Power of the Purse

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I am reminded of the old hymn, ``There Is Power in the Blood,'' ``power in the blood, wonder working power.'' It also reminds me of something else, that Congress has the power of the purse.

Madam Speaker, yesterday, before I returned to D.C., I had a meeting with a local county official. I thought we were going to discuss infrastructure and workforce problems. He wanted to talk to me about veterans, homeless veterans, how it was increasing so much in his county, and the fact that we have borders that are just porous, with record numbers of people crossing those borders. Here we are, setting them up in rooms and with food, yet we have veterans all across this country living under bridges.

Madam Speaker, when I got to the world's busiest airport, I ran into a dear friend, a marine, on his way to his next assignment. I thought it was very ironic because here we are this week, discussing the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. That is right, the power of the purse.

We owe our veterans a debt of gratitude that we can't ever repay. We also owe our military, our current members of the military, all the tools that they can get in their toolbox.

That is why, this week, we are going to be discussing things. We are fully funding the health program for our veterans and fully funding the veterans benefits in all the VA programs. We are also focusing on infrastructure investments for our current military.

There is another thing we have with that power of the purse--not just funding, but cutting. See, we are going to cut out of our military DEI and CRT, which are hurting recruitment and killing morale.

Madam Speaker, as we go throughout this week and have this debate, for their salvation, I encourage my colleagues to focus on that power of the blood, but I also encourage them to focus on the power of the purse for these appropriations bills.

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