Cuts to Va Benefits

Floor Speech

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Mr. LATIMER. Mr. Speaker, I recently visited the Bronx VA Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. This center serves many in my district, and I am grateful for the quality care they provide and for the groundbreaking research happening at this facility.

When a young person signs up to join the military, Americans make them a promise that we will take care of them for the rest of their lives because they have put on the uniform of this country and risked their lives for all of us.

That is why it is perplexing and unconscionable that this administration has proposed devastating cuts to VA healthcare and benefits, eliminating 80,000 staff who provide healthcare and benefits to veterans who have earned them.

More than a quarter of VA staff are veterans themselves. Cuts to the programs that provide home loan assistance to veterans, even cutting staff of the suicide crisis line that saves lives--for what? This message does not say: Thank you for your service. This is a slap in the face for those who have served.

My Democratic colleagues do not support these cuts, and this is an ideal moment for bipartisanship, where our Republican colleagues can join us in pushing back.

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