Andy Barr: “I thank my good friend, Dr. Roe. I wish the gentleman a happy belated Veterans Day, and I hope he had a good weekend. I…”

“I thank my good friend, Dr. Roe. I wish the gentleman a happy belated Veterans Day, and I hope he had a good weekend. I certainly did back home in Lexington, Kentucky, at Veterans Park with the Veterans Park Elementary School choir singing to our great veterans back home. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3224, as amended, the Deborah Sampson Act. As my colleagues before me have already pointed out, women have served our country since the very earliest days of the American Revolution. But as the fastest growing segment of our veteran population, they are only now starting to get the recognition that they deserve. I am proud to be here today to support this bill that will ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides them the care and benefits that their service and their sacrifices have entitled them to. And I commend the gentlewoman from New York for her leadership on this important legislation. I do have to say, Mr. Speaker, however, that any characterization that my Republican colleagues on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and I feel anything less than pride in the many women who have served and the many women who continue to serve today, and a steadfast commitment to support them and to meet their needs, is simply untrue. Had my colleagues or I been allowed to speak on this bill in committee, that would have been very evident to any Member of this House.…”