Milcon-VA Appropriations

MILCON-VA APPROPRIATIONS -- (House of Representatives - November 06, 2007)

(Mrs. SCHMIDT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. SCHMIDT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to protest the majority's decision to tie the funding of our veterans to the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriation bill.

The facts of this case are simple. The House had passed a bill on June 15, followed by the Senate on September 6, that supports our veterans and the pay raises and the funding that they need. The differences in these bills are miniscule. The Senate has appointed their conferees. Our House has yet to do the same. What's the hold-up? Politics. Rather than bringing the MilCon-VA conference report to the floor as a stand-alone measure, a measure that will be supported by both parties, supported by the President and signed into law, the other side has decided to tie it to a controversial bill that the President has said time and time again he will veto.

Madam Speaker, our veterans have risked their lives for us without regard to political affiliation. We have to stop the politics. We have to work for our veterans.

I ask that we use this time in a bipartisan fashion and pass the MilCon-VA bill as a stand-alone bill.

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