Sam Farr: “the President asked this Nation to fly the flag for our troops over the Fourth of July holiday. But while the Nation…”

“the President asked this Nation to fly the flag for our troops over the Fourth of July holiday. But while the Nation supports the active duty men and women in uniform serving in harm's way, the President is shortchanging the soldiers who are now serving and will be veterans in the future. Mr. Speaker, I serve on the appropriations subcommittee most ably led by the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), who has led the battle of pointing out the underfunding of the Veterans Administration for health care. We now see it is a fact. Both the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate made a quick fix. The Democrats have said this fix is not enough, claiming that we will have a greater shortfall as the veteran soldiers from Iraq come home. If you truly want to honor those serving, you have to pledge to honor them in the future. Fully funding veterans health care is the most patriotic way we can honor our troops, all of whom will some day be veterans. ____________________”