Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Frankly, I want to, number one, tell you how pleased I am with the portion of the bill that we were able to work with. My friend, the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut, and I worked together, and our members worked hard.
We are exceptionally pleased to begin to reinvest again at the National Institutes of Health, to put $350 million for additional research in Alzheimer's, to put over $500 million into additional early childhood education, to send back to the States, frankly, over $400 million for IDEA, and to help school districts deal with children with special needs.
We were exceptionally pleased to be able to preserve--in fact, aid-- something that the President had significantly reduced. But in saying that, I want to say we had a good working relationship with the administration.
So this is a good product. This actually serves some really important purposes. I felt like we worked together in a bipartisan way to prioritize things that matter to all of us and certainly that matter very deeply to the American people.
I want to, again, close by thanking my good friend from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) for working with us. I want to particularly thank my friend, the ranking member, who worked very hard. I am especially proud of my chairman, Mr. Rogers from Kentucky, because I think he not only produced a very good product under very difficult circumstances, he also has brought us closer to restoring full regular order, which I know is his aim.
The last people to thank, of course, are the people that make it all possible. We have had just a brilliant staff effort, hardworking, dedicated, thoroughly professional, and, frankly, bipartisan. So I want to thank each and every one of them.
I would be remiss if I didn't single out, if I may, Mr. Speaker, my own chief clerk, Susan Ross, who I thought did an exceptional job, and to also thank Will Smith, our chief clerk of the committee for his extraordinary job.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.
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