Ranking Member Takano's Opening Statement at Full Committee Hearing on VA Funding

WASHINGTON, DC – House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano (CA-39) delivered the following opening statement, as prepared, at the beginning of this morning’s Full Committee Oversight Hearing on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) funding and a projected Veterans Health Administration (VHA) shortfall:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

There is currently rhetoric coming from the Right about veterans being on a ‘payroll’ and living on some kind of taxpayer-funded largess because they are lazy and don’t want to work. 

This is some kind of sick, revisionist history of the last 25 years in this country, where we spent over 5 trillion dollars on the Global War on Terror in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks.  

But we didn’t just spend taxpayer dollars on this war; it involved real human cost, too. It cost lives and quality of life, and it left lasting consequences for the servicemembers who were at the forefront of the war. Servicemembers who were exposed to choking burn pits, cancerous chemicals, blinding sand, polluted water, and more, not to mention hostile enemy fire. 

As a country, we face the fundamental question of what we owe these individuals who served their country so honorably. Is it simply their paycheck and maybe a, ‘thank you?’ Frankly, that is how some other countries treat their veterans, but it is not how we have decided to treat veterans in America. 

After World War I, veterans marched on Washington to fight for their benefits. And following World War II, after strong advocacy from veterans, we started paying our debts to the Greatest Generation through the GI bill. 

What we didn’t know then was how much war and its human cost would continue to change during the Cold War, and in Korea and Vietnam. Radiation and Agent Orange took their toll, and not just on the servicemembers, but on their children, and their families. This legacy continued in the many conflicts to follow. Vietnam and Gulf War veterans are still fighting for full recognition of what they experienced; with countless veterans in their prime learning they had rare cancers. So, I ask again, what do we owe to veterans in this country? 

A recent cowardly news piece used some derisive language about this country’s ‘veteran obsession going too far.’ This was meant as an insult, but it didn’t land like the anonymous author thought it would.  

If being obsessed with veterans means caring enough to honor our debts, then I will accept the charge of being obsessed.  

I think it is a patriotic thing to care about veterans and not something bad or something to be ashamed of, simply because it costs money to care. 

There is always room to refine budget estimates and cost analyses, and I appreciate VA’s commitment to make improvements to the process so that we have greater transparency and quite frankly faith in their accounting. And we can surely find ways to seek greater efficiency and effectiveness in the programs we fund.  

However, I think it is important to understand what is at stake with this discussion about budgets and needs, and whether or not spending on veterans’ programs is somehow frivolous.  

Budget numbers do not portray the true cost of keeping pace with the exploding cost of healthcare in this country, with the cost of growing the healthcare workforce, with the cost of shoring up and improving infrastructure.  

We are kidding ourselves if we think the bare minimum funding can deliver a 21st century VA with the staffing and infrastructure to match. And it is foolish to think that there is some private sector oasis that can do it instead. 

For-profit healthcare is failing in this country. Hospitals are closing in rural communities, nurses are leaving the profession, Americans are waiting long periods of time for primary and specialty care.  

If there is any shining star in this – it is VA. When there is no profit incentive, when the only goal is to provide care, the result is much better, and the data supports this. But keeping this up requires investment. It is a choice to support and care for veterans and it is a promise to pay for the cost of war. 

Many veterans’ initiatives have been left on the table this Congress, from improving VA buildings, to educating healthcare providers, expanding survivor benefits, restoring GI bill benefits lost to fraud, and many others. These things were not done because it costs money to pay for them, and there are unfortunately many members across the aisle and maybe even on this Committee, who balk at paying for these policies. This is also a choice. But it is not mine.  

I believe that to value and honor the service and sacrifice of servicemembers means to pay what we owe. 

The policy proposals from the incoming Administration include eliminating VA healthcare as we know it, and there is also discussion about means-testing for disability benefits. I do not support these proposals, and I will continue to fight against them and any effort to defund or undermine VA or to strip benefits from veterans. These are benefits that were earned through service, they are not a dole or a gift. 

I hope we can have an honest discussion about true need today, and what it is going to take to continue the good work the Biden Administration has done to implement the PACT Act and ensure more and more veterans have access to VA, now and in years to come. 

Thank you. I yield back.”

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