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“We will continue working together for Omaha area veterans and I am optimistic that substantial progress will be made to address the deficiencies at the hospital.”
~ Senator Nelson after meeting with Veterans Administration Secretary Shinseki this week ~
NELSON: SHINSEKI FOCUSED ON ADDRESSING OMAHA VA DEFICIENCIES
August 7, 2009 – After meeting Thursday with Veteran Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson said today he’s confident that significant progress will be made to address the Omaha VA Medical Center’s infrastructure problems to ensure that veterans receive proper care.
“I commend Secretary Shinseki for agreeing with me that the Omaha VA facility’s aging condition is a serious concern and warrants action,” Senator Nelson said. “We will continue working together for Omaha area veterans and I am optimistic that substantial progress will be made to address the deficiencies at the hospital. The secretary and I know well that our veterans deserve the highest quality care because they have done so much to serve our nation and preserve America’s freedoms.”
Nelson’s comments came after he and the secretary met in Nelson’s Washington office to discuss the Omaha VA hospital.
The 57-year-old Omaha VA facility faces a number of infrastructure challenges. Local VA officials in Omaha have sought funding for a major overhaul or replacement of the building.
Nelson has been working intensively for more than a year on addressing the facilities needs at the Omaha VA hospital.
Some of Nelson’s efforts concerning the Omaha VA hospital include:
March 12, 2008 – Nelson and Congressman Lee Terry met with VA facilities personnel to discuss the Omaha VA Medical Center
April 8th, 2008 – Nelson invited former VA Secretary, James Peake, to visit the Omaha VA Medical Center
April 10th, 2008 – Nelson had a personal follow-up with Secretary Peake to discuss the Omaha VA Medical Center
June 9th, 2008 – Nelson hosted Secretary Peake, Rep. Lee Terry, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, leaders from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Creighton Medical Center and key Omaha business partners to discuss the Omaha VA Medical Center
July 15th, 2008 – Nelson had a personal follow-up with Secretary Peake to discuss conducting a feasibility study on the Omaha VA Medical Center
August 25th, 2008 – Nelson announced a feasibility study commissioned by the VA to review conditions at the Omaha VA Medical Center
April 22nd, 2008 – Nelson met with Secretary Shinseki to discuss Omaha VA
June 11th, 2009 – Senator Nelson attended the Military Construction-VA Appropriations Committee hearing to discuss the Omaha VA facility with Secretary Shinseki
June 12th, 2009 - Nelson had a personal follow-up with Secretary Shinseki who committed to deploy his Chief of Staff to Omaha to survey the Medical Center
The VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System serves more than 172,500 veterans in Nebraska, western Iowa and sections of Kansas and Missouri. The Omaha VA Medical Center offers both inpatient and outpatient primary and specialty care services.
The Omaha VA provides inpatient, medical, surgical, and psychiatric care in addition to its ambulatory care services and clinical research programs. OVAMC has dual affiliations with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University. The facility is authorized for 100 acute beds and 18 Psychiatric Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (PRRTP) beds.
NELSON: RESOLUTIONS CALL FOR LIVESTOCK INDEMNITY PROGRAM FIX AND FUNDING FOR HERD DEPOPULATION
August 4, 2009 – Today, the Senate passed two amendments co-sponsored by Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson that call for the USDA to reexamine the methodology used to calculate reimbursements for livestock loss under the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), and that direct at least $3 million to the USDA to depopulate tuberculosis (TB)-infected cattle herds. Nelson is the lead sponsor of the LIP amendment.
“These resolutions will help livestock producers get the reimbursement Congress intended when it passed the Livestock Indemnity Program and will keep Nebraska cattle TB-free,” said Senator Nelson. “Livestock producers who are hit with herd loss due to extreme weather shouldn’t be hit again when reimbursements fall short.”
The LIP program was created in 2008 to provide timely reimbursements to livestock producers in the event of herd loss due to extreme weather disasters such as floods, blizzards, and extreme heat. On July 13, 2009, the USDA announced its methodology for determining LIP payments. The standards would fall short of covering the Congressionally-mandated 75% of market value for animals if the animals are above 400 pounds and close to market weight.
The sense of the Senate resolution passed today states that that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack should strive to establish a methodology to calculate more specific payments to offset the cost of loss for each animal as was intended by Congress in the original LIP bill, and should work with groups representing affected livestock producers to come up with this more precise methodology. Last month, Senator Nelson joined several senators in a letter to Secretary Vilsack which raised similar issues.
The amendment to direct at least $3 million to herd depopulation comes after a TB-infected herd was discovered in Nebraska in June. The funds will be used to assist in depopulation and to compensate affected producers in Nebraska and other states. Nebraska’s current TB-free status would be at risk if the affected herds were not depopulated.
