Jerry Lewis: “to the chairman and to my colleague, Mr. Edwards, from beautiful downtown Texas, I want to congratulate both of them for…”

“to the chairman and to my colleague, Mr. Edwards, from beautiful downtown Texas, I want to congratulate both of them for this very fine piece of legislation. It reflects a great deal of the variety of mix that we needed to be able to focus upon in a very special way in the arena that involves not just veterans, certainly our veterans, but beyond that, the families of the men and women who serve us and ofttimes put their lives on the line, questions like their housing, other kinds of benefits that are very important to their being able to have decent lives while they serve us. Focusing on all those issues within one subcommittee, I think, is going to produce real results down the line. The bipartisan spirit that is a part of this committee, and we can see it reflected in the House today, is very much a part of that. I would like to mention just one thing to my colleagues, an item that has been of concern to me for most of my career here. In the past, Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of chairing the subcommittee that did the funding for our veterans. One of my concerns during those years was that ofttimes within the community that is Washington, DC, we expressed great support for our veterans, raised funds to try to improve the funding flows, and then did not do very much about following the money when it went down to the communities where veterans are served.…”