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

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Chairman, years of out-of-control government spending has fueled inflation and skyrocketed our Federal debt. It is far past time we prioritize those most important core functions of government as intended by our Founders in the Constitution.

The fiscal year 2024 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill does just that. It prioritizes programs for those most important: our Nation's veterans, and facilities for our men and women defending our country.

My, my, my, what do we hear from the other side? Complaints about not being able to fly certain flags at military bases, complaints about not being able to fund climate change bureaucracies in our veterans' facilities, complaints about actually not being able to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services.

This bill focuses on core government functions. It fully funds veterans' healthcare, veterans' benefits and VA programs. It ensures our veterans get the medical treatment and benefits they deserve. It provides funds to the agencies that ensure our military and veterans are appropriately honored in our cemeteries and battle monuments, and it prioritizes our Nation's Active Duty servicemembers and their families by providing nearly $800 million above the President's budget request for military construction and family housing. Let me repeat that: $800 million above the President's budget request.

We can and we must support our Nation's heroes who have sacrificed so much to defend our freedoms and protect our homeland. That is why we must pass this strong legislation and make clear that we stand with our brave men and women in uniform.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The gentlemen from Tennessee and California understand what kind of money really matters here. It is very nice to say that you are $800 million above the President's budget request.

The money that matters is where we are now and what Republicans are proposing to spend going forward. Republicans are cutting--which, of course, Mr. Cline neglected to mention--military construction $1.5 billion below what we spend now. That is a cut by anyone's definition. They can play games with the language and the way they describe things, but there is no getting around that they are cutting $1.5 billion from military construction.

What does that mean? That might just sound like, oh, we will build a few less buildings, it is not going to be that bad. Understand that DOD has assessed that 30 percent of our military infrastructure around the world is in fair or poor condition. Many of us have traveled around the world to inspect military bases, and we talk to our troops and pledge to our servicemembers how much they mean to us and how we have their backs. I have had the opportunity to be shown places where our hangar doors are held together with wax and spit, particularly in places like Okinawa and other areas where there is a lot of erosion and metal rusts more quickly. I live in a coastal State, and I have a coastal district, so I understand what happens there when you are on the coast from the salt air. I watched a servicemember try to pull closed a hangar door that was jury-rigged with a coat hanger because they couldn't get the door closed the way it normally should, and we did not provide them funding anywhere in the near future to ensure that we can keep billions of dollars' worth of military equipment safe.

Republicans are standing here and saying things that absolutely do not pass the straight-face test when they are trying to suggest that they are doing right by our servicemembers.

We have a retention problem in our military. We have people who have testified to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee who are current servicemembers who talked to us about how they intended to spend their careers in the service, but because of the way they and their families felt treated, the decrepit housing that the military can't seem to get straight when it comes to dealing with mold and broken items and repairs that are necessary, they chose a different career path.

If we continue on the path that Republicans have proposed, then what that means is that we are going to lose servicemembers, like we are already losing. That is irresponsible and unacceptable.

Mr. Chairman, I will have more to say at a later time. I reserve the balance of my time.

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