Political Quotes

“Reclaiming my time, the challenge before the body is we now have legislation before us which is on an issue which is now being thrown into the courts, and we've got a statute that's not being followed by the executive branch; and it is completely within the rights of Congress to speak, but we've got to be very careful. Do we understand the scope and issues at hand? I submit we do not, and we are eagerly rushing something onto the floor. Let me go a little bit further. My colleague Mrs. Halvorson argues that this bill does not change the existing payment authority and does not address the legality of retained asset accounts for SGLI purposes, but I'm also a lawyer, and I respectfully suggest that it may do just that. I am not alone in my view with regard to this concern because I have been talking with other lawyers about my legal analysis of this present challenge. After the markup, one of the representatives of one of the veterans service organizations, of whom I've had disagreements with over the years, came up to me and told me that he agreed with the concerns. Members of the committee actually regret that I didn't offer the amendment to actually strip the bill, and I guess I never thought that this would actually come to the floor until these matters got addressed. It's laudable to require the VA to counsel SGLI beneficiaries on their benefits, the payment methods available to them.…”