Sam Farr: “I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding. It is a pleasure to serve on this committee. I might be the longest…”

“I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding. It is a pleasure to serve on this committee. I might be the longest serving member on the committee, but I'm a ranking member on another committee. It's a pleasure to serve. I welcome the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson) to his new role as chair of the committee. And it's always a pleasure to serve with the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) and the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the ranking and chair of the major committee. This committee is unique in Congress. It's the only committee where both active duty military and veterans are dealt with from the same policy. There's no other committee in this House or in the Senate that has the one-stop that this committee has. It's a pleasure to be focused on the continuum of care for active duty and reservists and veterans. This past weekend, we remembered the patriotic sacrifice of those who have lost their lives in service to our country, and today we renew our commitment to keep our promise to our Nation's more than 2 million troops and reservists, their families, and 23 million veterans. This committee has a strong history of working in a bipartisan way to produce a bill that supports our active duty servicemembers and our veterans. I am proud to support some much needed increases for the Veterans Affairs Department, and I would note that while this bill is $1.4 billion above last year's level, it is also $1.2 billion less than what the President requested.…”