John Rutherford: “I thank the gentleman, the chairman, for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this fiscal year 2024 military…”

“I thank the gentleman, the chairman, for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this fiscal year 2024 military construction and veterans affairs appropriations bill. Despite some of the allegations from my friends on the other side of the aisle, this is a good bill. The budget process is not about how much you cut; it is about where you cut. That is what is important. This bill is a good bill because it supports our veterans and our servicemembers. In fact, this bill fully funds President Biden's request for the VA and even exceeds the administration's request for military construction. On top of that, the VA funding in this bill is $16.5 million more than the fiscal year 2023 enacted level--the enacted level. Let me repeat. This bill fully funds veterans' healthcare programs, period. This includes keeping our promise that we just made to provide care to our toxic-exposed veterans, as we did last year through the Honoring our PACT Act. I am also proud that we robustly funded military construction projects across the world, focusing on our barracks, our child development centers, to the tune of almost $800 million more than the administration's request. This bill cuts wasteful spending, wasteful spending for programs that my constituents back home do not support, like critical race theory and DEI. Now, they want to say that we have politicized the issue of abortion within this bill.…”