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BURR'S ATTENDANCE RECORD ON SENATE VETS'
COMMITTEE MEDIOCRE AT BEST -- New Ranking
Minority Member's attendance stands at just
under 50%.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
For more about Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), use
the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/
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Story here...
http://www.charlotte
.com/local/story/293104.html
Story below:
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BURR AHEAD OF SOME, TRAILS OTHERS IN PRESENCE
AT U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE
Attendance gaps seen
N.C. lawmaker now ranking Republican on
Veterans Affairs panel
LISA ZAGAROLI
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- When U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina assumed the
GOP leadership position on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs last
week, he came to it with a bit of a gap -- he attended fewer than half
its hearings over the past three years.
Others on the panel have worse attendance records. Sen. Lindsey Graham,
R-S.C., showed up only three times at veterans committee hearings
between the start of 2005 and May 16, 2007, according to an Observer
review of the published proceedings from 44 meetings.
Burr's attendance -- he has gone to 20 meetings -- is about the middle
of the pack. A few senators attended most of the meetings, led by former
chairman Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who attended 43 of the 44 hearings,
and some senators attended only a few, such as Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Pa., who attended two.
A veterans affairs activist said he's less concerned with Burr's record
of attendance than his votes on veterans' funding, which he criticized.
Lawmakers are marked present even if they stay only for moments. The
Observer's analysis included only oversight and fact-finding hearings
that issue reports, not joint meetings with other committees or hearings
where they can vote by proxy.
Burr said he serves on five committees, and is ranking Republican on two
subcommittees important to North Carolina -- national parks and health
care. So he routinely has to choose among several priorities.
"Every day is a choice for us," Burr said in an interview. "We do a very
good job of selecting based on the topic."
Burr said he will always attend if there's a state-specific or other
matter of particular interest before the panel. If he has a conflict and
can't attend, he'll submit a proxy if the committee is holding votes.
His staff attends, regardless of whether the senator is there.
Burr had to dash out of his first meeting last week as ranking
Republican on the veterans panel to briefly attend the Senate Committee
on Indian Affairs, which was discussing the Lumbee tribe of North
Carolina.
A week ago, Burr was named the acting replacement for Craig, who was the
panel's ranking Republican until he was stripped of his committee
assignments following a widely publicized incident in an airport
restroom.
Chairmen from the majority party set the committee agenda, but the
minority's ranking member decides which legislation to support or
challenge, proposes alternatives and recommends witnesses for hearings.
Dennis Cullinan, national legislative director for the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, said Burr attended a reception for veterans last week, and
has demonstrated that he's engaged in the issues since he was appointed
to the committee in 2005.
Larry Scott of Vancouver, Wash., who runs a Web site called V.A.
Watchdog, said he finds Burr's record on veterans funding issues
"terribly dismal," but mirroring many other Republicans who hold the
line on spending.
"It disappoints me that this is a `B' committee," Scott said, referring
its status as a panel secondary in importance to others like
appropriations and armed services.
He understands that veterans who use government programs are a small
population, but he'd like to see Congress do more oversight of the
Department of Veterans Affairs. "They've let the VA kind of run on its
own for most of its (existence)," Scott said.
The population of veterans is growing in the Carolinas, with about
750,000 in North Carolina and 410,000 in South Carolina.
The Observer has written extensively about quality of care issues at VA
facilities, primarily the hospital in Salisbury.
Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said the S.C. senator serves on five
committees with overlapping schedules. He spends much of his time on the
armed services and judiciary panels.
"A hearing is not a good barometer of how active you are on an issue,"
Bishop said. "Back in May we announced the VA is opening two more health
care clinics in South Carolina. That's a very effective use of his
time."
Bishop said that Graham's staff attends all of his hearings.
"Just because the senator is not there doesn't mean the information is
not getting back to the senator," he said.
Veterans Affairs Meetings
Attendance varied widely at the oversight and fact-finding hearings held
by the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. The panel held 44 such
hearings between Jan. 24, 2005, and May 16, 2007, for which published
reports were issued. Here's how many meetings were attended by various
panel members:
• Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho (chairman 2005-2006): 43
• Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii (chairman 2007): 39
• Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.: 33
• Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.: 20
• Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.: 20
• Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas: 5
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: 3
• Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.: 2
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Larry Scott --
