Hal Rogers: “This motion to instruct is well-intentioned but unnecessary. The motion would urge adoption of the Senate-passed level…”

“This motion to instruct is well-intentioned but unnecessary. The motion would urge adoption of the Senate-passed level for VA medical research, which is $50 million above the House-passed level. We all support our veterans and honor their service and sacrifice. We, of course, support the important research work the VA is doing for our veterans in fields such as traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder. We provided a robust level of funding for this research in the House-passed version of the bill at a time when our overall funding targets were constrained. In fact, the House bill provided a total of $531 million for VA medical research, an increase of $22 million above what the White House and the VA requested. In addition, the VA still has $71 million in unobligated research funding left over from previous years that could be put to use. So even without the increase, the program level would still be well above the 2011 level. We all agree that medical research at the VA is undeniably important and we want to do the best that we can for our veterans, particularly those in need of medical assistance. On that, there's no difference between the ranking minority member and myself and between the members of the subcommittee.…”