Steve Buyer: “What I object to is the fact that the chairman of the committee must not care about the increased cost of energy prices…”

“What I object to is the fact that the chairman of the committee must not care about the increased cost of energy prices on veterans in America. He must not care, Mr. Speaker, because he's so concerned that he wants to raise a point of order against me to silence the issue of the impact of energy prices at the VA on health care, on medical research? Mr. Speaker, this is a very, very pertinent and important issue. The increased prices to the VA, a few years back we had an emergency supplemental, and part of that was because of the increase in energy costs to the VA. This is a pretty important issue. H.R. 2818, as amended, will improve the VA's research. Now why do I mention research? Well, because what we're doing here, we recognize the VA has a long history of providing specialized treatment and research on epilepsy. So now let's talk about the impact on energy prices on research. It's a proper nexus, would the Speaker not agree? The research activities consume high amounts of energy, and these activities include using CT scans, MRIs, other medical imaging technology.”