Alcee Hastings: “I thank my good friend, from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) for yielding me this time, and I yield myself such time…”

“I thank my good friend, from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) for yielding me this time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my significant concerns about the Foreign Operations bill for fiscal year 2006. The substance of the underlying legislation will be addressed later in my statement. Madam Speaker, while the rule is similar to that of other appropriations bills, I am extremely disappointed that the majority has blocked our colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) from offering an amendment that would have provided $1 billion in emergency funding for the Veterans' Administration. All of our colleagues here in the House know that the Bush administration and the Republican majority, by their own admission, have underfunded the Veterans' Administration by $1 billion. Without the emergency funding proposed by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), the VA will shortly run out of money, leaving veterans, and there are 86,000 of them coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, with nowhere to turn. But because my friends in the majority on the Committee on Rules did not make the Edwards amendment in order, the House will not have an opportunity to consider this critical amendment now. Shame on all of us. Madam Speaker, the underlying legislation has some admirable provisions yet, in several areas, it falls far short of meeting the United States' near and long-term policy needs.…”