Military Construction And Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to rise in full support of the fiscal year 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and related agencies appropriations bill. I am extremely proud of the work of the subcommittee, on both sides of the aisle, as we have crafted a bill that truly supports America's servicemen and -women as well as their families.

Today I am especially pleased that we are ensuring better housing, health care, and day care facilities for our servicemen and -women by providing $24.8 billion for military construction, family housing, and fully funding BRAC.

Military facilities such as Fort Benning, located in my district, need this funding as they experience significant numbers of new personnel as a result of BRAC and the global repositioning of our forces around the world. In the Columbus area, we still have concerns with respect to the impact that BRAC may have on our local school system. But I'm encouraged by the interest and support shown by my colleagues on the subcommittee, in particular Mr. Edwards, our chairman; and our ranking member, Mr. Wamp.

But that's not all. Our bill includes nearly $200 million in additional housing for Army and Marine Corps trainees, an additional $136 million for medical facilities, $1.6 billion for Veterans Health Administration, and $3.8 billion for specialty mental health services, and $584 million for substance abuse programs.

But I don't think listing figures does justice to saying how important this bill is because with those resources, we are filling some gaping holes in veterans services and upgrading military facilities that are currently underfunded and overextended.

We are fully meeting and addressing the very same kinds of needs that arose at the barracks at Fort Bragg and the hospital at Walter Reed. We're keeping our commitment to veterans and giving the VA the funds they need to hire caseworkers to process the current backlog of claims. We are making sure that our veterans traveling long distances for medical care don't have to empty their wallets in order to get there. And we are upping funding for medical technology and giving our veterans access to a new generation of prosthetics so they may live as normal a life as possible.

Mr. Chairman, in short, this is a good bill.

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