Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 5192 - Veterans Health Care Amendments of 1992

(House Rules) and SENT to House 9/30/92(Montgomery (D) MS and 13 others)

The Administration opposes House passage of H.R. 5192 unless it is amended to:

—   Delete section 7, which would overturn the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy to prohibit smoking and sales of tobacco products in VA medical facilities. Active smoking is responsible for more than one of every six deaths in the United States and remains the single most preventable cause of death in the country. The Administration would support an amendment to H.R. 5192 that would permit VA to continue its no-smoking policy.

In addition, the Administration will work in the Senate to delete the bill's Medical Care Cost Recovery provisions that would:

—   Expand the items and activities for which medical care collections may be used thereby reducing the amount of collections that currently are deposited into the Treasury. This would increase direct spending, and would also have the effect of increasing funding of VA medical care, a domestic discretionary program.

—   Prohibit VA from expanding the number of Medicare Supplemental Insurance (Medi-gap) plans from which it can collect reimbursements for care provided for non-service- connected-disabilities. There is no programmatic justification for this provision, and it calls into question congressional support for this successful Federal program.

Scoring for Purposes of Pay-As-You-Go

H.R. 5192 contains provisions that would be increase direct, spending and reduce receipts; therefore it is subject to the pay- as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA).

OMB's preliminary scoring estimates of this bill are presented in the table below. Final scoring of this legislation may deviate from these estimates. If H.R. 5192 were enacted, final OMB scoring estimates would be published five days after enactment, as required by OBRA. The cumulative effect of all enacted legislation on the pay-as-you-go requirement will be issued in monthly reports transmitted to Congress.

Estimates for Pay-As-You-Go
(outlays in millions)