Dianne Feinstein: “I particularly thank Chairman Reed for putting this provision in the bill. I am very grateful. I am also very grateful…”

“I particularly thank Chairman Reed for putting this provision in the bill. I am very grateful. I am also very grateful for his defense of it today. I thank my friend and colleague, Senator Boxer, for her help on the floor, for her support, and for her continuous advocacy on behalf of California. The bottom line is, would you sell the National Mall for profit? Would you sell Roosevelt Island for profit? Would you sell any part of the federal highway system for profit? Why would you take land that has been dedicated for veterans purposes and lease it out for profit when we know, as Senator Boxer said, we have thousands of homeless veterans, and right now there is a proposal moving forward to possibly build some homeless units for veterans on that facility? This land was deeded to the Federal Government, a huge amount of land, for the purpose of veterans, not for Fox movie studios, not for Enterprise, or whatever car rental agency, but for veterans in a city with the largest number of veterans in the United States, and over 322,000 veterans enrolled to use that facility, with a hospital of 1,000 beds on that facility. You are going to begin to lease out that land? I think it is terrible, just terrible. The next step would be the National Mall. We ought to resist this effort. There are a lot of ways to make money, but I think the worst way is to make money off veterans at this point in time. I very much resist this amendment.”