Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss important veteran and VA issues--issues we are all properly focused on like a laser beam right now--and I will be joined over the next several minutes by Senators Rubio, Inhofe, and Heller, who share all of my concerns. I have been coming to the floor pretty relentlessly--because apparently that is what is necessary--to talk about one specific priority with regard to veterans in Louisiana; that is, moving--there is no good reason we can't move--on expanding outpatient clinics that are overdue in 27 locations and in 18 States, including 2 new expanded outpatient clinics in Louisiana, specifically in Lafayette and Lake Charles. These clinics have been planned for, on the books, and paid for for several years now. They are not being built, they are not being moved into purely because of an administrative glitch at the VA that delayed the whole process by a year. Then, in that intervening year, a so-called new scoring issue came up on Capitol Hill at the CBO. We have blown through all of that. We have solved those problems, finally, after a lot of delay. We have solved those problems, and now there is absolutely no reason to not take up a bill that has been passed by the House, put a simple amendment on the bill and pass it through the Senate, and get on with building these new and necessary expanded VA clinics at 27 locations around the country, in 18 States, obviously including the State of Louisiana.…”