Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 4366, with great respect to both of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Chairwoman Granger and Chairman Carter, who are friends but with whom we strongly disagree on this legislation. The FY 2024 military construction, veterans affairs, and related agencies bill is, sadly, not one that I can support. Back in May, the subcommittee mark of the MILCON-VA bill cut the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund by $14.7 billion in 2024 and completely eliminated the toxic exposures fund in 2025, less than a year after we passed the bipartisan Honoring our PACT Act that promises dedicated funding for veterans of all wars exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits, and other toxic substances. This was in addition to the default on America act introduced in April by Republicans, which included a $2 billion rescission to immediately cut critical funding for VA and include no protections for veterans funding. We pushed back hard on these cuts as Democrats, and we were successful. Thankfully, as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, President Biden was able to undo that grievous harm by delivering the promise we all collectively made to our veterans by fully funding the toxic exposures fund. However, the problems did not stop there, and Democrats made significant efforts to right the other major wrongs in this bill, but, unfortunately, to no avail.…”