Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Chairman, I rise today as a Representative from southern Nevada, where we have Creech Air Force Base, Nellis Air Force Base, and hundreds of thousands of veterans that call southern Nevada home. As their Representative, I have extreme disappointment with this bill that we have before us, the MILCON-VA bill.

As a member of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, I take great pride in our work. This traditionally has been bipartisan and laser-focused on the needs of our veterans, of our servicemembers, and their families, and on the military's construction requirements to meet global security challenges facing our Nation, not just today, but in the future.

Unfortunately, this bill is not a reflection of that MILCON-VA tradition of putting politics aside and putting our military, our servicemembers, our veterans, and our Nation first. Instead, this bill sacrifices our promises to veterans, our military readiness, and our national security, honestly, in favor of meeting the demands of a few extremist Republican politicians.

Instead of ensuring our Nation provides for Americans who have sacrificed to keep our Nation safe, this bill focuses on picking culture war fights, banning the VA from flying certain flags or banning them from taking steps to advance equal opportunity and health access for every veteran.

Instead of focusing on preparing our military to protect U.S. interests, the bill would prevent the VA from providing lifesaving reproductive healthcare to female veterans.

As my colleague just said, the mission of the VA should be respectful to our veterans. I say to every woman veteran who has put her life on the line for our freedom that we should show them the respect that they can make their own choice and be free to make their own choice for their own healthcare.

I want to be clear, as a woman who has undergone a D&C, that abortion care is healthcare. I will say that again. Abortion care is healthcare. Women who have put their lives on the line for our country, for our freedom, should have the ability to make that choice.

The policies that extremist politicians, in addition to that, have tacked on to this bill prevents the VA from providing that type of care, even in the case when a pregnancy is the result of rape, incest, or the life of the mother is at risk.

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Ms. LEE of Nevada. Policies that extremist politicians have tacked on to this bill are offensive to men and women who serve our country, including my constituents at Creech and Nellis Air Force bases.

I am especially alarmed at the $1.5 billion in proposed cuts to military construction. I am supportive of being thoughtful and responsible with our Federal spending, but at a time when our Nation faces mounting security challenges across this globe, I cannot understand how we can stand here today and cut nearly 10 percent of funding that would ensure that our military bases are fully equipped to handle global threats.

This bill would increase the backlog of projects at bases likes Nellis and Creech, where I have heard directly from my airmen and airwomen working out of temporary, cramped, and outdated, unsafe facilities; and this, at a time when our military is already struggling with recruitment and retention.

Full military construction funding is key to enable that our servicemembers meet National Defense Strategy demands, so we must invest fully in critical facilities, like Nellis' communication support center and the Weapons School Campus.

We also need to support the mission-critical Reconnaissance Operations Training Facility and to repair the base's taxiway at Creech.

We call on our men and women in our military to make our Nation and keep our Nation safe, but this bill does not meet the demands of our servicemembers and, instead, abandons men and women who we should be supporting most in southern Nevada and beyond.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and, instead, please let's get back to working together to get servicemembers and our veterans the resources that they need, that they have earned, and give them the respect and the freedom that they have fought for.

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