Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) from the great State of Florida very much for yielding. She certainly has educated us about Florida, among other things, and she is a proud, proud ranking member on this bill.

This bill punishes our veterans by pushing out professionals from the Department of Veterans Affairs. It promotes premature retirements, and it paves the way for private equity takeovers, leaving care delayed, denied, and diminished.

For this reason, at the appropriate time I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment would mandate metrics requiring a report on veteran employee separations, deferred resignations, early retirements, and contractor-driven cuts exposing employment erosion and salary shortfalls of those who have served our Nation. Veterans deserve data not desertion.

I will vote ``no'' on the military construction bill also because the underlying bill underfunds our military construction accounts by nearly $1 billion. This hurts our military readiness at a time when our enemies like China choose to invest in themselves. I also can't support a bill that paves the road to VA privatization. Perish that thought.

While I have the time, it is long overdue for the Department of Veterans Affairs to approve the request from northwest Ohio to expedite the dual affiliation of the University of Toledo Medical Center and the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System. Our VA community clinic in Toledo stands ready to support this effort, and over 83,000 veterans in the northwest quadrant of Ohio deserve the convenience of access to the State of Ohio's medical center and academic center at Toledo.

In Toledo, to level funding in this account will not allow us to grow and fully support the needs of all of our veterans.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for the motion to recommit, and I include in the Record the text of my amendment.

Ms. Kaptur moves to recommit the bill H.R. 3944 to the Committee on Appropriations with the following amendment:

At the appropriate place, insert the following: veterans firings accountability

Sec. ___. Not later than 15 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall transmit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report detailing, for calendar year 2025 and the comparable periods of time for the last five calendar years, the number of veterans separated from Federal service; the number of veterans participating in a Deferred Resignation Program or who have left Federal service under a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority; and the number of veterans employed by contractors or subcontractors performing work for the Federal government who have seen their working hours, wages, or employment reduced or terminated.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez).

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