Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3043, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ...

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3043, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - November 06, 2007)

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Mr. WICKER. Madam Speaker, I thank my distinguished friend from Washington.

Madam Speaker, my friend from Florida says that this new Democratic majority was determined to govern differently than previous majorities. He has succeeded in this regard, Madam Speaker: This is the latest the Congress has gone without sending a single appropriation bill to the President for his signature since 1987. I don't think that is what the Democratic majority had in mind when they said they would govern differently, but they have certainly done so.

So I rise to express my opposition to the rule and to the conference report that will serve no purpose other than to delay funding for veterans, for our troops and for their families.

The conference report before us includes both the Labor-HHS Education appropriation bill and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriation bill. The President stands ready to sign the MilCon-VA bill into law. He could have done so already and made funding available for key veterans health and benefit programs and much-needed military construction projects.

But the majority has chosen to link that bill with a bloated Labor-HHS, Education bill, a measure which the President will veto. So this exercise today amounts to a waste of time and sends the wrong message to veterans and military personnel. Instead of honoring these men and women for their sacrifices and providing assistance to them today on the eve of Veterans Day, we are short-changing our veterans in the interest of political gamesmanship.

The majority's strategy was to couple these bills with the expectation that many Members of Congress would not have the political will to oppose funding for veterans even temporarily. We should not use our veterans as pawns and we should not insult their intelligence. Give our Nation's heroes more credit than that. Our veterans can see through this ruse. So can the American people, and they should be rightly outraged by it.

I have in my hand a statement taken from the Web page of the American Legion, our Nation's largest veterans organization. The American Legion says, ``Here we are again, the start of a new fiscal year and Congress still has not passed the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.'' The American Legion goes on to ask the question: ``So what is the problem?'' And their answer is accurate: ``Politics.''

The American Legion goes on to denounce Congress' plans to hold VA funding hostage.

Another veterans organization, VetsForFreedom.org identifies this process for what it is: ``A cynical attempt to use veterans as a political shield for further wasteful government spending.'' VetsforFreedom goes on to say they call on Congress to pass clean bills for the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense as quickly as possible.

Madam Speaker, we should be moving this legislation under regular order. It is true that Congresses in the past have used omnibus bills, but always as a last resort after first trying to follow regular established procedure. In this instance, the Democratic leadership did not even attempt to follow regular order. Instead, their first attempt to bring these conference reports to the floor amounts to an unprecedented departure from established procedure.

I very much regret the decision of the majority to link these two bills. The House passed its version of the MilCon bill in June by a vote of 409-2. The Senate passed its bill on September 6, 2 months ago, with a vote of 92-1 in favor of the bill. For 8 weeks, Chairman Edwards and I stood ready to conference these bills. We could have brought a bill to the floor weeks ago that would have passed overwhelmingly and been signed into law by the President.

Instead, after waiting 8 weeks, when we were finally given the green light to move forward with a conference, the members of our subcommittee were not appointed as conferees as is normally the case. The majority decided that the Labor-HHS conferees, most of whom did not attend MilCon-VA hearings or participate in our bill's creation, would be involved in deliberations on VA-specific provisions.

Mr. Edwards and I, as chairman and ranking member, have worked along with our Senate counterparts and our staffs to craft a compromise between the two versions of the MilCon-VA bill. The compromise before the House includes funding for numerous military construction projects that are vital to support the working environment and quality of life of our soldiers and their families.

We have included funding for base realignment and closure. We have included funding for initiatives to restation 70,000 troops and their families to Europe and Korea; projects necessary for increasing the active duty Army by 65,000 and the Marine Corps by 27,000; relocation of Marines from Okinawa to Japan; consolidating U.S. forces in South Korea; establishing enduring bases in Afghanistan and Djibouti; barracks and family housing projects; new medical facilities; and needed support facilities for our Guard and Reserve. And all of this on a bipartisan basis.

I was especially pleased to join Chairman Edwards in a very important quality of life initiative, funding much-needed child development centers.

With regard to the VA portions of the bill, the department is receiving the largest increase in the department's history, an increase of $4.8 billion over fiscal year 2007. This increase even exceeds the independent budget request submitted by the various veterans service organizations. The bulk of this increase is going to boost medical services at VA hospitals and clinics. In fiscal year 2008, it is estimated that the VA will treat 5.8 million patients, including 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

The conferees have produced a bipartisan conference report. It is a good work product. It continues the long-standing tradition of support and commitment for the men and women and their families who are serving our country and those who have served our country in the past.

It is unfortunate that these worthy projects are now joined with a bill that includes $10 billion in excessive spending on domestic programs.

Included in the Labor-HHS portion of the bill is a new duplicative program for the CDC for comprehensive sex education; a new grant-making initiative at the Department of Education targeting the creation of full-service community schools.

The only office at the Department of Labor the majority has seen fit to cut is the one responsible for union oversight. Apparently union accountability is unimportant to the majority, so they cut the labor management standards budget by 20 percent.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I mention these things to point out that there are legitimate differences surrounding the Labor-HHS bill. There are good reasons the President will veto Labor-HHS. But there are no good reasons for this bill to be linked with MilCon-VA. Vital funding for the VA and infrastructure for our troops could be in the pipeline within a matter of days, but the majority will simply not allow that. Instead, we are sacrificing veterans for the sake of a cheap, cheap political stunt. Our Nation's veterans deserve better. The American people deserve better.

Vote ``no'' on the rule and vote ``no'' on the conference report.

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Mr. WICKER. Madam Speaker, my friend from Texas, with whom I have worked closely and for whom I have the greatest regard, mentions proudly and properly this, the largest increase in veterans spending in history.

I have to say that it does come on top of record spending increases for veterans over the past 12 years. So, I take a second place to no one in my support and in defending our stewardship of the Veterans Administration over the past 12 years.

My friend quoted the DAV organization. I am sure they support this bill. I am also sure, just like the American Legion and the Vets for Freedom, that they don't want it delayed as this process will do, and that's why I urge a defeat of the previous question and of the rule.

My friend says that not one Republican Member voted for the budget resolution. The budget resolution provided great funding for the veterans, but it also included the largest tax increase in the history of this country, and that's why Republicans voted against the budget resolution.

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