The LIP resolution was co-sponsored by Senators Mike Johanns, Chuck Grassley, Pat Roberts, Tim Johnson and John Thune. The amendment to depopulate TB-infected herds was sponsored by Senator Mike Johanns, and co-sponsored by Carl Levin, and Debbie Stabenow. Both were amendments to the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 2010 (H.R. 2997) which passed the Senate this evening.
NELSON-SUPPORTED FIX WILL BRING $6.3 MILLION MORE MEDICAID FUNDING TO NEBRASKA
August 4, 2009 –Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson welcomed an announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that it will correct a problem in the methodology used to set funding levels for states, increasing the amount of federal funding it sends to the Nebraska Medicaid program. The increased funding, the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and will provide at least $6.3 million in additional federal funds to Nebraska. The problem was brought to Nelson’s attention by Director Mike Calvert and Fiscal Analyst Liz Hruska in the Nebraska Legislature’s Fiscal office.
“Because of an outdated calculation, Nebraska stood to lose millions in federal funds for Medicaid,” said Senator Ben Nelson. “Nebraska’s taxpayers stand to benefit from this change. The federal formula will now accurately reflect the unemployment numbers in Nebraska. Thanks to the Legislative Fiscal Office, this revision will ensure we receive the $6.3 million in additional funds that had been approved as part of the stimulus bill.”
Under the ARRA, states became eligible for increased FMAP funding when state unemployment levels reach a certain threshold. To ensure funding is accurate, state unemployment levels are reviewed and FMAP funding is adjusted quarterly using data from the most recent three months. Funding levels for January through March 2009 were set using data from December 2008 through February 2009 and did not include the higher unemployment numbers for March. Now that March numbers will be used, Nebraska will be eligible for a higher tier of FMAP funding than it received. Without the change, December unemployment figures would have been used to calculate eligibility for 3 consecutive quarters, inaccurately representing the impact of the recession in Nebraska based on unemployment data.
In a notice published in the Federal Register on Friday, HHS announced that it would fix this problem and will only use final unemployment numbers from the relevant months to calculate FMAP eligibility.
“This is a lot of money that Nebraska stood to lose,” said Nelson. “The additional funds we will receive are about the same as a full-year of funding for the Nebraska Scholarship Program or the entire annual budget of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. I commend both the Legislative Fiscal office for identifying this error and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for correcting it.”
A copy of the letter Senator Nelson sent to HHS Secretary Sebelius detailing the problem is attached.
Senator Nelson played a key role in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill. He worked with a bipartisan group of nearly 20 Senators to better focus The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on tax cuts for the middle class and job creation for millions of Americans. Senator Nelson led the group through the initial bill line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending and cut out $108 billion of inefficient or less-stimulative spending. The bipartisan group helped the improved bill win congressional approval. President Obama signed it into law February 17, 2009.
Senator Nelson is posting information about the release of stimulus finds on his website as it becomes available. Visit http://bennelson.senate.gov/feature_4.cfm for more information.
NELSON: JUDGE SOTOMAYOR’S RECORD SHOWS RESPECT FOR THE LAW
August 3, 2009 – Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson announced today that he will vote in favor of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court because her record shows she’s well qualified and will not push a personal agenda.
“I plan to support Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court,” Senator Nelson said today. “I think she will make an outstanding contribution to the Supreme Court. From my one-on-one meeting with her, watching her confirmation hearing, and after taking a hard look at her entire record, I believe she understands how essential it is to uphold the law and the Constitution, and not bring an agenda that would prompt her to make law.
“She’s well-qualified and has extensive experience, more than any other nominee. If you look at her record, and I have taken a close look, it shows she is not going to be an activist,” Senator Nelson said.
“It would be difficult to show from her decisions that she’s going to promote a personal agenda. Her record is evidence of her approach of judging cases with, as she said, ‘fidelity to the law,’” Nelson said. “As usual, and I saw this with previous Supreme Court nominations, political operatives feel passionately and want her confirmed or not confirmed. While I listened to both sides, what mattered more to me were the views of independent groups about Judge Sotomayor.
Senator Nelson noted that the Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary of the American Bar Association said: “Judge Sotomayor’s opinions show an adherence to precedent and an absence of attempts to set policy based on the judge’s personal views.” The non-partisan Congressional Research Service said of her: “Perhaps the most consistent characteristic of Judge Sotomayor's approach as an appellate judge has been an adherence to the doctrine of stare decisis (i.e., the upholding of past judicial precedents).”
Some have questioned Sotomayor’s position on the 2nd Amendment that guarantees an individual right to bear arms. Nelson noted that Judge Sotomayor’s respect for precedent is also evident in her rulings on 2nd Amendment issues, and that she has acknowledged the individual right to bear arms.
Nelson said that as he did with the John Roberts and Samuel Alito nominations, he will vote in favor of Judge Sotomayor when the Senate holds its confirmation vote sometime this week.
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