Bob Filner: “We simply have before us a bill that is inadequate to the needs of our Nation's veterans. There are a lot of reasons…”

“We simply have before us a bill that is inadequate to the needs of our Nation's veterans. There are a lot of reasons that have been advanced, and there are a lot of understandings of the parameters which we have to work with, but that is the reality. We simply have not put the money in. And we see some of these trade-offs that have to go on, like moving money from AmeriCorps to prosthetic research. We have to make those kinds of decisions because we do not have enough money for research in the budget. We do not have enough money for our veterans. We are $2 billion under the amount that left this House when we passed the budget resolution. And I love when my colleagues on the other side of the aisle get up and say we should have 2 billion more, but they voted for the rule that puts this bill on the floor and they have not voted for any of the amendments which would put that money back in. The Committee on Rules rejected the amendments that would give us this additional $2 billion. Do my colleagues know that we have 160,000 veterans who have been waiting for more than 6 months for their first appointment at the VA center? More than 6 months. Some of them will die before they have their first appointment.”