Hal Rogers: “Thank you for yielding time. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of this bill, the Military Construction and Veterans…”

“Thank you for yielding time. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of this bill, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill for 2016. In doing that, I want to congratulate Chairman Dent, the new chairman of this subcommittee. This is his maiden voyage as chairman of this subcommittee. He is a cardinal now. He has done a great job putting together this bill. I also want to thank Mr. Bishop, the ranking member on the other side, for his cooperation in making this bill what it is today. This is the first bill of the process, and I am pleased that we are off to a very early start--I am told the earliest start since 1974-- continuing our good work from last year. I am optimistic that we are going to have a successful appropriations year, finishing on time and under regular order. We are beginning the year on the right foot with a bipartisan bill, Madam Chairman, that I believe we can all get behind. The FY 2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill includes, as has been said, $76.6 billion in discretionary funding for important veterans benefits and services and for the infrastructure that supports the brave men and women serving in our Armed Forces and their families. This is a total of $4.6 billion over last year. No one can call this a cut and be realistic about it. We have increased the funding by $4.6 billion year-to-year. We can't say that for all the other bills.…”