John Bel Edwards: “Let me put a face on these people. We are talking about 1,194 military families at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska…”

“Let me put a face on these people. We are talking about 1,194 military families at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska will next year have their housing delayed. In New York at Fort Drum, 2,272 military families, many of whom had loved ones that had already served in Iraq, will have their housing program this year frozen. In Florida, Eglin and Hurlburt Air Force Bases 2,739 military families will have their housing promises broken. In Virginia 1,268 families at Langley. In Texas, Sheppard Air Force Base 1,288 families. This is one more broken promise to our military families at a time when they are making incredible sacrifices to our country. What it does, we talked about a 1.6 percent increase for military construction in this bill, but the truth is that once this objection is raised then that will not allow us to even spend that meager amount of funding for our housing program. So we could end up with an actual cut not only in veterans' health care during a time of war this year, we could end up with an actual cut in military construction during a time of war. That is unconscionable coming from a leadership that said we could afford to give Members of Congress a tax cut just 2 months ago.”