Jerry Lewis: “I would like to speak to the House as to how we have come to this position on this amendment. The committee is faced…”

“I would like to speak to the House as to how we have come to this position on this amendment. The committee is faced with some very, very serious difficulties interplaying between a variety and mix of serious programs under its jurisdiction. Members know that we had the responsibility for VA medical care funding. They also heard discussion already about housing rescissions in this package. There are problems in EPA, et cetera. They cut across the board of some 22 agencies. As we looked at the question of was there room for any rescissions relative to the VA medical care, one recognizes initially that there are $17 billion in our bill that involve mandatory spending on those programs. Above and beyond that, there is $19.5 billion approximately in discretionary spending. It was our judgment that at least the House might consider looking at the bill they passed in appropriations for last year and rescinding the add-ons that took place in the Senate. Frankly, the reason for those rescissions was not that we were targeting the specific building that was involved but, rather, we wanted to get the whole veterans discussion to conference with the Senate to decide what kind of new direction we should take in these programs that would do two things: First, improve the quality and the efficiency of care to our veterans throughout our VA medical system.”