Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the manager's amendment to H.R. 2288, the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017. This has truly proven to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the disability claims process for the benefit of our Nation's veterans. I want to specifically thank Chairman Roe for bringing this bill to the floor today and for ensuring that the entire process that got us here was open, fair, bipartisan, and followed regular order. It is gratefully appreciated, and I think we end up with a good piece of legislation because of his leadership. I also want to recognize the efforts of our colleagues, the chairman of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee, Mr. Bost. He has been an incredible addition to the VA committee and dug his heels in on this one and got us this far, so I thank him; and to his counterpart on our side of the aisle, Ranking Member Esty, for exceptional work that they have done together to get this bill to the floor. I would also like to thank our veterans service organizations. This is how I think the American people think legislation should be brought; on issues at hand, experts are brought in, Representatives talk. The expertise that was brought by the VSOs helped us work out some of the kinks. It is not perfect, but the coalition got us to a point where I think many of us are comfortable moving forward. The bill is complicated.…”