Marty Walsh: “Mr. Chairman, we had some discussion on this yesterday, about 3 rac{1}{2} ext{ hours' or 4 hours' worth; and we tried to…”

“Mr. Chairman, we had some discussion on this yesterday, about 3 rac{1}{2} ext{ hours' or 4 hours' worth; and we tried to make the point over and over that veterans' medical care funds were sacrosanct. We were not going to those precious funds to be used for anything other than what they were intended. So when the gentleman came back with an amendment that talked about using administrative funds, I have no objection to that amendment. We believe the amendment is superfluous. It really accomplishes nothing. The amendment really is not necessary. We made that point again and again, that it is the medical care funds that we were protecting in the bill. Our language specifically denotes medical funds shall not be used. All other funds within the bill are open and available. There was no prohibition, no restrictive language on any of those other 17 areas of funding. So the gentleman's amendment makes administrative funds available for the Justice Department lawsuit. We believe in effect they already are. The practical upshot of this is the Veterans Administration will have to come back to the Congress and ask for a reprogramming of these funds, and I would have no objection to that. So, for those reasons, this side is prepared to accept the gentleman's amendment.”