Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3057, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3057, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)
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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule for one simple reason: it shortchanges our Nation's veterans. I would say to my friend and colleague, the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee, with all due respect, our veterans do not need more hearings. They do not need your sympathy. They need your action. They need this Congress to act, and they need this Congress to act now.
The Department of Veterans Affairs recently admitted they are $1 billion short. Last night in the Rules Committee, Democrats offered an amendment by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) to correct this shortfall and to make sure that our veterans get the health care that they deserve. As the gentleman from Texas noted in his testimony before the committee, ``There are three basic reasons why VA health funding must be increased above present levels.
``First, health care inflation is approximately 7 percent a year. Second, 86,000 Iraqi and Afghanistan war veterans have needed VA care. Third, health care and prescription drug costs have caused a net increase of 250,000 veterans per year using the VA health care system.''
Mr. Speaker, despite this glaring need for more veterans health care funding, the Republican majority on the Committee on Rules refused to provide it on a partisan vote. What are our priorities?
Yesterday in The Washington Post, it was reported that senior VA officials are spending their time making sure that every VA facility has a framed portrait of the VA Secretary prominently displayed.
One senior VA official said that facilities should make the portrait their ``highest priority.''
I have a suggestion for the VA. Maybe their highest priority should be providing adequate health care for our veterans. Maybe their highest priority should be spending American tax dollars wisely.
There is a quote from Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural etched into the VA building downtown. It says, ``to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.''
Lincoln did not say anything about the framed portrait of government officials.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question so that we can provide adequate funding for veterans health care.
During this time of war, our veterans deserve more than nice words. They deserve the health care that they have earned.
I realize that this is not a tax cut for millionaires, something that you on the other side of the aisle embrace with urgency, but how can you turn your backs on the brave men and women fighting in the wars that you voted for?
Mr. Speaker, this is an outrageous situation that must be fixed today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. We do not need any more hearings. We need to fix it today. We owe the men and women who have worn the uniform of this country nothing less.
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