Bob Filner: “Again, Mr. Chairman, this is one of a series of amendments to show how we are underfunding our veterans in this Nation.…”

“Again, Mr. Chairman, this is one of a series of amendments to show how we are underfunding our veterans in this Nation. This one specifically asks for $9.5 million to reduce the repair backlog at veterans national cemeteries. I know the chairman will say that the Department is authorized to do that, that we have plussed up the money, that we have put in the biggest money in the history of our Congress. The fact remains, Mr. Chairman, that while that could be said about any one item that I bring up today, the sum total of all the items that are in this budget that was prepared by our veterans organization, the independent budget, we simply cannot fund all of those with the present funding. We need another $1.5 billion or so to do that. While any individual item I may bring up can be handled within the appropriation, all of the needs our veterans have cannot be. Over the years the national cemetery system has struggled to maintain the appearance of our 115 national cemeteries, but budget shortfalls in the past have forced the system to address only the highest priority projects. As a result, preventative maintenance and infrastructure repairs have been neglected. Broken sprinkler systems, for example, which result in parched and dead grass and sunken graves which have not been reinforced contribute to an appearance of neglect in many cemeteries. This is not a way to treat the memory of our veterans.”