Political Quotes

“this month the Senate Appropriations Committee completed its work on 12 bills to fund the government for fiscal year 2016, which begins October 1, 2015. I congratulate Chairman Cochran and his subcommittee chairs for a full and open process. They worked hand in hand with me and my ranking Democratic members. But their bills are based on the postsequester levels of the Republican budget resolution. The bills reported by the committee are too spartan to meet the needs of the American people. The difference between the Republican budget and the President's budget request is $74 billion. That is a lot. But even with that increase, the discretionary top line will be equal to what we spent in 2010, 6 years ago. I would like to talk about one example of the real impact of the Republican sequester level budget--failing our veterans. Veterans deserve promises made and promises kept. Instead, the Senate fiscal year 2016 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill is at least $857 million short of what is needed for veteran health care. And the House is even worse, at least $1.4 billion below what is needed. At those levels, about 70,000 fewer veterans will receive medical care. Despite record demand for services, our veterans are still waiting to get appointments at hospitals and clinics. In fact, the electronic wait list has grown by almost 10,000 over the past 2 months. Sequester will result in waitlists growing exponentially.…”