{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-offers-amendment-to-fully-fund-veterans-benefits-by-cutting-doe-waste/", "Dr. Rand Paul Offers Amendment to Fully Fund Veterans Benefits by Cutting DOE Waste", "2024-09-19", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nSeptember 19, 2024\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nDr. Rand Paul Offers Amendment to Fully Fund Veterans Benefits by Cutting DOE Waste\n\nSenate Votes 47-47 on Dr. Paul\u2019s Amendment\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) offered an amendment to ensure veterans receive benefits they were promised without adding to the national debt by cutting $2.9 billion in Department of Energy (DOE) green energy loan guarantees.\n\nGreen energy loan guarantees are often known for being too risky to attract private investment. A 2015 Government Accountability Office report lists five companies that defaulted on DOE loans, including Solyndra, Fisker, Abound Solar, Beacon Power, and Vehicle Production Group, costing taxpayers a total of $807 million.\n\nDr. Paul spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on his amendment, you can watch his floor remarks HERE and read them as prepared below.\n\n\u201cWashington\u2019s fiscal recklessness is putting the American dream out of reach for millions of Americans.\n\n\u201cHistorically high rates of inflation have made every American poorer. As families across this country struggle to put food on the table, Washington seems content to continue spending without regard to the consequences.\n\n\u201cBut sometimes the consequences are too shameful to ignore. Congressional spending and financial mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs are the latest examples, with both resulting in a $2.9 billion shortfall threatening the benefits of millions of veterans.\n\n\u201cOur veterans should not pay the cost for the federal government\u2019s incompetence.\n\n\u201cThat is why I ask the Senate to adopt my amendment, which ensures veterans receive the benefits they were promised without adding to the national debt.\n\n\u201cMy amendment is simple. It pays for our veterans\u2019 care by rescinding $2.9 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees.\n\n\u201cThe American taxpayer should not be asked to subsidize companies with vast resources to gamble on energy projects that the private sector finds too risky to invest in.\n\n\u201cUnsurprisingly, these gambles taken by the Department of Energy\u2019s Loan Programs come at an exorbitant cost. A 2015 Government Accountability Office report reveals the extent of the Department of Energy\u2019s loan program failures.\n\n\u201cThat report lists five companies that defaulted on similar Department of Energy loans, including Solyndra, Fisker, Abound Solar, Beacon Power, and Vehicle Production Group, costing taxpayers a total of $807 million.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, the VA\u2019s shortfall was just as foreseeable as the failures of Department of Energy loans. The VA has been overwhelmed, receiving more than 2.4 million claims applications in 2023\u2014the most ever, and 39 percent higher than in 2022.\n\n\u201cYou may recall that I stood here on the Senate floor and warned that the PACT Act would put veterans\u2019 benefits at risk by creating presumptions of service connection for the most common of ailments.\n\n\u201cFor example, the PACT Act created a presumption of service connection for hypertension. Well, the CDC estimates that 116 million Americans have hypertension. 50% of men and 44% of women have hypertension. In fact, more than 60% of people over the age of 60 have hypertension.\n\n\u201cIncluding hypertension as a trigger for benefits broadens the category of recipients so much that it has contributed to the depletion of funds necessary for veterans suffering respiratory ailments and cancer secondary to inhalations of toxins.\n\n\u201cBecause of Congress\u2019s inability to make difficult decisions, precious resources that ought to go to veterans exposed to toxic substances are at risk of going up in smoke.\n\n\u201cCongress must also take its oversight responsibilities seriously and hold the VA accountable for fiscal mismanagement and corruption.\n\n\u201cIn fiscal year 2023, the VA issued $3 billion in improper payments\u2014meaning the VA sent payments to the wrong people or in the wrong amount. Over the past three years, it is estimated that such improper payments exceed $10 billion.\n\n\u201cIn May 2024, the VA\u2019s inspector general reported the department improperly awarded over $10 million in incentives to senior executives in the VA\u2019s central office.\n\n\u201cThese are resources that could have been devoted to veterans\u2019 benefits. Instead, the VA shamefully squandered them.\n\n\u201cIt is high time the Members of this body face the incontrovertible fact that Congress\u2019s reckless spending has awful consequences. We have seen it in the form of inflation, which has made all Americans poorer. And now we see that overspending threatens the benefits we promised our veterans.\n\n\u201cWe must use these failures as a warning. We must get serious about our spending and oversight responsibilities. I encourage my colleagues to vote for my amendment as a first step to ensure our veterans receive the care they deserve.\u201d\n\nYou can read Dr. Paul\u2019s amendment HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-offers-amendment-to-fully-fund-veterans-benefits-by-cutting-doe-waste/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1203961223363876, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}