Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reluctant support of H.R. 9747, which does the bare minimum to avoid a government shutdown, keeping the bus moving only until we ultimately face another Republican-induced funding crisis just before Christmas.

I say ``reluctant support'' because, for some unknown reason, this bill lacks a crucial $12 billion that we direly need for the Veterans Health Administration. No one in the majority has come even remotely close to explaining why, not Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Scalise, not even my counterpart on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Chairman Bost. Not a single person can articulate why we aren't helping veterans right now in this vehicle.

We know VHA requires this funding to be able to care for veterans, and we know Congress will provide this money eventually, so I am baffled as to why we are waiting. We can and should be doing it now, yet the bus remains stuck in the station.

What do we gain by holding veteran healthcare hostage to the majority's political whims? The answer is nothing. Yet, we still wait, our wheels spinning round and round, and veterans and their families are left in the lurch.

Mr. Speaker, how much longer must we continue to idle while the majority party deludes themselves into thinking they can govern? This has been the least productive Congress in modern history. The majority can't even convince its own Members to support its own bills.

The Speaker's no buses, anti-omnibus screed was as predictable as it was unrealistic in a divided government. Democrats have been repeatedly called upon to be the adults in the room and keep this body functioning.

Let's drop the pretense and work together on legislation we know has broad support. I can think of nothing that has broader consensus than funding veteran healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, I implore my colleagues to get on board the bus and stop throwing veterans under the bus. Let's provide funding to the Veterans Health Administration as soon as possible.

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