Take Care of America's Veterans Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose H.R. 9237, which, if we are being clear, cuts veterans' benefits.

The President and my colleagues on the Republican side in Congress have no problem sending our men and women off to war, but the real measure of a nation is not just how it treats their servicemembers when they are on Active Duty. It is how it treats them when they are no longer dodging the bombs, the bullets, and the storms at sea and when they are no longer serving in war.

As a Congress, we have to do right by our veterans, and this bill simply does not do it with $57 billion in cuts for disability benefits for veterans. It raises home loan refinancing fees $4 billion on veteran borrowers.

Mr. Speaker, I am the son of two veterans, and we would have never purchased our first home when I was in high school were it not for a VA home assistance loan. That is to say not just for me but for so many folks across the 18th Congressional District of Texas.

I keep hearing my colleagues on the other side of the aisle saying that we have to find money to offset to be able to pay for some of the other benefits in this bill. Yet, if we are pinching pennies, let's tell the President to end his war in Iran, which has cost taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. It is time for this Congress to do right by our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against H.R. 9237.

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