I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4188
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a portion of funds
received from national tobacco legislation to be made available for health
care for veterans.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 25, 1998
Mr. STEARNS (for himself, Mr. STUMP, Mr. SNYDER, Mr. HAYWORTH, and
Mr. FILNER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a
portion of funds received from national tobacco legisla-
tion to be made available for health care for veterans.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Tobacco
Trust Fund Act of 1998’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) A consensus exists within the scientific and
medical communities that tobacco products are in-
herently dangerous and cause cancer, heart disease,
emphysema, and other serious illnesses.
(2) Tobacco advertising and marketing has for
decades contributed significantly to the use of to-
bacco products by adolescents and young adults,
and, particularly, members of the Nation’s uni-
formed services.
(3) Reliable studies indicate that 75 percent of
World War II veterans began smoking as young
adults, and today large numbers of veterans are
smokers.
(4) Smoking related illnesses are highly preva-
lent among the more than 3,000,000 veterans who
use the Department of Veterans Affairs health care
system annually.
(5) The Department of Veterans Affairs esti-
mates that it spent $3,600,000,000 in 1997 to treat
smoking-related illnesses and that over the next five
years it will spend $20,000,000,000 on such care.
(6) Congress established the Department of
Veterans Affairs in furtherance of its constitutional
power to provide for the national defense in order to
provide benefits and services to veterans of the uni-
formed services.
(7) There is in the Department of Veterans Af-
fairs a health care system which has as its primary
function to provide a complete medical and hospital
service for the medical care and treatment of such
veterans as can be served through available appro-
priations.
(8) The sale, distribution, marketing, advertis-
ing, and use of tobacco products has substantially
and adversely impaired the ability of the Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs to carry out its health care
mission because of the prevalence of smoking-related
illnesses among veterans.
(9) The Federal Government, including the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs, has lacked the means
to prevent the onset of smoking-related illnesses
among veterans and has had no authority to deny
needed treatment to any veteran on the basis that
an illness is or might be smoking-related.
(10) With some 20 percent of its health care
budget absorbed in treating smoking-related ill-
nesses, the Department of Veterans Affairs health
care system has lacked resources to provide needed
nursing home care, home care, community-based
ambulatory care, and other services to tens of thou-
sands of other veterans.
(11) The network of academically affiliated
medical centers of the Department of Veterans Af-
fairs provides a unique system within which out-
standing medical research is conducted and which
has the potential to expand significantly ongoing re-
search on tobacco-related illnesses.
(12) It is in the public interest for Congress to
enact legislation requiring that a portion of any
amounts received from manufacturers of tobacco
products be used to meet the costs of (A) treatment
for diseases and adverse health effects associated
with the use of tobacco products by those who served
their country in uniform, and (B) medical and
health services research relating to prevention and
treatment of, and rehabilitation from, tobacco addic-
tion and diseases associated with tobacco use.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF TRUST FUND.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 17 of title 38, United
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1729A
the following new section:
‘‘§ 1729B. Veterans Tobacco Trust Fund
‘‘(a) There is established in the Treasury of the
United States a trust fund to be known as the ‘Veterans
Tobacco Trust Fund’, consisting of such amounts as may
be appropriated, credited, or donated to the trust fund.
‘‘(b) If a law is enacted that provides for the alloca-
tion of funds received from tobacco product manufacturers
for programs to reduce use of tobacco products by minors
and for health-care research, among other purposes, there
shall be credited to the trust fund from amounts received
by the United States pursuant to that law, without further
appropriation, the amount of $3,000,000,000.
‘‘(c) Amounts in the trust fund shall be available,
without fiscal year limitation, to the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs for the following purposes:
‘‘(1) Furnishing medical care and services
under this chapter, to be available during any fiscal
year for the same purposes and subject to the same
limitations (other than with respect to the period of
availability for obligation) as apply to amounts ap-
propriated from the general fund of the Treasury for
that fiscal year for medical care.
‘‘(2) Conducting medical research, rehabilita-
tion research, and health systems research, with par-
ticular emphasis on research relating to prevention
and treatment of, and rehabilitation from, tobacco
addiction and diseases associated with tobacco use.’’.
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.— The table of sections
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting
after the item relating to section 1729A the following new
item:
‘‘Sec. 1729B. Veterans Tobacco Trust Fund.’’.
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