veterans stretching all the way from want to reno. i wonder if you could tell us how you verify people's resonates or when they file applications how do you look to be sure that this would not happen again this woman also received these bonuses as she moved up the ladder. i think she is having to give some of them back n

we're really only weeks out from the revelations, and as miss walorski pointed out and others, myself included in our districts, we're still finding new gaps and shortfalls that need to be met. so i'm thinking -- and you may not have a number in mind, but wouldn't you say that you're likely going to come back to congress to request additional funds? >> i can't answer that question right now. i can tell you that we are beginning to look at the resources, particularly personnel resources that we need, to increase our capacity and will be working with the congress to develop a proposal that would allow us to hire more personnel to provide that care. i know that we're looking carefully at the money we're spending on fee basis services. we have been able to find some central money to send those patients out. facilities and networks have also been able to identify moneys as well. it's anticipated that we will probably increase va funding on fee basis care from about 4.8 billion to about 5.4 billion this year. >> and i'd also ask you to -- and you essentially committed to this earlier in pre

. >> congresswoman walorski. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's an honor for me as well to be here to start the process of finalizing legislation that will help our veterans. we owe it to the men and women who served our country to get this right. i'm grateful this has not been a partisan issue. all of us are affected by the wait lists, negligence and deaths. many of us here today have constituents who are directly impacted. there is a wrongful death case in my state of indiana right now that's being investigated. we have to get this right and fix it in a timely manner. attempts to reform before often were met with stories in here, deception, whistle blowers, retaliation. now we're hearing in addition to wait times, the phoenix center has also been altering the records of veterans who died while waiting for care. while these people at the medical centers put their own careers ahead of veterans, we turned a blind eye by rewarding them with promotions and bonuses. there will never be an incentive to change if people aren't held accountable for

. >> walorski. >> is the administration considering the transfer or release of other taliban or afghan detainees, even those previously considered not a candidate for release. >> we're also assessing possible detainee -- >> right. but i've got a "new york times" article right here that talks about six being considered right now to go to uruguay. so you are then considering additional transports and transfers of these other detainees at guantanamo? >> we're always looking at this. it's not new. >> i know. i'm very aware. >> the bush administration transferred farmar -- far more than obama did. >> are you looking at afghanistan -- >> i'm not going to get into the security arrangements here. >> just hypothetically, if you're releasing anymore afghan detainees, are they going directly back to afghanistan after the international law expires and we no longer have, as mr. preston was saying, in a year when the international law expires that we're holding these detainees under, do they go right back to afghanistan? conceivably? could they? >> i'm not going to respond to any specific actions. b

. >> miss walorski. you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. lynch, i'd like to ask a question about the va staffing and productivity standards. the ig that was here a couple weeks ago made an interesting kind of assessment. he pretty much said be careful what you wish for to our committee on this issue of fee basis care versus va care. i did investigation in my state. i learned there are a number of va hospitals including in the one in ft. wayne, indiana, that are not functioning at full capacity, turning patients away, sending them to non va hospitals due to lack of appropriate staffing or facilities. in this case, the va, their icu is closed. the e.r. is now using criteria over what he patients they'll accept and those they'll turn away based on their faults. by paying for non va care in addition to operating half empty hospitals va appears to be paying for two systems of care. do you know how many va hospitalsfy that description? >> i don't. >> can you give me that number? i found the ft. wayne one quickly. >> i think there are facilities t

walorski: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of the act, a bill i'm proud to co-sponsor. as the recent scandals at the v.a. have clearly demonstrated, better accountability and oversight is needed at the v.a. this bill will help provide better accountability and oversight by ensuring that the v.a. inspector general recommendations are fully implemented by the v.a. currently, after the v.a. inspector general investigates a v.a. facility, the inspector general releases a list of recommendations for what the v.a. must do to correct the problems identified during the investigation. oftentimes these recommendations are never fully implemented by the v.a. this bill will provide additional tools to make sure they implement the v.a. recommendations. specifically, this bill requires the v.a. secretary to determine exactly which employees within the v.a. are responsible for implementing the suggested changes. this bill prevents the employees charged with implementing those recommendations from receiving a bonus until the problems identified by the v.a. have been addressed. this bil