Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Barber) for offering this motion to instruct and for his leadership and work on behalf of veteran and military families in Arizona. This motion urges conferees to expand the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship to include spouses of fallen servicemembers. Currently, the scholarship covers the children of servicemembers who are killed in the line of duty. After their tragic loss, the surviving spouse is frequently left to provide for her or his family. It is important that Congress take action to expand this benefit to spouses and to help these military families begin to rebuild. It is also important that Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs take action to get veterans the care they need. Veterans in my district, which is home to the Phoenix VA, are still waiting for Congress to produce a bipartisan VA reform bill to send to the President's desk. But in Arizona, we are not waiting idly for Washington to take action; we are doing it ourselves. In Phoenix, we have established a working group of community providers, veterans service organizations, and the local VA to work together to improve access to services. We also recently cohosted our Veterans First Clinic, which brought together community providers, the Phoenix VA, and over 20 veteran-serving organizations to help veterans in a variety of ways.…”